Q. I have recently purchased a house which has a 30 year guarantee for woodworm and damp treatment which was issued in 1994.  The contractor who issued the guarantee has subsequently been taken over by another company. The successor company say they will not honour the guarantee in the event of a claim (none has yet arisen) unless the survey report is also produced - and this is a condition in the guarantee.  There is no survey report and it would appear therefore that the guarantee is worthless. What options are available to me in these circumstances?

Submitted by: DT
 

A. It is a requirement of most guarantees that in the event of a claim situation arising it is necessary to produce the report to which the guarantee relates. If a guarantee is being dealt with by a third party due to the original contractor having ceased trading then even more documents are required but these would be itemised on the guarantee document.

A guarantee document basically means that work of some type has gone on somewhere in the property. It is the report that explains what work was undertaken, where in the property and any other conditions relevant to the contract that were/are applicable to the contract. Sadly many solicitors are fixated on the guarantee document only and do not bother to read its conditions to ensure that their client is in possession of all of the necessary documents in the event of a claim situation arising. Some have argued that this is negligence on the part of the solicitor and we are aware of one case where a solicitor agreed to meet the cost of further treatment because they did not obtain all of the necessary documents to enable their clients to make a claim on the guarantee.

To summarise therefore if you do not have the original report and other documents stipulated in the conditions of the guarantee then it is unlikely that you will be able to enforce the guarantee. In your case however if the company was taken over then it is likely that the completed works records still exist. Explain that there is nothing wrong and no need to claim but you just want to assemble all of the relevant paperwork - better still get your solicitor to do it!