The damp proofing and timber preservation industry has in many respects been at the forefront of consumer protection and is among the first specialists within the construction industry to introduce long term guarantees protected by insurance.
The (GPI) Guarantee Protection Insurance Ltd is now the foremost provider of specialist insurance in the UK, backing tens of thousands of company guarantees across the construction industry each year.
You the consumers want to employ tradespeople that are trustworthy, professional, reliable, courteous and competitive.
Therefore employing a trustworthy company that has the ability to do good work and back it with UK based insurance, gives a great deal of comfort also with the knowledge that the company being employed will undertake work professionally and is likely to be around in the unlikely event that problems persist. The length of the company’s guarantee should not be the trigger to instructing a contractor in itself.
Would you trust a firm offering 60 year guarantees?
From a technical perspective we know that if a damp control, timber preservation or structural waterproofing job is undertaken poorly, defects will become apparent quickly – usually within two or three years. Guarantee claims that come in after ten years are often not caused by problems with the original job but are the result of another defect.
The question remains, does the length of the guarantee actually matter if you are confident that the survey was accurate, the work undertaken excellent and the firm is more likely to be around if the you need them in the future? We believe it does but we also believe that the term of the guarantee must be reasonable and something that is insurable and can be relied upon.
The PCA would like to think that consumers regard any guarantee issued by this company or other members as utterly trustworthy.
Often we hear the words “not worth the paper it’s written on” as we explain to a consumer with a thirty year company guarantee, that the owner of a firm retired ten year ago and the firm no longer exists.
We steadfastly believe that Property Care Association members providing ten year guarantees that can be backed by solid UK based FCA regulated insurance, provides reliance, stability and the best long term protection to consumers.