Bottom line
Renting a water heater or other home appliance from Reliance is similar to buying an extended warranty as it works as form of insurance. You pay more for the product upfront and get support should anything go wrong. However, it is a great moneymaker for providers and a bad deal for the majority of their customers and not a common practice in Canada outside of Ontario. Purchasing your own unit can result in substantial savings over time, according to the Competition Bureau.
Pros
- No large up-front cost
- Low monthly payments
- They handle service and repairs
Cons
- High cancellation fees
- Many complaints about their maintenance and repair services
- No coverage for damage caused by leaking tanks
About Reliance Home Comfort
Reliance Home Comfort installs, rents and services water heaters, furnaces and air conditioners to 1.7 million Canadian households primarily in Ontario, but also in western Canada.
The company was started in 1999 as the water heater rental division of Union Gas (now Enbridge), which had a monopoly over a large portion of Ontario. The company worked with home builders to pre-install gas-powered water heaters to increase usage and reliance on Natural Gas as a source of fuel.
Due to regulatory changes, the unregulated water heater rental business was split off as Union Energy in 1999 and acquired by Epcor for $160 million in 2001, spun off as UE Waterheater Income Fund in 2003 and purchased by Alinda Capital Partners for $1.74 billion in 2007 and purchased by CK group for $2.8 billion in 2017.
Who owns Reliance Home Comfort?
Reliance Home Comfort is owned by Hong Kong-based CK Asset Holdings Ltd. (75%) and Cheung Kong (CK) Infrastructure Holdings (25%) owned by Chinese-Canadian businessman Victor Li, and his father Li Ka-shing, Hong Kong’s richest person and 30th richest person in the world, with a net worth of $35.4 billion. They acquired the company from US private equity fund Alinda Capital Partners for $2.82 billion in 2017.
How much does it cost to rent a water heater from Reliance?
Ontario residents can rent a hot water tank from Reliance Home Comfort for $20 to $35 per month depending on the size of the tank. Tankless water heater rentals are commonly found in new builds and cost $35 to $50 per month.
In addition, the agreements stipulate that these charges are increased every year by the greater of 3.5% and Ontario CPI.
These rental agreements continue until the “end of the useful life” of the unit, which is from 10 to 20 years and an average of 16 years. At $35 per month, payments made during the agreement would add up to $4200 to $8400 – 3 to 6 times the installation cost of the tank (about $1500).
Further reading: Is renting a water heater worth it?
Reliance Home Comfort contract example
For installs made before November 5, 2014, the following agreement applies:
You will not be able to terminate this agreement until you have rented the water heater for at least a period of 84 months following the commencement of your rental agreement (the “Minimum Rental Term”), unless you buy the water heater from us in accordance with this agreement.
If the water heater has reached the end of its useful life and we are not installing a replacement, you shall at such time own the unit.
Example buyout schedule
I was not able to find a copy on their website, but I found a few examples online:
| Age (Years) | Buyout price |
|---|---|
| 4 | 1800 |
| 5 | 3,726 |
| 5 | 1500 |
| 7 | 700 |
| 7.5 | 2118 |
| 8 | 895 |
| 9 | 700 |
| 10 | 545 |
| 10 | 700 |
| 11 | 329 |
| 11 | 810 |
| 12 | 600 |
| 14 | 1400 |
| 14 | 210 |
| 15 | 700 |
| 16 | 25 |
| 16 | 25 |
| 20 | 100 |
How to cancel a Reliance Home Comfort water heater contract?
Agreements started in 2009
A consumer was recently quoted:
- $150 + HST – Drain, disconnect and removal from the home
- $150 + HST – Pickup already drained and disconnected
- $150 + HST – Account Closure Fee
- $100.00 – Dropped off to our nearest drop off location.
An appointment is not necessary, but the drop off hours were limited to: Mon, Wed, Thurs from 8am to 12pm
Agreements started after Nov. 5, 2014
For agreements started after November 5, 2014 and until November 5, 2024, the 2014 Competition Tribunal orders to Reliance Home Comfort applies, which state:
Termination
- Reliance shall permit a Customer or its Agent to terminate a Rental Agreement at any time by submitting a Notification of Termination by telephone, facsimile, e-mail or webform.
