Does it cost $3800 to replace an AC if I have Home Insurance

I have to change the AC unit in a single family house that is 2500 sq ft. I have home insurance and I just got a break down of the charges that are not covered which came out to almost $3800.00. Has anyone changed an ac unit recently? Does it normally cost this much? I’m thinking it might be cheaper if I did not use the insurance. Your experience will be appreciated.


About the author

Jana Christo is a business owner, real estate investor, and property manager. She has 16 years of experience in most areas of real estate.
During the last recession, she was also the managing partner for a company that bought and rehabbed properties from the court foreclosure auctions. Today, she manages her own portfolio of rental properties and shares her experience on Rentce.com.

2 thoughts on “Does it cost $3800 to replace an AC if I have Home Insurance”

  1. Ask them for a cash settlement and get it done yourself. Personally, I prefer to save for emergencies for couple of reasons. It takes forever to get a technician to my rentals, during the summer it’s really tough on tenants especially with small kids. Second reason, they will not replace the unit unless it’s a total failure. I had one AC condenser making such a loud noise that one of the neighbors cut the cord. We had to eventually replace the unit but meanwhile I had to call them 3-4 times to fix it, costing me close to $400 in deductibles. For me the time, the stress and the inconvenience for the tenants was not worth it.

  2. For me, it was worth having the insurance because I just had a $5200 replacement and my home warranty covered $4600.
    I got this after a lot of haggling and stress. Initially they told me that they will reimburse me only for $1600. I told them that this doesn’t cover the entire unit and as per our agreement they have to replace it if the unit fails completely. They said maybe they could make some adjustments and came back with a $2,200 offer. I repeated what I said before – they are supposed to pay for the cost of replacement of equivalent unit in the event of total failure. After a lot of discussions they told me there were some things they didn’t cover, such as duct work and the condensation line. I said the vendor isn’t replacing duct work per his quote, only modifying, and that the condensation line didn’t cost more than $100. We haggled back and forth several more times and I got them up to the $4600 and felt satisfied enough to stop there.
    Will I keep my home warranty? For now yes, I better prepared to deal with them.

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