Marks inside sealed units

[DropDeadFred]

My house had triple glazed units installed throughout about 4 years ago, just before I bought it. One unit in the rear bedroom has a central pane and two side opening windows. The two side windows are fine but the central one has a lot of marks on the glass surface inside the panel. The marks are best described as being like very fine fibres and cover the entire panel making it look 'dirty'.

I have no condensation inside or out, and every other window in the house is fine.

Any ideas as to what may have caused this or how it can be resolved?

The windows were sold with a 10 year guarantee that I have a copy of. Do the installers normally honour the guarantee following change of ownership?

Cheers

 

[Richard C]

The windows were sold with a 10 year guarantee that I have a copy of. Do the installers normally honour the guarantee following change of ownership?

Yes they should & your mortgage company would almost certainly have insisted on seeing a warranty (or at least your solicitor) before advancing the money you borrowed; dig it out & go back to the supplier.

 

[DropDeadFred]

Cheers Richard. I have all the original paperwork and this was seen by the solicitors at the time of the purchase. I will call them in the morning and see what response I get!

 

[DropDeadFred]

Have rang the company this morning to be told I would need to pay a £250 transfer fee to swap the remaining 6 years of the warranty to my name! Is this normal or reasonable?

There is no reference to any transfer fees or issues on the term and conditions on the rear of the contract!

Do I just pay up or is this a visit back to the solicitor?

Thanks

 

[2scoops0406]

How much will a visit back to the solicitor cost?

 

[Richard C]

I don’t have any experience of transfer of warranty but I work extensively with contracts & if the T&C's small print doesn’t say anything about a transfer fee then I would be inclined to think they are trying it on. Even if a transfer fee is payable, you could buy a complete new glass unit for much less than £250 & I would argue that such a sum is unreasonable & constitutes an unfair contract condition. Many contracts still include unfair conditions in the small print & they are not legal but it’s often down to you to prove it & what constitutes unfair is subjective! In addition, your sol’s should have advised you if a transfer fee was payable so you could have insisted the sellers paid it before you completed.

 

[DropDeadFred]

Apparently, according to the local Trading Standards, since 1999 guarantees have had to be transferable. However, the company can make a charge for this transfer even if it isn't in the small print of the original contract!

Solicitors never picked this up during the original house purchase so how would you know?

Anyway, the cost of replacement for my failed unit would be £150. So I guess for the other £100, I get an additional 5years of guarantee should anything else fail.

Thanks for your replies