Blown windows fitted by previous owner less that 1 year ago

sport190

Hi everyone,

I've had a read through the forums but haven't quite found the answer to my question.

We recently moved into our new house and have found 2 panes of the bifold doors at the rear of the house, and one in the door of a juliet balcony have blown. According to the Assure certificate we have they were fitted in May last year (2024).

We've contacted the installers who've just replied saying any certification is non-transferable. No surprise there. They haven't suggested a cost to transfer it like other companies appear to have done reading other threads. Given the age of the windows do we have any options? Could we see if the previous owner will contact them (we have their contact details and they've generally been very helpful). Alternatively are there any approaches we can take to push them to replace the windows given the age?

Thanks in advance.

powerful_Rogue

sport190 said:

Hi everyone,

I've had a read through the forums but haven't quite found the answer to my question.

We recently moved into our new house and have found 2 panes of the bifold doors at the rear of the house, and one in the door of a juliet balcony have blown. According to the Assure certificate we have they were fitted in May last year (2024).

We've contacted the installers who've just replied saying any certification is non-transferable. No surprise there. They haven't suggested a cost to transfer it like other companies appear to have done reading other threads. Given the age of the windows do we have any options? Could we see if the previous owner will contact them (we have their contact details and they've generally been very helpful). Alternatively are there any approaches we can take to push them to replace the windows given the age?

Thanks in advance.

No consumer rights as they will be with the previous owner.

As you've established, the warranty only applies to the purchaser. Companies don't have to make the warranty transferable, even for a cost.

You could see if the previous owners would get involved, however if it was me being asked, i'd politely decline.

user1977

It's a house-buying question rather than a consumer rights one - the time to check what warranties you were getting was during your conveyancer's due diligence.

Aylesbury_Duck

Your only route here is with the previous owners, but if I were them I wouldn't get involved.  Why would they want the hassle of a warranty claim for a house they sold in good faith?

Mr.Generous

The panes won't have been supported properly with packers, and even then that's really quick to fail. I guess its a large heavy piece of glass. A quick check reveals this among top answers as to why they fail ...

Issues with installation – if the double glazing installer did not correctly fit the window or apply the seal, then this can cause faults to quickly appear. In fact, if the installation was faulty, then signs of failing can appear in less than a year.

Every single time I've changed a misted sealed unit it's been down to bad fitting, namely lack of packers, wrong size packers, or packers snapped in half before use. If one side of the sealed unit is supported and the other pane not, then the glass slides down and breaks the seal. I wonder if when inspected you can prove it was down to poor fitting the company would offer something towards replacement?

powerful_Rogue

Mr.Generous said:

The panes won't have been supported properly with packers, and even then that's really quick to fail. I guess its a large heavy piece of glass. A quick check reveals this among top answers as to why they fail ...

Issues with installation – if the double glazing installer did not correctly fit the window or apply the seal, then this can cause faults to quickly appear. In fact, if the installation was faulty, then signs of failing can appear in less than a year.

Every single time I've changed a misted sealed unit it's been down to bad fitting, namely lack of packers, wrong size packers, or packers snapped in half before use. If one side of the sealed unit is supported and the other pane not, then the glass slides down and breaks the seal. I wonder if when inspected you can prove it was down to poor fitting the company would offer something towards replacement?

Guessing not as the OP was not their customer.

Alderbank

sport190 said:

We recently moved into our new house and have found 2 panes of the bifold doors at the rear of the house, and one in the door of a juliet balcony have blown.

Just to be clear, you are saying when you viewed the property prior to making an offer all the windows were OK but on moving day you discovered that these three panes were blown?