Window Replacement near you

Replacement windows are controlled building work, not a cosmetic upgrade. GOV.UK gives two routes to approval: a building control body, meaning your local authority's building control department or a private registered building control approver, or someone registered with a competent person scheme, in which case you do not need to get approval yourself. For windows the scheme list is published by GOV.UK and includes Fensa, CERTASS, Certsure, NAPIT, ASSURE and Blue Flame Certification for replacement windows, doors, roof windows or rooflights in existing dwellings.

The certificate is what you are left holding. FENSA describes it as a declaration by the installation company to the homeowner that the replaced windows and doors comply with Building Regulations, use energy efficient products and are registered with the local council, adding that it verifies the warranty is insured and is essential when selling the property.

Exemptions exist but are narrower than sales patter suggests. FENSA notes exemptions for cases such as listed buildings and conservation areas and says these should be discussed with your approved installer, because the exemption attaches to the property rather than to the product. A listed building needs listed building consent for any significant works, internal or external, and swapping original joinery for sealed units is exactly the kind of change that engages it.

A typical replacement runs: a survey and quotation at the property, a signed contract with a deposit, a technical survey that fixes the final sizes, manufacture, then fitting and handover. The order is the point of no return, because the units are cut to your openings. Ask for the specification in writing before that — frame material and colour, glazing make-up, opening lights and their direction, hardware, trickle vents, safety glazing locations, escape openings, and how the frames will be sealed and finished inside and out.

Where the contract is agreed at your home, it is an off-premises contract under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, defined as a contract concluded in the simultaneous physical presence of the trader and the consumer somewhere that is not the trader's business premises. Regulation 29 gives the consumer the right to cancel a distance or off-premises contract at any time in the cancellation period without giving any reason, and regulation 30 sets that normal cancellation period at 14 days.

Here is the catch. Regulation 28 limits where the right to cancel applies, and the exclusion at regulation 28(1)(b) covers the supply of goods that are made to the consumer's specifications or are clearly personalised — which is a fair description of windows cut to your openings. So do not assume a signed made-to-measure order can simply be cancelled within a fortnight. Ask for the cancellation terms in writing, ask when your right ends and what the deposit buys, and read them before signing rather than afterwards.

Most replacements are invisible to the planning system. The Planning Portal's position is that you do not usually need to apply for planning permission for the insertion of new windows and doors of a similar appearance to those used in the construction of the house. Keep the style, the material and the proportions and you are generally in permitted development territory.

Change the appearance, or change the address, and the picture changes. In a designated area such as a conservation area, national park or area of outstanding natural beauty there may be additional restrictions, and a council can make an Article 4 direction withdrawing permitted development rights, after which altering windows needs an application. National planning practice guidance is firm on listed buildings: any works to alter or extend a listed building in a way that affects its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest require listed building consent, and even minor works have the potential to cause substantial harm depending on their impact on the asset and its setting.

Scotland applies the same two-system logic with different names. Permission may be needed for a major change, a building in a conservation area may need conservation area consent and a listed building may need listed building consent, while smaller alterations can fall under permitted development. Confirm with the planning authority before you commit to a different frame colour on a street where everyone else has kept theirs.

Three documents deserve a home in your property file. The scheme certificate proves the work was notified and compliant. The installer's written guarantee covers the workmanship. The insurance-backed guarantee covers the second of those if the installer disappears: FENSA notes that installations completed after 2014 may have received an insurance backed guarantee policy, covering the installer's written guarantee in the event that they cease to trade.

If a previous owner left no certificate, deal with it before marketing the house rather than during a sale. GOV.UK's warning about unapproved work is that without approval you will not have the certificates of compliance you may need when you want to sell your home, and FENSA's position on an installation nobody certified is that you will need to pay for an inspection by building control. Either recover the certificate from the scheme if the job was registered, or ask a building control body what it requires to regularise it.

New windows also touch the energy documentation. You must have an EPC when selling a property, renting one out or building a new one, and you must order it for potential buyers and tenants before marketing. It rates a property from A, the best, to G, the worst, and is valid for 10 years, so a certificate produced before the windows were changed will not reflect the work you have just paid for.