Selling house - no FENSA certificate for windows

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I'm selling house and solicitors just asked for FENSA certificate for double glazing I had installed in 2006. I was never given one! Has anyone come across this? Any way around it?

Yes, we had this. I contacted the company who had supplied me with the windows and they looked up our address on their system and provided a FENSA certificate.

Yes, exactly as *snowgirl1" said!

If you don’t have a fensa certificate you can talk to buildings regs at the council see if they can help . Fensa is not a requirement if you have buildings regs sign off instead...it’s a way for companies to self certify that they have followed buildings regs.

Alternatively if you still can’t you should be able to get an indemnity insurance in case the council say they are not buildings reg compliant...

Yep. We went through building regs. It cost £112.52 or something equally daft to have done and took less than 5 minutes to confirm that our key windows were compliant.

Don't contact the council over windows. If you can't find a Fensa or Certass certificate online, just tell your solicitor there isn't one and they'll propose an indemnity policy. It isn't a big deal, but contacting the council means you can't get an indemnity and need to wait for them to sign off on the windows, etc before the sale can proceed.

Thanks all. Seems indemnity policy is the way to go. The firm closed down so getting certificate sent not an option.

Look on fensas website, you can get copies

We just got an indemnity policy for the same thing. It cost £12

Don’t contact the council!!

If you do and they have no record you can’t take out an indemnity policy (which will only be cheap)

Yes go to the FENSA website and put in your postcode and all of the certs ever issued against your address are on there, then you can order a copy. As long as your installers were FENSA registered at the time.

If not - indemnity policy.

£20 on fensa website, really quick and easy, arrived in a few days

Echo others, don't contact the council otherwise you will not be able to get an indemnity policy.

Search on the FENSA website and if nothing there tell your solicitor.

Does this apply if you bought a new house, I don't remember seeing any kind of FENSA certificate and am now thinking this could be a problem when I want to move.

This is a real cautionary thread for relying on internet advice, thank goodness more knowledgable posters have told you not to follow the suggestion to contact the council. I'm going to check my post code now.

I spent an age looking for a FENSA agreement the other week (we are selling too).

Turns out the company we used weren't FENSA accredited but was covered by the Competent Person Scheme via Assure and we got a "dgcos" certificate instead.

There are other schemes that are the same as FENSA but less well known - are you absolutely sure you don't have something with another name? www.competentperson.co.uk/existing-competent-person-schemes.aspx

Lots of councils have building control records online so you can check there Patti. That's not the same as ringing them up and speaking to someone.

Thanks all. I never got one at the time so it's not a replacement I need. I was only in my early 20's and didn't have a clue!

How does one go about taking out an indemnity policy?!

The glazier could still have registered the installation.
You just put your postcode in, it's very simple

The solicitor will sort out an indemnity policy for you - that's what we had to do when we sold our last house.

My brother fitted the windows and doors, the whole FENSA thing is so unreasonable because there's no law or legislation that says joiners/window fitters need to be FENSA certified in the first place.

Omg swimmer thanks so much. I checked the fensa website on the off chance and my house was listed. I have ordered a replacement which has made me unreasonably happy! I wonder why I never got one at the time. Many thanks for all the advice

I fitted mine with a little help from a handy man.
My windows came from eBay