Homeserve, a leading maintenance firm, has been slapped with a fine of £34.5million for duping families into buying expensive home insurance cover for burst pipes, broken boilers and blocked drains.

The fine is in addition to £ 40million it is paying in refunds to thousands of customers, who purchased policies from the company due to misleading information and unfair selling practices.  The company has received notice of penalty from the City watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for its involvement in duping customers.  The company has three million customers in this country, holding 7.5million policies.

The customers were forced into buying polices that they did not want and that did not cover their problems.  The company has been fined £750,000 by regulator Ofcom in 2012 as its salespersons were harassing consumers with silent and abandoned calls.  The maker of emergency repair services for householders agreed that the number of complains fell after it implemented measures recommended by the FSA.  The company had to suspend its call centre operations in October due to the investigations.

The company was established in 1993 by chief executive Richard Harpin as a joint venture with South Staffordshire Water and grew into a separate company in 2004.