New windows - no guarantee

Emily_Joy

The vendor replaced all windows in the house 4 years ago and the surveyor questions the quality of the work in several places. The vendor claims there is no guarantee certificates for the work. Is this typical?.. 

BlueVeranda

If you search the postcode and house number at https://forms.fensa.org.uk/fensa-certificate you can see if a certificate was issued and has since been lost. 

I'm not sure how typical it is but our vendor gave us a similar excuse and we just looked them up for ourselves. If there were no certificates listed there, it would be more worrying, especially given the surveyor's comments.

daivid

If they do not have FENSA (or equivalent) certification that would be a concern. If the surveyor has identified genuine issues then the key thing is that they are rectified/ you are not out of pocket to rectify them if they were issues it wasn’t reasonable to expect you to be aware of prior to offering on the house.

FreeBear

Emily_Joy said:

The vendor replaced all windows in the house 4 years ago and the surveyor questions the quality of the work in several places. The vendor claims there is no guarantee certificates for the work. Is this typical?.. 

A typical guarantee ill be for 10 years and insurance backed. Although, if you go with the likes of Anglian or Everest, they don't issue insurance backed warranties - Customers of Everest found out to their cost what this meant back in 2020 when the company went in to administration - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/s3Bs1XnDQZ1zG49JV4vZQR/everest-lifetime-guarantees

If the vendor can't supply any paperwork, quite likely the job was done on the cheap and basics like Building Control oversight were skirted round/ignored. FENSA and Certass are the two main schemes for replacement windows - Both will notify the local council when windows & doors are replaced. So the obvious place to look to see if the work was notified (even if it is of a poor standard) is the local council. A simple generic inquiry along the lines of "what notifiable works to this property do you hold records for" might answer some of your questions. Even if there was a guarantee in place for the windows, it wouldn't automatically be transferred to you when (if) you purchase the property.

As your surveyor has highlighted poor quality work, it would be prudent to reduce your offer with an eye to having the job done properly - Did he/she give any specifics on the nature of the faults ?

Emily_Joy

It seems there is a FENSA certificate. The property is being sold by a neighbour while the owner is in a care home and appears not to have any surviving family members. The surveyor questions whether the brickwork immediately above the window has been damaged during the process, and to what extend...

One other thing which I am a bit concerned about is a very large quantity of limescale deposits on one of taps. The water is supposed to be medium hard. The other taps appear to be fine, so this probably highlights a problem with this particular tap...

propertyrental

Having a FENSA cert supposedly guarantees the work is done to building Regs standards. And that includes ensuring that the surrounding brickework is a) not damaged and b) supported (sometimes removing a wood framed window that supports the bricks above can cause issues if the upvc replacement is not as robust as a wood frame).

But none of that relates toa warranty/guarantee. If the installer did ot supply a guarantee you can either accept that, withdraw fromthe urchase, or try to reduce the price. But frankly most guarantees are useless as a) they often cannot be transferred toa new owner and b) if they are not insurance backed, then when the installer goes out of business who do you turn to.....?

Taps? You are being over picky. If the tap needs replacing, then replace it!

FreeBear

propertyrental said: Having a FENSA cert supposedly guarantees the work is done to building Regs standards. And that includes ensuring that the surrounding brickework is a) not damaged and b) supported (sometimes removing a wood framed window that supports the bricks above can cause issues if the upvc replacement is not as robust as a wood frame).

Damaged brickwork is generally cosmetic and of little interest to Building Control. If the outer leaf did require a lintel after the old frames were removed, it is something that should have been highlighted in the survey prior to the windows being installed. Although FENSA have issued a number of briefings on the subject, lintels are not always fitted when required - I can point to one rather shoddy job undertaken by Anglian where they couldn't be bothered to fit a lintel. They were back a few weeks later repointing the brickwork above where things had started to move. Still no lintel fitted...

Just because a FENSA certificate has been issued, it is no guarantee that it is a quality install.

[Deleted User]

Emily_Joy said:

One other thing which I am a bit concerned about is a very large quantity of limescale deposits on one of taps. The water is supposed to be medium hard. The other taps appear to be fine, so this probably highlights a problem with this particular tap...

Not really. What it probably highlights is the person who lived there used this tap regularly, but maybe lacked the strength to turn it off fully, meaning it was always wet and, consequently, susceptible to lime scale build up. Just soak it in vinegar (might need to get creative with keeping it in place), or replace it. It’s nothing worth stressing over.

Jonboy_1984

propertyrental said:

But none of that relates toa warranty/guarantee. If the installer did ot supply a guarantee you can either accept that, withdraw fromthe urchase, or try to reduce the price. But frankly most guarantees are useless as a) they often cannot be transferred toa new owner and b) if they are not insurance backed, then when the installer goes out of business who do you turn to….?

Guarantee being insurance backed has been a requirement of the Fensa process since around 2014.

As you say through whether it is transferable is another question.

Emily_Joy

It appears the vendor's representative has now found paperwork for the windows - and it is from Anglian. I imagine they have a number of offices/teams around the country, though.

theartfullodger

daivid said:

If they do not have FENSA (or equivalent) certification that would be a concern. .................

Really?? Sold 3 such in last 4 years, stating no guarantees, no issues, no concerns raised by possible or actual buyers.