window guarantee or not

1888

have got two prices from a local company for my replacement windows but salesman offered me a saving of £500 if i get from them & use one of there recommoned fitters outwith the company therefore i get no 10yr guarantee,
do you really need the guarantee or should i save the £500,
whats your opinons???

Barneysmom

Go and get more quotes, I don't think I'd like to give up the guarantee for £500. How many windows are you having?

PasturesNew

You'll be asked for the FENSA Certificate when you try to sell it in the future, so whatever you choose make sure 100% guaranteed that the fitter can offer you a FENSA Certificate, in order to prevent buyer-nervousness in the future.

1888

getting six windows fitted. also what is a FENSA Certificate

MidLifeCrisis_3

Can't remember what it stands for (Google it), but it's to do with building regulations that ensure you have the right safety measures (fire escape windows, safety glass in the right places, etc). Get some more quotes and if necessary use the lower quote to barter with the other companies.

We wanted to choose a local company to do ours rather than a large firm and got 3 quotes. Used the lowest quote to barter with our preferred company and couldn't be more pleased with the job they did.

martinthebandit

have a look here, it will give you some idea of how much your windows will actually cost, then you can see what the mark up is

http://www.justdoorsuk.com/diy-windows.htm

sashman

1888 wrote: »

have got two prices from a local company for my replacement windows but salesman offered me a saving of £500 if i get from them & use one of there recommoned fitters outwith the company therefore i get no 10yr guarantee,
do you really need the guarantee or should i save the £500,
whats your opinons???

That sound like a salesman doing a private job by his fitting mate, skipping out his company that gave him you lead, probably won't register with fens and may not pay any vat

Call me sceptical but a straight company wouldn't offer this

Sashman

leveller2911

The work can be carried out under a Building Notice so you don't have to go down the FENSA route.Most Upvc companies are Fensa registered because they tend to only make windows and doors but very few Joineries (Wooden Windows) are FENSA registered the reason being your local Joinery will make everything from Windows,Doors,Staircases,Kitchens etc so it works out expensive to "Join the FENSA club" so they tend to carry out the work under a Building notice which is basically you telling your Local Council of your intention to replace your windows.You then carry out the work and they may or may not send the local building inspector out to check that the work complies with regulations.

FENSA is not the be all and end all, just because a company doesn't belong then don't feel that there is something wrong.........

Yorkie1

If you hop over to the house buying etc board, you will see several threads from people who have replaced windows and not received fensa certificates - and had to either pay for an indemnity policy or get it signed off by building regs. In the past, buyers and/or their solicitors may not have followed this sort of thing up. That position seems to be different these days. Hence the comment about when you try to sell.

Essentially, building regs approval / signoff is needed for replacement windows. Fensa is one way of getting that approval - the company is allowed to do the signoff instead of the council doing it.

sashman

"Joining the fensa club" isnt expensive for a company, a few hundred quid joining fee then a couple of pounds per job registered, Building control is generally £130/150 per job. But FENSA isnt about quality just self certification of building reg compliance. there are other schemes that do the same Certass, BSI, and now trdad and Veka they are all competent persons schemes with similar low cost registrations

KateLiana27

I'm buying a house now and, rightly or wrongly, the fact that it doesn't have FENSA certificates for post-2002 window installation is a very big deal - not to me, but to my mortgage company. It is a standard enquiry asked by most solicitors now and it will cause almost certainly cause problems if you don't have one if you ever sell.

You can go with a non-FENSA company and have your local building control come and inspect afterwards, and hopefully provide a certificate for about £100, so this may be another route to go down if you are saving £500. But it won't be guaranteed that they will sign it off.

Double glazed units are prone to failure so a 10 year guarantee is a valuable thing. Also, I would ask myself if a company isn't prepared to guarantee their work for 10 years... well, why not?