Roofing repair guarantee

purplebooks

Hi, any advice appreciated:

A week before the sale completed on the house we moved in to in Oct 2021, the vendors had to get a roofing company in to repair a dormer window that had leaked. At the time, we agreed, with solicitors noting, that we would pay half. We were sent a copy of the invoice and on it, it says the work is guaranteed for 12 years.

In the past month a leak has appeared again and we’ve had a roofer who lives down the road look at it and notes the damage is the same as what was quoted for in 2021. I have attempted to contact the company on the invoice and the two phone numbers listed do not work and there is no website or Facebook page. Do I take it the guarantee does not stand for anything now and we will have to fork out and get it done again?

purplebooks

Edit: What I meant to add here is to check whether the guarantee went with the vendor anyway!

eddddy

It sounds like the seller's name was on the invoice, not yours - so they had the 12 year guarantee, rather than you.

Do you have the terms of the guarantee? For example, is it transferable? If so, should you have done anything to get it transferred to you?


But all the above might be academic, if the roofer who did the work has gone out of business - unless the guarantee is 'insurance backed'. (i.e. If you make a claim, and the roofer has gone out of business, an insurance company will pay.)  Again, that would be explained in the terms of the guarantee.

And if the roofer is dodgy anyway, they might write "12 year guarantee" on their invoices - but not honour it. Which might mean taking the roofer to court.


Overall, if you didn't at least get proper written terms of the guarantee, I don't think I'd rate your chances too high.

purplebooks

Thank you. I feared as much! 

user1977

When you say "company", do you actually mean a company i.e. a limited company? If so, what does it say about it on Companies House?

If it's just Jim Bloggs trading as Bloggs Roofing, then to enforce anything you need to find Jim Bloggs (whether or not he's still trading as a roofer). But the first question is whether there is anything for you to enforce - a guarantee to the seller isn't necessarily transferrable to you. Didn't your solicitors give you any advice about this guarantee?

theartfullodger

Many such "guarantees" are not worth the paper they are printed on.

Even perfect work can fail.  Accept that there are no certainties in property purchases.  It's a gamble (like marriage...).

Cheers!

purplebooks

user1977 said:

When you say "company", do you actually mean a company i.e. a limited company? If so, what does it say about it on Companies House?

If it's just Jim Bloggs trading as Bloggs Roofing, then to enforce anything you need to find Jim Bloggs (whether or not he's still trading as a roofer). But the first question is whether there is anything for you to enforce - a guarantee to the seller isn't necessarily transferrable to you. Didn't your solicitors give you any advice about this guarantee?

Thank you! I didn’t know about Companies House until now so in future I will ensure I check every tradesperson through this. I have no idea how the vendor found this roofer but I expect it would be someone who could get the job done quickly given the moving date. Neither solicitor flagged any issues with the quote paperwork that said “all work guaranteed for 12 years” and clearly my husband and I were too naive to question any of it.