Definitions and the law
In many respects this article should have been written by a lawyer rather than a surveyor as the tendency to drift towards legal-ease and get buried under the small print is all too easy. However, this article isn’t so much a legal appraisal of consumer law but instead a set of practical observations about individual key-building element product warranties and what to look out for.
First, the key definitions; there’s a lot of information on the internet about the subtle differences between a guarantee and a warranty with two of our featured product manufacturers choosing to offer guarantees and the others electing for warranties. Only their legal advisers will understand the nuances of why they chose that terminology and, reading them through, they all promise to replace the products in the event of failure but, crucially, with conditions. And it’s those conditions that we, as consumers, really need to understand. One useful website summarised a guarantee as more likely to come from a specific manufacturer, whereas a warranty might be offered, sometimes for an extra charge by a (re)seller of a product to gain a market edge over their competition or just, more cynically, to drive more revenue!
As far as the legislation is concerned, the two key statutes are The Sale of Goods Act 1979 (SOGA) and the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (CRA). Manufacturers, and sellers of goods, on a B-to-C basis (business to consumer) must ensure that their products do what they say they are going to and are therefore of merchantable quality. SOGA was very specific about fitness for purpose and implied terms about quality but CRA has replaced SOGA for B-to-C transactions, changed the old merchantable description for a more modern ‘satisfactory quality’ and generally strengthened the supplier obligations further. Where goods have been installed incorrectly and/or are just defective, consumers have the right to the five R’s; the right to Reject, the right to Repair or Replace, the right to a price Reduction and finally the right to reject with a Refund.
My understanding is that supplier trading conditions cannot, and should not, affect your statutory rights and that compliance with CRA and SOGA, where it is still relevant, applies to typical building products and services that a self-builder might purchase as part of their new build, renovation or extension. However, there is a very significant limitation to do with product guarantees/warranties and that concerns developer built housing, and therefore possibly custom build units. Newly completed houses are specifically excluded from SOGA (and CRA) as they are property transactions where the house has now become part of the land. In these instances, implied terms and on-going product liabilities are null and void and instead ‘Caveat Emptor’ prevails, otherwise known as ‘buyer beware’ where the purchaser is required to carry out their own due diligence to confirm the house suits their expectations; of course, this is seen within the context of a building control completion certificate and a structural warranty but, both have severe limitations as discussed in previous articles. However, looking at matters from a self-builder’s perspective, some typical product examples have been examined in a bit more detail below to help illustrate some of the variables in use. But one generic matter that applies to the all warranties, is the security of the manufacturer and the likelihood that they might survive the proposed warranty period; i.e. an insurance backed fully transferable product warranty is a much more powerful proposition!
Bricks and roofing tiles
A leading manufacture of clay roofing tiles has a limited lifetime, fully transferrable non-prorated warranty which means that, in the event of a successful claim, all replacement costs would be covered with no contribution necessary from you; but their specific exclusions include physical roof traffic, general weathering, extremes of weather, freeze-thaw impacts etc., all of which could be considered reasonable but, less reasonably, these exclusions also include tile cracking, chipping or colour fade. Furthermore, this manufacturer disclaims all implied and statutory warranties as described above! It’s difficult to think of a scenario, therefore, that would be covered and renders the warranty of little value.
One of the slate (tile) importers has an impressive guarantee on one of their brands of natural slate for between 50 and 100 years, also offered on a non-prorated basis. However, the roof covering, once installed, has to be inspected by one of their technical staff and the warranty signed to say that the installation is in exact accordance with their installation instructions for the warranty to be effective. Many roofing contractors have their own techniques and I can think of one contract where the principal contractor was not able to secure a guarantee for his client because his sub-contractor had not installed the slate covering based on the manufacturers strict requirements. If you are using imported slate, therefore, and want a guarantee then you must ensure your appointed sub-contractor knows the importance of using the manufacturers details in your appointment instructions.
Bricks come in a range of quality standards and some best quality clay stock bricks, with an F2 severe exposure rating and an S2 low active salt rating, might provide a 60-year guarantee in buildings and 20 years in boundary walls. However, this is on the strict basis of compliance with guidance in BS EN 1996 & PD 6697 as well as their own recommendations which include careful handling, protecting on site from wetting and inclement weather, blending, fully filled bed and perp joints etc. Once again, poor workmanship on site will revoke your guarantee.
External doors and windows
I have had at least one bad experience on a large renovation which included over 50 new wooden windows and external doors. After assessing the market for a competent and competitively priced product, the successful manufacture offered a 12-month standard product warranty if we installed the windows ourselves but a full 10-year warranty if they delivered and installed them with their trained fitters. We accepted their quote in order to secure the longer warranty but their team were utterly hopeless and, almost irrevocably, spoiled the product.
Different warranty conditions appear from other high quality manufacturers with one well know company kindly supplying their warranty details for scrutiny. Firstly, there are very clear instructions for how powder coated aluminium surfaces and glass sections should be cleaned and different maintenance treatments for painted wooden surfaces all on a regular basis. The definition of regular is not clear but its implication is monthly and perhaps more in exposed locations and certainly coastal sites. But the suggested life of the products, if properly maintained, is impressive in terms of 25 to 40-year range projections before replacement might be considered appropriate, and with wooden surface redecoration after 15 years. The warranty period for component repair or replacement (in part or whole) is five years for doors and over 10-years for windows. However, no installation cover is included and/or consequential costs of disruption which could be quite expensive when replacing an external door or window. These exclusions do not tend to follow the spirit of CRA and their limitation may not be fair.
Fenestration generally, is considered as one of the consumable products in a house as by definition they weather faster than other external materials. Understanding the very specific limitations of your warranty is a really important purchase decision when selecting your manufacturer and, possibly, a negotiable matter.
Flat roofs & Engineered wooden flooring
Specialist products like a single ply membrane flat roof covering are always best installed by the manufacturer’s trained operatives. This way you can obtain a guarantee for up to a 20-years but with an obligation to have interim inspections made every five years with any ‘chargeable’ maintenance undertaken if found necessary. Quite reasonably, some limitations will be placed on foot traffic and also the installation of services like solar panels may revoke the cover.
Internally engineered wooden flooring from one manufacturer provides guarantee options of between 15-30 years depending on which thicknesses you buy and what factory protections have been applied. In all cases moisture is a key factor with a requirement to ensure a relative humidity range of between 30 and 60% and surface temperature below 27°C. These are important restrictions, and understandable too, as wood will react to both temperature and moisture levels. One self builder built a full basement, chose not to use or heat it and consequently suffered from a wrinkly wooden floor at ground floor level; this was entirely due to a lack of perimeter expansion, an inadequate VCL and too much moisture from the basement given its lack of heat which ultimately destroyed the floor and revoked his guarantee.
Top tips from a practical not legal perspective
- Ensure you always follow all installation instructions so as not to invalidate your guarantee
- Use appropriate installers with complex products that require skilled techniques
- Understand the limitations of the product guarantee at the time of purchase and maybe consider another supplier if their aftercare service and guarantee wording is more appealing
- If the wording is unclear, ask the supplier to offer scenario’s where the guarantee might apply
- Suppliers re-selling a manufacturer’s product should not hide behind the manufacturer guarantee and, if your contract is with the supplier, you should be able to deal with them for guarantee purposes
- Ensure your statutory rights (under CRA in particular) have not been removed
- If you are buying a custom built house, ensure that product warranties can all be assigned or transferred to you
- Negotiate insurance backed warranties wherever or whenever you can
- Take time to read the small print
Written and published in May 2017
