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Krista,

Thank you for your reply. I must admit that I may have been a little hasty in my initial writing regarding use of the city official seal in the mail advertisements sent out by Service Line Warranties of America (SLWA). Taking a little more time after writing I did a little more searching and found an answer to my question.

It appears that SLWA offers, at its option, remuneration to municipalities and local governments in return for use of their official identification on SLWA documents. This more-or-less brings about a better understanding as to why the seal appears.

Additionally while I was searching I came up with a few other facts of interest regarding SLWA. Looking at a few warranties offered by them in various areas of the United States it appears that coverage of utility repairs may not be as comprehensive as expected. Based upon a typical line repairs/replacement SLWA offers coverage somewhere between 30 and 60% of the overall cost leaving the homeowner with a significant remaining cost to bear. Inquiries with the few contractors who do trenchless sewer line repairs in this area about cost to do so resulted in figures ranging between $10 and $15 thousand dollars. I suspect that the coverage amount is probably based upon the repair/service metrics for each area that SLWA insures.

I did come across an analysis regarding the low annual cost of a SLWA warranty versus their disbursement of funds to pay for the repairs, the analysis showed that it would take SLWA anywhere from 30 to 50 years to recover their costs. Obviously this would not be acceptable for any company attempting to make a profit so I am sure that SLWA has implemented creative means so as to not be impacted by such a situation.

In reference to the page found on the City of Great Falls website regarding SLWA I clicked on the “Frequently Asked Questions” link at the bottom of the page. Reading through the answers I noted the last item, “Who are the local contractors who participate in this program?” so called SLWA to inquire. My call was answered by several people who could not provide any answers as to who did provide service. In addition I was placed on hold, dumped back into the automated VRU system only to answer the same menu questions over and over but finally found an agent who directed me to another person. I then queried this person as to who the contractors may be, was placed on hold several times again and finally received the answer “…that is proprietary information.” So this item on the FAQ page is sort of misleading.

So, it is believed that the homeowner who chooses SLWA services is at the whim of SLWA when it comes to whomever responds to provide maintenance or repairs. Calls to a few major local contractors indicates that it appears SLWA randomly contacts agencies to find one who will provide the service at the time of the call and will not necessarily honor a request from the customer should they already have an established relationship with a given contractor.

Regards,

Greg Muir