Removal
Reliance shall permit a Customer or its Agent to:
- drain, disconnect, remove and/or return to Reliance the water heater that is the subject of the Rental Agreement; or
- request that Reliance drain, disconnect, remove and/or pick up at the Installed Address the water heater that is the subject of the Rental Agreement
Fees
Other than any outstanding rental payments and interest charges owed, Reliance may not charge any Exit Charges other than a:
- Maximum termination charge of $200 (unit is less than 1 year old) and a maximum of $40 (unit is more than 1 year old and less than 10 years old).
- Maximum pick-up charge (not including draining or disconnection) of $65 in respect of a natural gas, a maximum of $125 for an electric.
- Maximum pick-up charge (including draining and disconnection) of $125.
- Any cost to repair damage to Reliance units only when the following two conditions are met:
- the damaged unit is less than seven (7) years old; and
- the damage was caused by a Person other than Reliance, the proof of any such damage being caused by a Person other than Reliance resting with Reliance.
- Purchase price voluntarily agreed to by a Customer to purchase the unit outright. (optional)
How some Enercare customers have saved money
NOTE: May not work with Reliance
As reported by Mark Wessel in the Toronto Sun, after several drawn out calls lasting over 40 minutes each time with Enercare, is that if you push hard enough, they’ll put you through to a supervisor who with prodding, will give you a 20% discount off the buyout price. Alternatively, they offered 15 months in credits – equivalent in value to over $500 that was paid directly to our Enbridge account in order to continue renting for another 15 months.
This kind of offer has also be reported in several Reddit threads, which have stated the offer starts at 3-month credit and can go as high 15 months.
You’ll have to call in and complain, ask to cancel/buyout the unit. Then maybe tell them you’ll escalate the issue to their executives, consumer protection and go to social media, etc. They’ll offer you 3 months free. Say no. They’ll offer 6 months. Say no again. They’ll offer 12 months. Take that. Call back in 12 months and repeat.
You’ll still have a contract, but after the period of free rental credits ends, the buyout price would be lower than before as the unit would be more than a year older and you’ve saved hundreds of dollars in the meantime.
They really, really don’t want you out of your contract.
Regulatory actions against Reliance Home Comfort
2014 – Reliance acquires National Home Services, which was fined for door-to-door sales practices
Competition Bureau makes National Home Services (acquired by Reliance on same day) pay $7 million for misleading door-to-door sales
2014 Competition Tribunal consent agreement
After Reliance was found to be using using anti-competitive processes that made it difficult and frustrating to return or cancel their water heater rental, the Competition Bureau issued a consent order ordering Reliance pay a penalty of $5 million and modify its residential rental agreement termination and water heater return policies to:
- Not require customers to obtain an authorization number before returning their unit
- Allow a new supplier to terminate a customer’s account on their behalf
- Not unreasonably restricting where and when a unit can be returned
- Not charging unwarranted fees to switch providers or terminate contracts
- Open new return depots
Customer reviews
Asked to cancel my furnace and air conditioner rental contract and keep getting a run around.
Called the rental cancelation phone number, when talking to the operator gave them my email address and asked them to send me a email with the total amount including sales tax. She the operator said she had sent the email with the total amount . I`ve been checking my emails since I call @ 2pm this afternoon it is 11:21pm still no email . 3/22I2022 I`ve been with reliance since they took over the sale equipment department from Union Gas Company
A company of LIARS!
My experience was the same as Louise Swayze’s. I rented a furnace from Reliance with the explicit understanding that it was a rent to own contract. At the end of it after all the payments had been made I would own the furnace and have the choice of either keeping the furnace or getting a new one. However on March 25, 2022 I called their CS and asked how much I would have to pay to end the contract. Hey told me the contract was due to end in January 2023 so I bought I would only owe about $1200. The CS rep told me I owed $3900! When I reminded him it was a rent to own contract he told me that it wasn’t and continued to quote the contract to me. Well, I lost it! It seems the only thing I can do now is have it removed and buy a new one from a more reputable company. I will never deal with this company ever again and I STRONGLY suggest no one else does!
Faulty Humidifier, attempted refund
I purchased a Humidifier for health reasons in 2021, a General Air model. It never performed, was leaking and needed to be removed.
(Apparently many of these machines were substandard!) Endless calls to Reliance, finally resulted in a serviceman removing the unit. (This took about 10 phone calls to achieve, but that was just the beginning!) Constant calls to billing for weeks after the removal, resulted in repeated promises from each of the different employees who promised that some action would happen when the ‘General Manager’ approved the refund. I was promised this by at least 6 different people, and that someone would contact me in 3 days. No one ever did call to fulfill the promise!
