Q. I have a property with possible rising damp. I have owned the property for approx 1.5yr. It has had a damp course treatment and I have the guarantee certificate, the work was carried out on the 23/7/1976. I am trying to find a phone number for the company but I checked on Companies’ House and the company looks to have been dissolved. How do I go about claiming on the guarantee?

Submitted by: Anon
 

A. You state that the work was carried out in 1976 when it was very common for 20 year guarantees to be issued. If this is the case then obviously your guarantee would have expired but we assume that you must have a 30 year guarantee otherwise you would not have submitted your question.

Companies House only has records of limited companies thus an individual or partnership would not be recorded there. If the work was undertaken by a limited company and it has been dissolved then there is no way of claiming on your guarantee.

If however an individual or partnership undertook the work then technically you are able to pursue that person or persons irrespective of their current circumstances. We are aware of a case where an individual who issued long term guarantees, subsequently died and the only way his widow could have probate entered on his estate was to take out an insurance because of the potential guarantee liabilities which amount to claims on his estate! To be able to do any of this however you would first of all have to find the people concerned.

Unless you are in possession of a third party document that provided additional guarantee protection in the event of the original contractor ceasing to trade then it would seem likely that you are not in a position to make a claim against anyone. If you could let us know the name and location of the company in question we might have some information about them.