What can you do to get protected when buying a new conservatory?

So you have finally decided to invest your hard earned savings in your house by extending it with a new conservatory.

As one of the most popular ways to add space, as well as value, to your home, it’s not surprising that there is going to be a lot of competition in the conservatory price market.

Buying a new conservatory is going to require an investment of anything from £5,000 upwards – with some of the top end designs having a conservatory price of over £30,000. So getting the best protection for your money will certainly be the most prudent thing to do.

What do we mean by Guaranteed Conservatories?

If we look at this from 2 aspects, it’s simple:

1. The products – i.e. frames, windows, doors, roof, etc.
2. The installation company – quality of work, and trustworthiness of company.

Products

What we are looking at here, are warranties that cover the conservatory after it is installed.

Such as an overall 10-year guarantee on “parts & Labour” – typically related to the component parts. Separate warranty of up to 15-years for the sealed double glazed units (especially gas filled units). Another warranty on the locks – for example Yale locks themselves can come with a 10-year guarantee (https://www.yale.co.uk/en/yale/couk/support/10-year-security-guarantee/)

Installers

No matter how good the products are, if they are fitted badly, or the installer goes out of business, then you could stand to lose out – a lot.

The main protection afforded to buyers of conservatories is by working with an installer accredited by FENSA / CERTASS or DGCOS.

Let’s just look at DGCOS as a great example of how to protect yourself. The Double Glazing & Conservatory Ombudsman Scheme provide a list of benefits for conservatory buyers:

• All installers are put through an accreditation process and vetted yearly to make sure they abide by the DGCOS rules.
• Free deposit protection – if the installer goes bust you are covered for up to 25% of the contract value.
• Free Stage payment protection – once again, if the installer goes bust you are covered for up to 25% of the contract value.
• Free Insurance back guarantee (IBG) – this protects the workmanship warranty if the installer ceases to trade.
• Free dispute resolution services – sometimes things go wrong and the client / installer disagree about the solution. This service helps in situations like this.
• The Ombudsman – should the prior dispute resolution not conclude satisfactorily, then member clients get access to the Ombudsman to sort thing out once & for all.

FENSA & CERTASS both provide similar deposit protection and warranties covering the complete construction via accredited members.

In closing

Now, it’s possible that the above may not cover every conceivable situation, but in 99% of cases if you get all of the above, then you will be the proud owner of a properly guaranteed conservatory.

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