Finally, as a frustrated customer who wasted hours on my end, and hours of productivity of employees time, my patience was spent and I demanded action! This week I finally, magically received my cheque of $620.37, with no note of apology or compensation for the selling of a faulty machine or the complete waste of time, when one call should have been enough to remove the product and forward my refund, since the warranty states 100% satisfaction!
The salesman was very good, as were the servicemen.
Extremely dissatisfied with the customer/billing ‘service’ departments! Most inefficient!
Horrible/Crooks
This company has been horrible since almost day one. We got a water softner and a water filtrations (reverse osmosis) system. We had it put on one contract so that it would one monthly cost, this was put under my husband. They never cam to service, never sent us the filters. Than one day they decided to change our one account into 2 which ended up costing more monthly than what was on the first contract. They put one under my husbands name and one under my name. Then when we moved, we had to take the equipment with us as the new owner did not want. Every single time I called in I had to give them the new address, they never saved it in their system and every single time I requested my name on his contract and his name on mine and again they never saved it. We had fallen a bit behind on payments, so when I called to get the buy out cost and what our final bill would be, they quoted me both. So I went and got the $ amount they advised me. Then when they send me the final both were almost $200.00 more on each (another 400$ in total) than what I was told. I called to get this addressed, they transferred twice to different departments, than told me I needed to talk to manager, and they were not in and I would have to call back….good god. They advise that there was some left for outstanding…..yes I knew that, but I ask the rep what my final would be so I went based off that. After arguing with them about the difference in $ they advised there was nothing they could do. I even said let meet in the middle I will pay half and return their equipment, but no. I call BS there is always something a company can do when its their end that had horrible customer service, when you tell someone a price you should honor it. Or advise them of that does not include this….not yes that is what will be billed to you.
Don’t use this company – horrible horrible horrible
Crooks
8 years after rental cancellation, I received a final notice letter.. which was actually the first correspondence, I was put into collections for the purchase of the hot water tank.. and not the owner of the house.. Why wouldn’t the rental be removed from his property instead of pinning the full price of his hot water tank on me? My conclusion is this company only cares about their profits.. seems many unsatisfied customers would agree!
Leave a review or submit a complaint
If you have experience with Reliance Home Comfort, we’re interested to know your thoughts. How long have you been with them and what do you think about their service, contracts and value? Let us know by leaving a review and sharing your experience below!
As homeowners we were also shocked three years ago when we went to get a line of credit and were turned down because of a lien Reliance put on our house. We had no choice but to pay it off, which was a lot of money! We got a lawyer and it was discharged. It’s been three years since that happened and we went to extend our line of credit just two months ago to find out that the lien was never taken off! ! Apparently, the Land Titles Registry Office doesn’t have to tell homeowners when this happens so the owners could still have a lien even though you have a discharge. Maxium Financial was the company Home Reliance went through to put a lien on my property, but Maxium Financial had changed their name to a numbered company and it’s necessary to include that in the paperwork when taking the lien off. The Land Titles Registry Office gave Reliance 5-8 days to fix this paper work in order to take the lien off and Reliance never bothered, so the Registry withdrew the discharge and kept the lien on the house. Here we are three years later, we owe nothing after paying reliance a huge lump sum of money, and we now have two lawyers trying to contact someone at Reliance to help us (specifically, the woman who signed off on it the first time they tried to discharge it). She won’t return their emails and calls. My lawyers don’t understand why they won’t take the time to fill in papers to take a lien off of our property when we don’t owe them any money. This is our life that they are messing with. We cannot secure any line of credit ever again with any bank until they complete the paperwork and have the lien taken off. What are they gaining from doing this to us, after paying them three years ago. Unfortunately, we are now discussing court action at this point and going to CHCH media, who is very interested in this story if they have more people willing to share. It looks like there are many, so this definitely is an option I will now start exploring this week.
Sounds familiar. It is becoming a fight to get the lien lifted on my property. Just see who owns Reliance and you will understand why there is a ‘don’t care attitude’
This is the huge catch for reliance, putting a lien on homes that were worked for by many Ontarians, if you are with reliance’s contract best way to do is buyout and run far far away from this company.