I need to gen up on guarantees & we were having a good debate early today on twitter. There certainly seems to be a lot of mis-information & ignorance about it. As a landscape business we offer a 1 year guarantee generally on all our work. This can be increased in times when for instance we are competing against someone offering lets say a 5 or 10 yr warranty. This post is not about how we do our work & to what standard. This purely about what written guarantee you offer. There are occassions when we have gone back way after warranty has expired & done some minor remedials like blown pointing etc. This is at my discretion having wayed up if the customer has not abused the work, eg pressure washed it every week as their dogs use it as a toilet.
By English ( I say English as I am not sure if Scotland won't have a different law) law, I understand that all companies must offer the minimum guarantee for the service they provide, which I believe is one year. If this guarantee is not put in writing, should issues arise with the work, the customer is within their right to hold the company to the maximum guarantee, which in law is a life-time /25yrs. So by not putting a written guarantee in place, the default setting is then 25 years.
I remember reading in the trade press years ago of a builder successfully sued years ( something like 15 years after he had retired) by a customer whos house had suffered subsidence. He had not put in a written guarantee & therefore when it went to court the judge decided he could be sued as it was still (just I think) within the 25 yr lifetime maximum. Harsh, but true. So if you dont wont to be hauled into court after retirement because a deck has collapsed 20 years after you installed it, make sure you put the warranty in writing.
Of course if I am out of date I await to be informed & all comments will be greatly appreciated.
Duncan Ross @ www.gardendesignco.com
Views: 7172
Replies
Years ago when fencing was my main business, I used to give a lifetime guarantee as long as I was called back every year to treat it. 2 years on materials and labour if not.
These links may help (via Trading Standard's BWC scheme):
http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/consumer_e/consumer_common_pr...
http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/consumer_e/consumer_builders_...
http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/consumer_e/consumer_taking_ac...
Brian
You may remember this post of mine as you replies first!
http://www.landscapejuicenetwork.com/forum/topics/fencing-guarantee...
I basically (reasonably politely) to him to sod off and havent heard from him since, I usually guarantee for a year but this one was 14 months i believe
Brian www.mibservices.co.uk said:
Graham Griffiths said:
Is OP correct about guarantee? Unless insurance backed any guarantee you give is just words...."all work guaranteed" on side of your van means nothing. If you spend a month on a project which client thinks needs redoing from scratch, I suspect most of us would have to argue the toss and quite possibly have to resort to a legal solution. I couldn't afford to find another month plus materials for nothing.
This is what it says on CAB website:
"Quality of building work
Under the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982, your builder should use reasonable care and skill when working, take a reasonable time to do the work and charge a reasonable price.
Materials should also be provided to a certain standard. They should match what the builder has described to you. For example, tiles should be the same colour as you have agreed. Materials should also be, of a satisfactory quality and be fit for purpose. So for example, the builder can’t supply bricks meant for use inside the house for the outside, if they won’t stand up to the weather.
The standard of work and your rights will both depend on the law, plus anything that is written into your contract.
When things go wrong
Sometimes things go wrong during building or repair work. Work may take longer to finish than first suggested, traders will start later than they agreed, or leave your job half way through to finish another job.
You may end up with poor quality work or damaged property or goods, particularly if you have a rogue trader working for you. You may also be asked to pay more than you thought.
One way to avoid problems with building work is to take out a guarantee to guard against bad work, particularly for larger jobs."
It doesn't say anything about how long you should stand over your work.
fair point!
Morning Duncan
Guarantees are most certainly complex and a lot of dotting the i's and crossing the t's - Please see attached link for Jacksons products and Guarantees - Hope this helps ;-)
http://www.jacksons-fencing.co.uk/Guarantees.aspx
Regards
Marcia
Anyone up for clarifying this aspect further ?
My current understanding is the 6 years relates to 'liability' or ability for a client to claim and is primarily found in B2B contracts (ie Contractor to Subcontractor etc) as part of the the Limitation Act.
It is not the same as a contractor having to legally offer a guarantee that lasts that long.
There is also a 3 year clause' in this legislation for subsequent identified damage as mentioned above.
I also currently believe that for B2C contracts, the Sale of Goods/Services Act covers the end consumer and takes precedent (?) which further confuses the issue due 'phrases' such as 'fit for purpose' hence very subjective ?
When it comes to landscape construction, it seems to get further complicated due to the involvement of the SGD and the 'Heather's' changes. It seems this involvement makes a already complex situation worse - or is that just me ? There are some very expensive courses run by these various organisations trying to 'train' people on this so they can implement/use these JCLI contracts.
Love to hear from Designers (whether SGD or not) to what is used in their work, either in this thread or here :
http://www.landscapejuicenetwork.com/forum/topics/jcli-landscape-co...
I'm going back a bit to my Contracts training years ago here :-(
Not sure it clarifies the situation, but may clarify the question;I can think of 4 separate headings which we are considering:
1. Guarantee offered. Which is just words in my opinion, unless (properly) insured*.
2. Guarantee required. Client requires you stand over your work as part of contract, whether explicit or implicit.
3. Legal Liability for quality of work. eg this paving is loose after a ? period
4. Legal liability for nature of work, eg this poplar you planted beside my front door has damaged foundation of my house.
May well be others, but I think it is really 3 and 4 to which we should know the position.
Not sure whether work is B2B or B2C would make any difference in legal terms.
*Anybody ever claimed successfully for damp following 25 year guaranteed treatment?