Faulty window and door installation

dtl

I've just had a window and sliding folding door installed in my extension. When our local building standards surveyor saw what had been done he said it wasn't done right and wouldn't comply with scottish building regulations. Our own builder said the same thing - in fact he said that a first year apprentice would have known it wasn't right!

One the day of the installation, the installers first wanted to install onto the outer leaf of the cavity wall, but the apertures were too big. I told them that I thought it was meant to be installed off the inner leaf. They measured that, then went ahead and installed. I never told them exactly where on that inner leaf it was to be fitted and they never raised any concerns. What they did was install it so far back on the timer that the entire cavity, and part of the timber frame is exposed to the outside!

Although the company is based in England, this isn't the first time they've installed in Scotland and they have been in business for over 15 years.

I had let my builder handle all the technical communications with the company prior to ordering, and he even talked to two of their people to make sure they knew how they knew how it had to be installed.

Now they are trying to say they installed it the way I told them to and want me contribute to the cost of fixing the problem (they're claiming it would be 3 days including travel).

I did suggest that they could authorise my builder to do the work, but they still want me to pay part of that cost and they have said they wouldn't honour their guarantee if my builder did the work, even with their authorisation. One of the reasons for going with them despite the high cost was to get the long guarantee,

One of the doors was also supplied with the wrong locking mechanism. As a compromise, I did suggest I would be willing to accept the door as is and save them the cost of manufacturing and installing a new door (since they are custom made, the old one would effectively be scrap), but they are unwilling to accept that and still want me to pay towards the cost of correcting the installation.

It seems to me that, if they offer to install the windows and doors then it is reasonable that I, as their customer, should expect them to know the correct way to install them to comply with the building regulations.

Has anyone had any similar experiences? Am I right, in the legal sense, to say that I would have reasonably expected them to know the correct way to install them to comply with the building regulations since the do offer an installation service?

Since I paid by credit card, I'm considering taking the whole matter to them. Has anyone had any experience of doing that? I'm a bit concerned about how long that process may take when we've got a baby on the way (due in July, so any time after mid-June based on past experience)

Thanks

capeverde

Firstly they are meant to be the experts and not you, so why are they taking your advice? they really dont have a leg to stand on. External doors are always installed to the external brickwork. They tend to have a 70mm frame thickness so would be installed level with the inner edge of the 100mm brick which would leave a 30mm return to the outside. The cavity should never be bridged or exposed, this is laughable. I assume they carried out the initial survey, so if it didnt fit, its down to them. Just a matter of playing the game, email pictures to the md, cc'ing a few papers along with watchdog and threaten to put up a blog on google. Will do the trick, thats assuming you have allready paid them which shouldnt have been the case if they fitted the doors to the internal brickwork.

capeverde

ok just read youre post again, do you have an insurance backed warranty and are they fensa registered, also threaten to report them to both of these and mail pictures of the installation to these, that should give them the hurry up. Fensa is basically an organisation that members join to save applying for seperate regs for every job, it assumes the company knoiws what it is doing.