Continuing the coverage around the serious issue surrounding low sight line IGUs, Saveheat’s Colin Torley has written to DGB to provide further information and opinion on the ongoing situation:
I make no apology for sending further correspondence highlighting the issue of companies using low sightline double glazed units. (Heritage Glass)
The issue of the law being broken by some unit manufacturers in our midst is certainly an emotive subject this weather. Some unscrupulous companies have been making fortunes at the expense of consumers whilst bona fide companies have lost out on orders by staying within the law.
The following Q & A from Westminster clarifies the situation:
“Question:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department takes to ensure that the sale and installation of narrow-cavity, low-sightline glass-sealed units into heritage windows is compliant with the Construction Products Regulations 2013. (8493)
Tabled on: 05 September 2017
Answer:
Alok Sharma:
These units are covered by a harmonized European product standard (EN 1279-5) and so the Construction Products Regulation (EU 305/2011) applies to their manufacture, import and distribution. This regulation sets requirements for placing construction products onto the market, not their installation.
Monitoring compliance and enforcement duties fall to trading standards bodies in England, Scotland and Wales and District Councils in Northern Ireland.
The answer was submitted on 13 Sep 2017 at 17:57.” Pretty clear isn’t it?
A breach of the Construction Product Regulations can result in a 3 month custodial sentence and / or a fine not exceeding level 5 on the Criminal Justice Act scale. For the avoidance of doubt, placing the product onto the market without the correct test evidence and corresponding system description is an offence. The unit manufacturers that are breaking the law are also passing off test reports for standard sightline units which is tantamount to fraud. We read in the trade press on 3 October that 3 company directors from Cheshire and Liverpool were recently handed 2 year suspended prison sentences, community service and hefty fines for similar offences.
We have written to Government asking for details of who we contact to report the failure of Trading Standards to enforce the Construction Products Regulations. We have advised that all they need to do is Google “low sight line double glazing” where they will find a list of companies who are openly placing non-compliant products on the market by offering them for sale. Some are even showing cross sectional drawings of IGUs with sightlines of 5mm. Surely all that Trading Standards Officers have to do is go round and charge them. How much more simpler can this be?
In the same vein as the banks are now having to pay back money they took unfairly from Consumers through PPI, the firms fitting them should be held accountable for replacing these defective windows containing non-compliant units in consumers’ properties.
The number of public servants complicit in this situation is also alarming. Our company has spent the last 3 years holding meetings with officers at Historic Environment Scotland and several Scottish Councils over why they continue to issue guidance and specifications that can only be satisfied by breaching the Construction Product Regulations. The matter has also been reported to Trading Standards. Despite all this, nothing has been done and the problem has escalated. We have now demanded a public enquiry into the matter.
We see non-compliant cladding panels being removed everywhere, it’s about time we see the non-compliant glazing panels start to be removed too.
It’s time for our Industry and Trading Standards to stand up and do something about it, we certainly are but we need more support. We would encourage all companies who also have this problem to take it up with their local trading standards and keep the pressure on.
Colin Torley
Sales and Operations Director
Saveheat Group
To get weekly updates from DGB sent to your inbox, enter your email address in the space below to subscribe:
Same old problem – the damage is already done in terms of true conservation when the issues arise, and then our disgraceful UK limited liability company law lets the cheats away with impunity to continue. It’ll not change in any way. Trade press should hunt out the real victims .i.e. the homeowners with very expensive failed products and give them a say. The way to shake this up a bit would be to have some architects, LBC planners and particularly conservation officers publicly held to account or even better in the claims court dock, and then publicise it all over.… Read more »
I have for many years (since 2006) complained to Trading Standards, EN1279 Auditors Trade Bodies etc. We have paid may £1000s over the years to be as compliant as possible with companies around us not testing for EN1279. The general reply is Trading Standards do not have the budget to police !
CE regulations are being broken not just on EN1279 heritage units but the wider industry.
Not that we need another badge / body but the industry does not have a register regulator.
I am awaiting further information to post a more detailed review / reply.