What guarantees should I get, and is an insurance-backed guarantee worth anything?

The word guarantee is used for four different products with wildly different value, and they are rarely distinguished at the point of sale. The question to ask about any of them is simple and it is almost never asked: who pays if the business that issued this no longer exists?

Step by step

1. Identify what you have actually been given.A trader's own workmanship guarantee, a manufacturer's product warranty, a scheme or trade body guarantee, or an insurance-backed guarantee. They are different products with different backers.
2. Understand the trader's own guarantee.A promise by the business to put its own work right for a period. It is worth what the business is worth, and it is the one that most often fails, because businesses close and the guarantee closes with them.
3. Understand the manufacturer's warranty.Covers the product, not the installation, and is very often conditional on installation by an approved installer, registration within a period, and annual servicing. Most failed warranty claims fail on those conditions rather than on the fault.
4. Understand the insurance-backed guarantee.A separate insurance policy that sits behind the trader's guarantee and responds if the trader ceases to trade. It is common in roofing, damp proofing, glazing and insulation, and it is the only one designed for the failure mode that actually happens.
5. Check who the insurer is and read the policy.The insurer's name, the period, what is covered, and the excess. Then read the exclusions — lack of maintenance, consequential damage, pre-existing defects, and anything outside the original specification are the usual ones.
6. Check the conditions you have to meet.Registration within a period, annual servicing, keeping the certificate, and notifying defects within a time limit. A guarantee you have not registered is not a guarantee.
7. Ask when it starts and what triggers it.Some insurance-backed guarantees only respond once the trader has ceased trading, which means you deal with the trader first while they exist. Others respond alongside. Know which you have.
8. Store the paperwork where you will find it.With the certificates and the deeds. Guarantee claims are frequently lost simply because nobody can find the document eight years later, and the insurer will not take your word for it.
9. Remember the guarantee is not your only right.Your rights against the trader for work not done with reasonable care and skill exist independently of any guarantee, and are covered in the consumer rights guides. A guarantee adds to those rather than replacing them.

Tips

• A long guarantee from a very young business is a marketing document rather than a protection. The relevant question is how long the business is likely to outlast the guarantee.
• Where a guarantee is a selling point of the quote, ask to see the actual policy wording before you sign — not the brochure.
• Keep the guarantee with the maintenance records it depends on. Annual service records are what an insurer asks for when a boiler or a roof claim is made.

Common mistakes

• Relying on a twenty-year guarantee from a sole trader — The guarantee ends when the business does, and most domestic guarantee claims arise years later. Without insurance backing there is nothing behind the promise.
• Not registering a product warranty — Registration within a period after installation is a common condition, and missing it is the single commonest reason a warranty claim is declined.

Questions people ask