What should I check before I sign for new windows or doors?

The checklist

• The installer is registered with a competent person scheme. FENSA is the best known; others exist. A registered installer certifies the work meets the Building Regulations and registers it for you. Find a FENSA approved installer (opens in a new tab).
• You have at least three written quotes for the same work, each with the products, the price, the start date and the guarantee written down.
• Windows and doors are tested to PAS 24, the UK security standard for windows and doorsets. Ask for it in writing.
• Door locks resist snapping: a TS007 3-star cylinder, or a Sold Secure SS312 Diamond one.
• If a product is sold as Secured by Design, the exact product is on Secured by Design (opens in a new tab)’s list, not just its logo on a brochure.
• You will get an insurance-backed guarantee. It keeps your guarantee good if the installer stops trading. Ask who the insurer is.
• The deposit is small, and you know whether it is protected.
• You pay at least part by credit card where you can, for the protection described below.
• You have read the cancellation terms before signing. Do not assume you have 14 days.
• After fitting, you have the paperwork: the FENSA certificate (or a building control certificate), the guarantee and the insurance-backed guarantee policy. Keep them for when you sell.

Security: what to ask for

PAS 24 is the UK standard for the security of windows and doorsets. A PAS 24 product has been attacked in a test lab — by hand, with tools and under load — and has to pass every test. Badly fitted, it can still be weak, so the installation matters as much as the product.

Most break-ins through a uPVC or composite door are through the lock cylinder. A cylinder rated TS007 3-star, or Sold Secure SS312 Diamond, has passed the lock-snapping tests; a 1-star cylinder on its own has not.

Secured by Design is a police initiative. It is not a legal requirement, and approval covers an exact tested product, so check the specific product rather than a logo.

The security rules in the Building Regulations (Approved Document Q) apply to new homes, not to replacement windows in an existing one. Nothing in the regulations makes your replacement windows PAS 24, so ask for it.

FENSA and the Building Regulations

Replacement windows and doors in England and Wales must meet the Building Regulations. Either the installer is registered with a competent person scheme such as FENSA and certifies the work, or the work is approved by your local council’s building control.

A FENSA certificate stays with the house. A buyer’s solicitor will usually ask for it when you sell, so keep it with the deeds. If you have lost it, FENSA can send a copy.

Repairs, such as replacing just the glass, are not covered by the scheme.

Request a copy of a FENSA certificate (opens in a new tab)

Insurance-backed guarantees

Since June 2014 every FENSA approved installer has had to give an insurance-backed guarantee on every job it registers with FENSA. Your guarantee comes from the installer; the insurance makes sure it is honoured if the installer stops trading.

You should receive the policy when the work is finished. If it does not arrive, check your paperwork first, then ask the installer and, for a FENSA installer, FENSA.

Your right to cancel

If you agree the work at home, on the phone or online, you normally have a 14-day cooling-off period for services. But Citizens Advice is clear that you do not automatically get one for something specially made, and it names made-to-measure windows. Some installers offer a cooling-off period anyway; if they do, get it in writing.

If you ask the installer to start within a cooling-off period and then cancel, you may have to pay for the work done so far. Once items are fitted and cannot be removed without damage, the installer may argue you can no longer cancel.

So read the cancellation terms before you sign, and do not sign on the day of a sales visit because of a discount that ends tonight.

Citizens Advice: cancelling building or decorating work (opens in a new tab)

Paying safely

Keep the deposit as small as you can, and pay the balance when the work is finished and you are happy with it.

If you pay any part of the price by credit card and the job costs between £100 and £30,000, the card provider is jointly responsible with the installer if something goes wrong (section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974). Debit cards do not give this protection.

Where this applies

This checklist is written for England and Wales. In Scotland and Northern Ireland the building rules for replacement windows are different, so ask your council. It is general guidance, not legal advice.

Planning estimate or quotation?

Every figure on this page is a planning estimate: what a job like this typically costs, for budgeting and for judging the quotes you get. It is not a quotation. A quotation comes from an installer after a survey, when the exact sizes, specification and condition of your house are known.

Facet Pro narrows the estimate to your own house from a photograph of the front — the windows it can see, the wall it can measure against your front door — and says which parts are measured and which are estimated for your house type. Your installer confirms the figure on survey.

How our estimates work →