Guarantee not being honoured

Broseley

Hi we bought a house which has a flat roof which came with a 25 year guarantee (13 years now left). The roof is GRP fibreglass. We had to pay £100 to get the insurance backing transferred to us, though then the insurer told us they only cover this company now if they go bust. We got the roofer to agree to honour the guarantee - for work and materials - but only by email. Since then we have noticed several areas where the paint on the fibreglass is flaking and one or two cracks. We have had 3 instances where water has entered through the ceilings. We have been trying for 1 year to get the roofer out to have a look. He rarely answers the phone, never emails or letters. He makes promises to come out then doesn't show up, or says he'll ring back but never does. Do we have any legal recourse to force him to honour the guarantee?

531063

Have you got a signed undertaking off the roofer agreeing to him guaranteeing it.

Broseley

Only an email, which we had to write for him and leave blanks for him to complete.

Broseley

Update: now the roofer is saying the guarantee was NOT transferable and that his daughter, who acts as his admin, should not have signed and returned the email transferring the guarantee to us. I told her that we would not have bought the house without the guarantee! Besides, the roofer has done some repairs for us earlier last year, under the guarantee!

shaun_from_Africa

Broseley said:

Update: now the roofer is saying the guarantee was NOT transferable and that his daughter, who acts as his admin, should not have signed and returned the email transferring the guarantee to us.

Maybe she shouldn't have agreed to transfer the guarantee but the fact is she was acting on behalf of the building company when she did agree and you based your purchase on her decision.
Make sure that you keep copies of all the emails about the policy being transferred then contact the builder again and tell them that if they are not willing to honour the guarantee as already agreed, you will have no option but to get the required work carried out by another roofer and to pursue them for the cost via legal action.
Is the builder a limited company or a sole trader?

Does your household insurance come with any legal protection or legal advice? If so, give them a call and see what they suggest.

Broseley

Yes I believe our insurance does come with legal advice though I have an appointment by phone with a solicitor tomorrow. I have kept all the emails and found one from the roofer himself promising to send us the guarantee back in 2018. I have contacted an independent flat roof specialist with a view to having a survey done to ascertain what damage there is and to identify the source of the leaks.

Mistral001

Looks like court action is required.  In saying this, the roof should be easily fixed as all it needs is an extra layer of GRP, so if you can get the builder to do this then, you should have years of trouble free use out of the roof.  Note I would not be tempted to get somebody else in to fix the roof and send the bill to the original builder.   You might never see your money and your guarantee from both the original builder and the insurance company would end.

Broseley

Mistral001 said:

Looks like court action is required.  In saying this, the roof should be easily fixed as all it needs is an extra layer of GRP, so if you can get the builder to do this then, you should have years of trouble free use out of the roof.  Note I would not be tempted to get somebody else in to fix the roof and send the bill to the original builder.   You might never see your money and your guarantee from both the original builder and the insurance company would end.

If they cover the existing GRP what if the OSB underneath is wet? It was when they did the previous repair, and it's been raining here since June!

George_Michael

Mistral001 said:

Note I would not be tempted to get somebody else in to fix the roof and send the bill to the original builder.   You might never see your money and your guarantee from both the original builder and the insurance company would end.

Not getting the problem seen to ASAP may well invalidate the guarantee as well as invalidating any future claims on the OP#s building insurance should it be needed in the future.
This is because it's fairly standard for buildings guarantees and insurance to state something along the lines of being a requirement that any faults are rectified when discovered to prevent any further damage and leaving the problem unresolved whilst legal action is taken against the builder could see the problem getting far worse.

Broseley

Thanks, yes our insurance does state we have to get problems fixed within 30 days of discovering them. However we this is our new insurance with a different company than last year. As we've had the problem for over a year now, whilst trying to get the roofer to come out (he said he would) do you think the insurance company will accept a claim? 
We had the flat roof specialist NFRC roofer come out but it was quite clear that all they wanted to do was supply us with another new roof. They said they'd ring back but didn't. I can't find another GRP specialist in our area. Now the original roofer has said he won't honour the guarantee and that his daughter should not have signed to say they would. This is after a year of promising us that he would come and fix it.

Broseley

All the roofers we have contacted are either too busy or say they cannot guarantee any repairs they make to our roof. Otherwise they say we need to whole roof done again, as it was not properly installed in the first place. I am now wondering if we could get a grant through the government's new Green Homes scheme to be launched in September, as we could then get some insulation put in to a new roof. The current GRP was laid over the existing and very old asphalt roof so I'm guessing any insulation does not meet modern standards.