Reliance Home Comfort is a residential and commercial services company in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and US primarily focused on rental, sales and maintenance of

water heater Water heating is a heat transfer process that uses an energy source to heat water above its initial temperature. Typical domestic uses of hot water include cooking, cleaning, bathing, and space heating. In industry, hot water and water heated t ...

s, water purification, smart home and

heating, ventilation, and air conditioning Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) is the use of various technologies to control the temperature, humidity, and purity of the air in an enclosed space. Its goal is to provide thermal comfort and acceptable indoor air quality. HV ...

systems. The company has its largest base of operations in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, but also has offices in

western Canada Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West or the Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a Canadian region that includes the four western provinces just north of the Canada� ...

and USA. It serves 1.7 million customer households across Canada and US. Reliance is currently controlled by the family of

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

-based Chinese-Canadian businessman

Victor Li Victor Li Tzar-kuoi is a Hong Kong businessman, the chair of the board and group co-managing director of CK Hutchison Holdings Limited and the chairman of the board and managing director of CK Asset Holdings Limited and the Chairman of CK Inf ...

, through two of their holding companies,

CK Asset Holdings CK Asset Holdings Limited, previously known as Cheung Kong Property Holdings Limited, is a property developer registered in the Cayman Islands, with its headquarters and principal place of business in Hong Kong. History The company was establis ...

(75%) and

CK Infrastructure Holdings CK Infrastructure Holdings Limited (CKI), is the largest listed company, publicly listed infrastructure company in Hong Kong with diversified investments in energy infrastructure, transportation Infrastructure, water Infrastructure and infrastr ...

(25%).

History

Reliance has its origins in the

storage water heater A storage water heater, or a hot water system (HWS), is a domestic water heating appliance that uses a hot water storage tank to maximize water heating capacity and provide instantaneous delivery of hot water. Conventional storage water heaters us ...

rental business formerly owned by

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

utility

Union Gas Union Gas was a major Canadian natural gas company based in Ontario. Its distribution arm serviced approximately 1.5 million customers in northern, southwestern and eastern Ontario. Union Gas has been a subsidiary of Enbridge since February 2017 ...

, which served much of Ontario. Reliance's main Ontario competitor, Enercare, has a similar origin as the rental business of Toronto-area utility Consumers' Gas. (The utility operations of both Union and Consumers' are now part of

Enbridge Enbridge Inc. is a multinational pipeline and energy company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Enbridge owns and operates pipelines throughout Canada and the United States, transporting crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids. ...

.) Beginning in the mid-20th century, Ontario gas providers such as Consumers' and Union would work with

home builder A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or many humans, and sometimes various companion animals. It is a fully or semi sheltered space and can have both interior and exterior aspects to it. H ...

s to pre-install gas-powered water heaters, which the providers would agree to subsidize and maintain in exchange for a monthly rental charge on each homeowner's gas bill. This practice of renting water heaters, as opposed to purchasing them, became widespread in Ontario, but is not common elsewhere in Canada yet. Due to regulatory changes, Union Gas' unregulated water heater business was split off in 1999 as a sister company named Union Energy. Union Energy was then acquired in 2001 by

Epcor EPCOR Utilities Inc., formerly known as Edmonton Power Corporation, is a utility company based in Edmonton, Alberta. EPCOR manages water, wastewater, natural gas, and electricity distribution systems in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British ...

for about $160 million, then spun off as the UE Waterheater

Income Fund An income fund is a fund whose goal is to provide an income from investments. It is usually organized through a trust or partnership, rather than a corporation, to obtain more efficient flow through tax consequences in relation to the income it ear ...

in 2003. The fund was purchased in 2007 by Alinda Capital Partners for $1.74 billion. UE Waterheater, which later rebranded as Reliance, purchased security companies Voxcom and Protectron in 2007, operating them under the "Reliance Protectron" name until selling the operations to ADT in 2014. ADT Canada was subsequently acquired by

Telus Telus Communications Inc. (TCI) is the wholly owned principal subsidiary of Telus Corporation, a Canadian national telecommunications company that provides a wide range of telecommunications products and services including internet access, voi ...

in 2019. Since the sale of Protectron, Reliance has refocused on home maintenance services, including expansion into western Canada. It also acquired competitor National Home Services from

Just Energy Just Energy Group Inc. (formerly Just Energy Income Fund and before that Energy Savings Income Fund) is a Canadian-based natural gas and electricity retailer operating in Canadian and American markets across North America. Operations Just Energy ...

in 2014. Reliance was then purchased from Alinda by the CK group in 2017 for $2.8 billion.

Products and services

In addition to water heater rentals (and sales in some areas), Reliance sells, rents, installs, and maintains

furnace A furnace is a structure in which heat is produced with the help of combustion. Furnace may also refer to: Appliances Buildings * Furnace (central heating): a furnace , or a heater or boiler , used to generate heat for buildings * Boiler, used t ...

s and

air conditioner Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

s. It also offers maintenance and repair plans for heating and cooling systems, as well as for plumbing and electrical systems.

Criticism

Although not specific to Reliance, the water heater rental business model has been noted as being a poor value for many consumers. The federal

Competition Bureau The Competition Bureau (french: Bureau de la concurrence) is the competition regulator in Canada. It is an independent Canadian law enforcement agency that ensures that markets operate in a competitive, innovative manner. Headed by the Comm ...

has noted that purchasing a water heater outright "can result in substantial savings over time" compared to rental. However, Reliance and other rental companies argue that because their rentals include maintenance, including replacement parts and labour, they can provide peace of mind for consumers. The Competition Bureau filed complaints against Reliance and

Direct Energy Direct Energy LP is a North American retailer of energy and energy services. The company was founded in Toronto in 1986 and now has more than four million customers in Canada and the United States. Direct Energy is a subsidiary of NRG Energy. His ...

(then-owner of what is now Enercare) in 2012, alleging both companies engaged in anti-competitive behaviour by providing customers limited locations and time windows if they wished to return their rentals, and charging "unwarranted" cancellation fees. Reliance defended its policies, asserting that it was intended to help protect consumers against what it called aggressive tactics by competing rental suppliers. The company settled its part of the complaint in 2014 by agreeing to make it easier for customers to cancel their rentals and paying a $5 million administrative penalty. Reliance has used fallacious collections actions to attempt to extract payments from numerous non-customers for goods and service not provided.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official website
Companies based in Toronto Canadian companies established in 1999 Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning companies Service companies of Canada CK Hutchison Holdings