Meet Jim and Claire of Wilmington, Delaware. They have lived in their 79-year old home for the past 35 years. They bought it and just decided to stay all these years - experiencing everything that comes hand in hand with homeownership. The good, the bad, the ugly.

So one could say Jim and Claire have a lot of experience with homeownership. ( Not to mention they have a lot of experience in general since they've been married for 57 years. Congrats Jim and Claire – that's amazing.)

One experience that they are not so fond of happened back in 2017. It all started with a simple daily occurrence. The flushing of an upstairs toilet. (Since neither Jim nor Claire can remember who flushed...let's just blame it on one of their kids.) Claire walked down into the basement to tend to the laundry, she noticed the ugly, dark water rising up from the basement drain. Luckily, Jim and Claire have been HomeServe customers since 2008. A call to the 24/7 repair hotline for help brought the technicians to their door. The outside sewer line was cleaned out and all seemed right with the world.

But unfortunately, it happened again. And again. Calls were made. People came. And during the 3rd covered service call, it was discovered that Jim and Claire had a collapsed sewer line. (Because we all know that in the history of running water, seeing dark water in your basement is never a good sign.)

They then received even more bad news: the broken sewer line had also affected the neighboring water line in their yard. They could have called a private contractor and done it themselves. (Which could have cost them between $8,000 to $10,000.) But being smart people who plan ahead, Jim and Claire had two plans from HomeServe: water line and sewer line coverage. Those lines are the responsibility of the homeowner – which many people don't know. However, because Jim and Claire had the coverage in place (and because Claire is a woman of great foresight) they had protected their home from a toilet with a mind of its own. The problem was corrected. And all was right with the world.

A plan from HomeServe is relatively inexpensive - starting as low as $7.99 a month. So if you're like Jim and Claire and you're prepared before things go wrong, you can avoid home repair headaches down the line.

Be like Jim and Claire. Don't wait for the dark water to rear its ugly head in your basement. Call HomeServe first. Have the coverage.