A homeowner chooses between two roofers. One offers a ten year guarantee and one offers twenty five.
The twenty five year firm has been trading for three years, has no insurance backing and the guarantee covers materials only. The ten year firm has been trading for twenty two years and its guarantee is insurance backed and covers workmanship.
The shorter guarantee is worth considerably more. Nothing on either quotation allowed her to see that, and the longer number is what most people choose.
1. Ask whether it covers materials or workmanship
The most important distinction. A manufacturer's guarantee covers a product failing and does nothing about an installation done badly, which is the far more common problem.
2. Ask who actually honours it
The contractor, the manufacturer or an insurer. This determines whether the guarantee survives the contractor ceasing to trade, which is the whole question with a long one.
3. Ask whether it is insurance backed
And by whom, with the policy document. This is what makes a twenty year guarantee from a small firm meaningful rather than aspirational.
4. Ask what is excluded
Storm damage, movement, wear, pre existing conditions and anything adjacent to the work. The exclusions are where a guarantee is actually defined.
5. Ask what invalidates it
Work by anybody else, lack of maintenance, walking on the roof or alterations. These are reasonable and homeowners should know them before somebody else touches the roof.
6. Ask whether labour and access are included
A material replaced free, with the homeowner paying for scaffolding and labour, is a considerably weaker guarantee than it sounds.
7. Ask whether it is transferable
To a new owner, and on what terms. This affects the value of the property and it is worth knowing at the point of sale.
8. Ask for it in writing before work starts
Not afterwards. A guarantee described verbally and issued later, if at all, is the commonest version of this problem.
9. Check the registration or accreditation position
Some guarantees depend on a contractor being registered with a scheme, and the registration should be verified rather than taken on trust.
10. Check how long the firm has actually traded
Against the length of the guarantee offered. A guarantee longer than the firm's history is an expression of confidence rather than a commitment.
11. Ask what the process is for a claim
Who to contact, what evidence is needed and what the timescale is. A guarantee with no stated process is a promise rather than a mechanism.
12. Keep the insurance work position separate
Guarantees on insurance funded work can differ, which is the ground in insurance work and what roofers should explain.
13. Recognise that this is really a trust question
Homeowners ask about guarantees because they cannot assess the work, which is the ground in guarantee and trust questions before anyone climbs up.
14. Publish the honest answers before anybody asks
An assistant that explains what the guarantee covers, who honours it, whether it is insurance backed and what invalidates it wins against a firm offering a longer number with nothing behind it. The same builder side questions appear in insurance guarantees and trust questions for builders, handled with the care in how to handle sensitive questions in your chatbot. See features, start at try, and the sector view sits under roofing.