How important are certificates for selling your house (Electrical, FENSA, etc)

akira181

I'm looking at getting new windows put in as mine are very old. A lot of the local installers, most in fact, are not registered with FENSA, Certass, or any other type of certifying body. My question is how important are these pieces of paper? Surely it's just any warranty information that's important?

When I bought my house, the only real bit of certification that came with the property was a building regulations approval to move the kitchen to an internal location. No certificates for the windows, electrical safety (property was rewired prior to sale too), gas safety, no nothing.

The estate agent, conveyancer, solicitor, and surveyor from the bank (2 times), didn't mention the missing certificates once or even flag that my front door and storm door are apparently illegal (uPVC in a tenement close, recently pointed out by 2 different window installers that came round to quote).

I don't know if it's just my area that has always been, and still is, a sellers market but I don't see how any certification is going to stop/hinder/or even delay the sell of a house. Properties around here tend to flip in a matter of weeks unless it's like 50k over the home report value, then it takes a few months but still sells for stupid money.

For example, I bought my property knowing full well that the windows were old and the boiler about to go. I still put an offer in because the place was ideal for what I wanted and I had been searching for 9 months. I lost multiple places in similar or worse condition due to being too slow or not submitting a good enough offer at closing.

Old windows and an even older boiler doesn't stop a sale, some missing paperwork certainly isn't. Considering the mortgage surveyor (both times) didn't even ask for any paperwork or certification when valuing the property, it seems to not have a bearing on the value either. The floorplan, selling price, and area is what really drives the sale from what I can see.

So how important is it to get a FENSA certificate?

Grizebeck

It depends on the buyer and solicitor 
Personally I don't give two hoots if it's got a fensa or gas safety certificate etc etc

Flugelhorn

Who knows - I sold a house under probate with no FENSA, I knew as soon as I saw the "pencil written receipt on the back of the envelope " in mother's papers that there would be no FENSA cert. Checked online and there wasn't - buyers sols wanted an indemnity policy, my sol was all for saying no but in the bigger scheme of things the £45 was fine and far far less than the money saved when the windows were put in

subjecttocontract

All windows fitted since 2002 need to have either a FENSA certificate or building regs certificate......it's a legal requirement.

Grizebeck

subjecttocontract said:

All windows fitted since 2002 need to have either a FENSA certificate or building regs certificate......it's a legal requirement.

Many don't it's no real issue

silvercar

We had our windows changed in 3 stages, all after 2002. The first 2 were a deal as part of other work that was never certified. The second 2 stages were properly certified with FENSA certs. Then we had a door and associated windows replaced and that came with FENSA certs twice, so now we have certs for more windows than we actually have. Currently having patio doors replaced and one of the windows changed that will be certified properly. So at the end of the day we will have more certificates than windows, even though accurately 2 of our windows don't have certificates, this is more than balanced out by some windows having more than one certificate! I doubt anyone will know or care!

subjecttocontract

If a property has lost or misplaced its FENSA cert a replacement can usually be obtained from FENSA. Without a certificate, either a FENSA of an independent building regulations compliance certificate a sale would normally require an indemnity policy. It would usually be the seller who would be expected to pay for the indemnity policy so there seems little point in buying windows without a certificate and incurring future costs.

Flugelhorn

subjecttocontract said:

All windows fitted since 2002 need to have either a FENSA certificate or building regs certificate......it's a legal requirement.

many don't - as it is I think they are certifying the fitting not the windows, the windows mother had were fine, spoke to the people who supplied them, they knew the fitter - he used to do some work in his spare time for rather less than one might pay a company to do it 

Flugelhorn

subjecttocontract said:

If a property has lost or misplaced its FENSA cert a replacement can usually be obtained from FENSA. Without a certificate, either a FENSA of an independent building regulations compliance certificate a sale would normally require an indemnity policy. It would usually be the seller who would be expected to pay for the indemnity policy so there seems little point in buying windows without a certificate and incurring future costs.

Not really - mother probably saved rather more than £45  in having the windows fitted - £45 being the cost of the policy when I sold the house without a FENSA cert

subjecttocontract

There needs to be a way of mitigating the problem of no certification. The cost of that mitigation is never guaranteed & it's important to point out that £45 now for an indemnity policy is likely to cost more in the future. 

Emily_Joy

akira181 said:

I'm looking at getting new windows put in as mine are very old. A lot of the local installers, most in fact, are not registered with FENSA, Certass, or any other type of certifying body. My question is how important are these pieces of paper? Surely it's just any warranty information that's important?

So how important is it to get a FENSA certificate?

I actually believe that it is the quality, not the warranty, which is important. I generally prefer things not to fail/not to develop faults, rather than being reassured that when the problem occurs, it will be fixed for free after I got through the waiting list (typical problem with Apple products in my area). From the prospective of the future buyer, I would have thought that if the lender and surveyor are happy, then I am also happy.