Before you spend your own money removing cavity wall insulation, find out whether somebody else should be paying. Most cavity wall insulation installed under energy-company and grant schemes by registered installers came with a 25-year guarantee from the Cavity Insulation Guarantee Agency, known as CIGA.
If a lender or surveyor has flagged a filled cavity and a mortgage, remortgage or sale is stuck, removing the failed insulation may help, and the completion certificate is what you show the lender.
What CIGA is
CIGA describes itself as providing independent 25-year guarantees for cavity wall insulation fitted by registered installers in the UK and Channel Islands. It is not an installer and not a government body; it is the organisation that administers the guarantee.
What the guarantee covers
In CIGA’s own words, the guarantee covers defects in materials or workmanship, and any concerns will be investigated and defects rectified free of charge. The points that matter most to a homeowner:
- A claim must be notified to CIGA within 25 years of the installation date.
- The guarantee stays valid for subsequent owners or occupiers, so it passes with the house when it is sold.
- The maximum value of rectification work is stated as £20,000 at the time of writing.
- The guarantee is not valid if the insulation has been altered or disturbed. That is the important one: if you have the insulation extracted before CIGA has inspected, you may lose the guarantee. Claim first.
- Your statutory rights are not affected.
How to make a claim
CIGA sets out the process on its website, and the steps are these.
- Find the paperwork. The guarantee certificate names the installer and carries the guarantee number. If you cannot find it, CIGA says a homeowner needs only the property address and postcode to ask whether a guarantee exists, by email to CIGA’s guarantees address.
- Report the problem to the installer first. CIGA’s terms require problems to be reported to the installer as soon as practicable. CIGA’s guidance says the installer must contact you within 24 hours of the quote to investigate.
- Go to CIGA if the installer does not resolve it. CIGA must be informed if the matter is not resolved satisfactorily within two months. If the installer has ceased trading, contact CIGA directly; CIGA then handles the claim itself.
- Inspection. CIGA arranges an inspection. Its published service times are two working days to acknowledge, five to arrange the inspection, and 27 working days for the inspection report; simple cases are targeted for completion in 50 working days and complex ones in 90.
- Remedy. If CIGA finds a defect in the insulation or the way it was installed, the remedial work is carried out free of charge under the guarantee. If the claim is disputed, CIGA’s process allows referral to independent arbitration.
Two cautions from CIGA’s own terms. Do not delay: CIGA states that where it can evidence a homeowner was aware of a problem and it was prevented from investigating, a claim may be rejected on the basis that the problem was allowed to worsen.
Where our survey fits
An independent survey with borescope stills and moisture readings is useful evidence when you report a problem, and it tells you whether the insulation is in fact the cause before you start a process that takes months. Our quote is written with that in mind.
If there is no guarantee
Some installations were never registered, some guarantees have expired, and some installers were never members of any scheme. Then the choices are a claim against the installer, if it still exists, which is a matter for a solicitor and where a quote is again the starting point; or paying for extraction yourself.
If you are not sure whether your house is covered, we will help you read the paperwork at the survey. Book a free survey.
