Rubbish Window Cills

Kat13

New Member
Feb 15, 2017
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Hi - we have recently moved into a new build (3 years old but been empty.) We have warranties on the wooden double glazing (to include paint finish.) The windows are OK but the cills are AWFUL. They have used laminated /engineered wood for the cills which is all lumpy, god knows how these were painted but they look dreadful and some are already starting to split. The paint finish has a 10 year warranty and clearly neither the cills or the paint finish are fit for purpose or of a satisfactory quality. I know under the Sale of Goods Act (Consumer Protection) the supplier has a duty to repair of replace. The supplier is offering to paint over the splits (where the wood laminates are pulling apart) but this is clearly not going to address the fundamental problem which is that the cills are clearly not of a satisfactory quality /fit for purpose if they are already splitting. The whole point of the 10 year warranty on the paint finish is that "you don't need to do anything but keep them clean."
The guy the company sent out to paint over the splits said that they have had to try screwing these cills (at other properties) to try to hold the wood together but that doesn't work either. So what is the company under an obligation to do under the Sales of Goods Act/ Consumer Protection? We think the windows will have to be replaced (company no longer uses laminate cills) as everything else will only be trying to limit THEIR liability until the 10 years is up. These windows are clearly showing signs of never having been fit for purpose or of a satisfactory quality. Thanks for any advice :O)
 

Edward Jones

New Member
Aug 5, 2016
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Re: Jonathan P Walker Cowboy Builder

Jonathan P Walker COWBOY BUILDER

This person is the worst, he traded as REEF Homes and built unsafe houses, the last one took 140,000 to put right, this is borne out by the litigation, the out of court settlement and the planning officer of Beverley in East Yorkshire.
He has since changed his name to WOODHOUSE (Lund) Ltd and building the same unsafe properties as he did before. He will be caught again but he just changes his company and moves on. He has connections in the Council as he was a council Leader and his family take turns to hold that position (his uncle is now in that position) his family are the biggest landowners and his wife has the Nursery also in the village, also the Beverley council keep giving him planning permission, so something is wrong there as well.
Please can you help as someone will get hurt of even killed if he is not stopped, I have tried but the village council under the family control override it.
 

Edward Jones

New Member
Aug 5, 2016
65
0
0
Jonathan P Walker COWBOY BUILDER

This person is the worst, he traded as REEF Homes and built unsafe houses, the last one took 140,000 to put right, this is borne out by the litigation, the out of court settlement and the planning officer of Beverley in East Yorkshire.
He has since changed his name to WOODHOUSE (Lund) Ltd and building the same unsafe properties as he did before. He will be caught again but he just changes his company and moves on. He has connections in the Council as he was a council Leader and his family take turns to hold that position (his uncle is now in that position) his family are the biggest landowners and his wife has the Nursery also in the village, also the Beverley council keep giving him planning permission, so something is wrong there as well.
Please can you help as someone will get hurt of even killed if he is not stopped, I have tried but the village council under the family control override it.
 

Kat13

New Member
Feb 15, 2017
2
0
0
Hi I am bumping my original thread as this is still ongoing! We paid for a Survey report on the sills in the end (we were fed up of arguing with the company.) The Survey confirmed that the sills were not fit for purpose/satisfactory quality. The surveyor suggested (whilst considering proportionality) that if it was possible the company should replace the sills if this could be done without diminishing the 40 year warranty on the frames. The company raised its own report trying to push the blame on lack of maintenance (over the three years the property stood empty) and damage during the building!! The splits however are clearly down to the laminate board unlaminating. If laminate board unlaminates from new due to nobody wiping the sills down for 3 years then surely ANYONE would Q the quality of the sills in the first place would they not?

We asked the Wood Window Alliance (WWA) and British Wood Foundation (BWF) to intervene on our behalf. The WWA left it to the BWF who sent us a form saying that they offered a reconciliation service for complaints about members. That was in July !!! We sent in the form/correspondence/photos but never got a reply!!

My Q is can I take this firm to the Small Claims Court ? And is it worth ADR first (if they would agree)? Online it says that I would have to get the windows replaced and then take the company to court but that's a lot of money to fork out without knowing if I will win in court isn't it? If these windows were fit for purpose /satisfactory quality it would be easy to repair and paint and I would feel confident that they would last 40 years, but you can't repair unlaminating sills, they will contd to split. The WWA say that ALL their windows meet their standards to include:

*60 year minimum estimated service life (Imperial College London)
*Repairable (for an even longer life)
* Comprehensive warranties on service life, finished, glass and hardware

I would imagine that any court would agree that sills splitting after 3 years (regardless of maintenance) were never fit for purpose/satisfactory quality etc etc.. So how do I go about this? Can I take the company to court to claim for new windows without having paid for new windows ? Obviously the repair being offered (fill and paint over the splits) is NOT going to address the FACT that the sills are splitting after 3 years is it?

Actually thinking about this I suppose the 'contract' is with the builder rather than ourselves?
So do we have any means to take them to court ?
Is there any come back on the builder?