Building Work Guarantee Transferable?

eastlad

I moved into a house 18 months ago and it had a conservatory built a little over 3 years ago. The other day the handle on one of the doors snapped off. I tried to find the same handle online, but no luck. Most of the sites did say that handles
come with a 5 year warranty. I found some paperwork regarding the conservatory and got in touch with the company that built it. They are saying that the warranty/guarantee on the conservatory doesn’t transfer to the new owner. Is that correct?

GDB2222

It may be correct. A lot of guarantees are for the original owner only. You should have been given the guarantee when you bought the house, so I suggest you read it.

Changing the handle is not a big job. Do the original company have a spare handle they can sell you?

lincroft1710

It will entirely depend on the terms and conditions of the specific guarantee/warranty for the conservatory, there is no general default position. It may be simpler just to buy new matching handles

eastlad

I wasn’t given a guarantee, only found the invoice.

I understand I can buy the handle, but I think being quoted £80 for something I believe to be in warranty a little excessive.

propertyrental

It's only 'in warranty' if the terms of the warranty allow it to be transferred. And normally the transfer would happen at the time of purchase.

Unless you can find the warranty document, and quote to the company a clause saying it's transferrable, you'll have to let this one go.

born_again

Even if it was transferable. There is no guarantee that a broken handle would be covered,

GDB2222

eastlad said:

I wasn’t given a guarantee, only found the invoice.

I understand I can buy the handle, but I think being quoted £80 for something I believe to be in warranty a little excessive.

Does that include fixing it? You can probably fix it yourself in a few minutes. The cost of installing it is not the time it takes to do the job, but the travel time. £80 isn’t wildly excessive. 

dannim12345

As others have said there is no set ‘standard’. It would be down to each companies guarantee document, if you don’t have that document it will be hard to say what is or isn’t included or allowed (might be able to find a copy online, but it may have changed in 3 years). Handles could be treated as wear and tear and not covered at all or e.g after 1 year. 

lincroft1710

eastlad said:

I wasn’t given a guarantee, only found the invoice.

I understand I can buy the handle, but I think being quoted £80 for something I believe to be in warranty a little excessive.

Sorry, but it doesn't matter what you believe. You appear not have a copy of the guarantee/warranty and thus you have no confirmation that the G/W is transferable and that the handles would be covered.

doodling

Hi,

The only entity that can claim under the warranty (or transfer it to a new entity if that is permitted) is whoever contracted with the people who built the conservatory (i.e. the previous owner).

If the warranty hasn't been transferred to you then you have no standing to obtain any benefit under the warranty, or under the law in general come to that (other than some narrow rights with respect to death or injury which don't appear to apply here).

GDB2222

doodling said:

Hi,

The only entity that can claim under the warranty (or transfer it to a new entity if that is permitted) is whoever contracted with the people who built the conservatory (i.e. the previous owner).

If the warranty hasn't been transferred to you then you have no standing to obtain any benefit under the warranty, or under the law in general come to that (other than some narrow rights with respect to death or injury which don't appear to apply here).

If you think about a car warranty, that's usually transferable. It stays with the car, despite changes of ownership, and there's no need to do anything to transfer it.  The car warranty may be written down, but the piece of paper is of no importance. 

The OP's conservatory warranty might be similar, but the manufacturers are denying that it is.