Guarantee rights in extenuating circumstances

tempmal

We bought a house in September 2021 which has a conservatory under guarantee until 2025. Part of the terms and conditions of this guarantee is that, when the house is sold, the original owners contact the conservatory company within 3 months of the sale.

As far as I was aware, this was done. However the husband of the couple who sold us the house had a very serious heart attack not long before we completed. He was very unwell and sadly passed away a few months later. It appears that, amidst this terrible time, the conservatory company weren’t notified of the sale as the widow understandably either forgot or couldn’t bring herself to deal with it.

Fast forward to 2023 and our conservatory has unfortunately had some kind of serious failure. None of the windows are secure and water is leaking in through every one of them. The roof is also full of leaks and the conservatory is damp and mouldy and completely unusable. I have no immune system due to health complications and it is a room I have to stay well away from until it is fixed and properly cleaned as it is a serious health hazard. 

We contacted the conservatory company and received a computer says no response, informing us for the first time that the transfer had not been done and they would therefore not honour the guarantee. We contacted them again to explain the extenuating circumstances and they said they would speak to management, after which they said they would send someone out to have a look.

Several months later and they have cancelled on us 3 times, saying their surveyor is unwell and needs dialysis. We pushed to see if someone else could come out instead and received an email saying “please understand” that they were only coming out at all as a gesture of goodwill to write up what needs to be done so they can quote for the works for us. I’m unsure what exactly is a gesture of goodwill about trying to get our custom, but that’s by the by.

So it seems that they have been stringing us along for months, insinuating that they were going to honour the guarantee after all, and as such we haven’t been able to claim on our house insurance. I think we now won’t be able to, as we didn’t notify them of the damage at the time. It is only now, after months of messing us around and the damage getting considerably worse as the bad weather continues to cause damage, that they inform us that they’re doing us a favour by quoting to fix it.

My question is this - is this just tough luck for us? Technically yes, the T&Cs of the guarantee were not followed by the previous owner but it was due to extenuating circumstances. Though I’m not hugely surprised, it is exceptionally cynical for the conservatory company to jump on this as a way to get out of carrying out repairs. Is there anything we can do? Any argument or rights that we can fall back on?

I suspect not, but then I also know my brother was able to successfully take his car insurance company to court for not paying out when his car was stolen, due to his wife (who was a second named driver) not informing them of a speeding ticket. Though technically in breach of the terms, it had no bearing on the claim of the stolen car and the courts determined they should pay out. I don’t really fully understand why or what the legal reasoning of this was. I am hopeful though that something similar might be relevant in our situation, where a newly grieving widow forgetting to write to a conservatory company to say she’d sold her house really has absolutely no bearing at all on whether the guarantee of the workmanship and quality of a conservatory should be upheld.

Thank you for your help.

screech_78

Any guarantee is in addition to your statutory rights and can have any terms and conditions it likes. In this case, the original owners haven’t contacted them in the timeframe specified and so there is no claim on the guarantee. I’m afraid personal circumstances won’t count. 

Unfortunately, you don’t have any consumer rights either as you’re not the original purchaser of the conservatory. 

user1977

How was this dealt with at the time of your purchase? Was it made a condition of your purchase contract that the vendor assign the guarantee? Or just left as a loose understanding between you that they'd do it? They might have had an extenuating reason for not getting round to it, but why didn't you (or your solicitor) follow up on it?

Sleepysophie

I think similar to the point the previous person has said. For you to know about the guarantee and its terms then I would imagine these were alerted to you by the solicitor you used for the conveyancing?  We had something similar about some indemnity that held up the purchase of our home because the Solicitor would not allow us to exchange without it being received. Are you sure your Solicitor doesn't have something you're able to reference? It would not be in the interests of the Conservatory company to tell you they have it, if you have suggested you haven't ?

tempmal

screech_78 said:

Any guarantee is in addition to your statutory rights and can have any terms and conditions it likes. In this case, the original owners haven’t contacted them in the timeframe specified and so there is no claim on the guarantee. I’m afraid personal circumstances won’t count. 

Unfortunately, you don’t have any consumer rights either as you’re not the original purchaser of the conservatory. 

Thank you, I appreciate the info. I suspected this was the case but I thought I’d try clutching at straws 😆

turnitround

How old is the conservatory? It seems very odd for all those faults to appear at the same time and every window to be leaking. 

tempmal

user1977 said:

How was this dealt with at the time of your purchase? Was it made a condition of your purchase contract that the vendor assign the guarantee? Or just left as a loose understanding between you that they'd do it? They might have had an extenuating reason for not getting round to it, but why didn't you (or your solicitor) follow up on it?

The T&Cs we have for it that were passed on during conveyancing make no mention of it needing to be transferred, so this was not followed up on. (We are currently taking the conservatory company’s word for it, which of course will be followed up on, I just wanted to understand our position first.)

There were other guarantees that specifically stated needed to be transferred and those were checked, everything else was left with a general loose understanding. Our bad. 

I’m not going to pursue the vendor even if there is a case for them to answer as I value decency more. I don’t believe the solicitor has anything to answer to either. 

Alderbank

Insurance is a heavily regulated industry. Selling conservatories isn't. Your brother's motor claim is not comparable.

Conservatories are classed as temporary buildings. They add very little to the value of a property so it probably cost you little or nothing.
You ask about claiming on your house insurance for damage to the conservatory. I would expect them to pay for events like a golf ball from outside smashing panes, but they will not pay for leaks resulting from lack of maintenance or poor design.

I would get a well regarded local company (not the firm who built your conservatory!) round to discuss with you the pros and cons of whether to repair it or take it down and start again.

tempmal

Sleepysophie said:

I think similar to the point the previous person has said. For you to know about the guarantee and its terms then I would imagine these were alerted to you by the solicitor you used for the conveyancing?  We had something similar about some indemnity that held up the purchase of our home because the Solicitor would not allow us to exchange without it being received. Are you sure your Solicitor doesn't have something you're able to reference? It would not be in the interests of the Conservatory company to tell you they have it, if you have suggested you haven't ?

We were alerted to it by the conservatory company. The copy of the T&Cs I have doesn’t mention it. I will need to follow that up with them to prove that’s the case but I wanted to know our position first before we get to that. Unfortunately seems we haven’t much position to move forward from, and that’s very disappointing but useful to know at least. 

tempmal

turnitround said:

How old is the conservatory? It seems very odd for all those faults to appear at the same time and every window to be leaking. 

I know, it’s rather a catastrophic failure and I’ll be alerting their other customers to that if nothing else. It’s coming up to 8 years old and under a 10 year guarantee. There were issues with it prior to our purchase that they came out to fix but it doesn’t look like they fixed it properly. This has been exacerbated by the extreme weather we’ve had recently. We had significant snow a few months ago and I suspect that exacerbated the existing problems to cause it to fail completely.

tempmal

Alderbank said:

Insurance is a heavily regulated industry. Selling conservatories isn't. Your brother's motor claim is not comparable.

Conservatories are classed as temporary buildings. They add very little to the value of a property so it probably cost you little or nothing.
You ask about claiming on your house insurance for damage to the conservatory. I would expect them to pay for events like a golf ball from outside smashing panes, but they will not pay for leaks resulting from lack of maintenance or poor design.

I would get a well regarded local company (not the firm who built your conservatory!) round to discuss with you the pros and cons of whether to repair it or take it down and start again.

Thank you, that’s very helpful.