Leasing a car is now the most popular way to buy a new vehicle – so why not lease a new boiler at a low upfront cost and forget about having to worry about its reliability or servicing? A company called Hassle Free Boilers is hoping more of us will adopt this model in the future as a way to avoid paying upfront costs that are often more than £2,000.

But how does it work – and is it decent value for money?

Householders agree to a set monthly fee of £37 for the next 12 years – a long tie-in by any reckoning – but for that they receive a new A-rated Vaillant boiler and an upgraded central heating system (such as a new thermostat and heating controls) – with no upfront charge.

It’s an expensive way to buy a boiler – the repayments will cost £444 in the first year alone – and rise by 3% each year thereafter. However the company effectively guarantees the complete heating and hot water system for the whole 12 years, including call-outs and parts, so there are no more bills over that period. The monthly fee includes a year-round aftercare service similar to that offered by British Gas and each year it will service the boiler.

What buyers are paying for is the boiler plus a service plan (like the £18-a-month British Gas charges typically for its HomeCare 200 product). So buyers of a £37-a-month Hassle Free plan are in effect paying around £20 a month for a new boiler installation, the new controls and the extra warranty.

HFB says it is confident its “best-buy” Vaillant boilers will last the 12 years, and adds that if they don’t it will replace them without cost to the householder. If you have been unlucky enough to have to replace a new boiler within 12 years this plan could work in your favour. After 12 years the boiler is yours.

Vaillant, which with Worcester Bosch has been named by the consumer group Which? as the makers of the most reliable boilers offered in the UK, mostly offers a five-year warranty to conventional customers.

Tom Morgan of HFB says all installations and surveys are carried out by the firm’s in-house technicians and no work is subcontracted which, it claims, keeps the quality of the work high.

Houses with three bathrooms or more that require the biggest boilers will pay the higher monthly charge of £42.99 month – again rising 3% each year.

“It’s in our interests, as much as the consumer, to install the most reliable system possible as we don’t want to have to come back a year later to replace further parts,” says Morgan.

Customers who move home before the 12 years have to buy their way out at an agreed price set out in the contract. In the early years this is very expensive – for example after three years it is £1,829 but after seven years it falls to £1,149.

So is it a good deal? If you have the cash to pay for a new boiler upfront it still makes sense to do so, then pay for any future bills as they come along. It helps if you know a reliable installer and you can afford unexpected bills.

The typical cost of installing a decent Vaillant boiler and upgrading any parts would be around £2,000 depending on the system and size of house. Vaillant’s own service plan (including an annual service) costs around £180 a year or £15 a month.

The advantage for HFB customers is that they don’t have to stump up the £2,000 – and the HFB business model suggests that it has a big incentive to look after your system as well as you would because it’s in it for the long haul.

The major downside is the 3% annual increase in payments: £37 a month for 12 years with a 3% rise each year will mean you pay over £6,400. Buy it yourself plus a service plan and you’ll likely save around £2,000, although finding cover in the boiler’s later years can be difficult.

What if HFB goes bust before the 12 years are up or fails to honour its servicing agreement? In some ways this is not really a problem as the householder could simply stop paying the monthly charge.

HFB says it has negotiated a 10-year warranty with Vaillant which would be honoured by Vaillant if HFB goes out of business.

Customers preferring to pay an upfront charge of £1,800 are also being offered a reduced-cost service plan of £18.49 a month – again guaranteeing the system for 12 years. Note, all these prices are valid now but are going up at the end of January.

Lastly, don’t forget that HFB will lightly credit score customers and if you can pass its process you may also be entitled to a interest-free credit card deal, which would allow you to fund a new boiler by paying in a more traditional way.

One happy customer

Mark Mortimer freely admits he was very sceptical of the Hassle Free Boiler’s offer but, after doing his research and getting several other quotes, he says it was by far the cheapest option.

The IT services provider, who works for a bank and lives in Pontypridd, south Wales, brought the firm in to replace a long-outdated and very inefficient “back” boiler.

This is a slightly more complex arrangement which made his installation more expensive than conventional ones.

After he got quotes of between £4,500 and £5,000 fromSWALEC and British Gas, he worked out that by the time he had added in the cost of finance, total repayments would have been closer to £11,000 – and that was without paying for any future service plans or repairs. “There was no upfront payment. Instead, I’m now paying £37 a month for the next 12 years, which sounds like a lot but I know that that’s all I will ever have to pay as the whole heating system is covered against future repairs. I think it will cost £7,000 in total.”

He says it took six weeks between when the first survey was carried out and the new boiler was installed. The installers, he adds, were excellent, cleaned up after themselves and found a neat solution to a problem of how to site the new boiler.

“The boiler’s been in almost a year now and our gas bills are so much lower – down from over £100 a month to £40 a month. I’m certainly a happy customer,” he says.