Does a roof guarantee transfer when you sell?

When people say a roof has a guarantee, they might mean two quite different documents. One is the workmanship guarantee given by the roofer who did the job. It says that firm will put right faults in how the work was carried out for a stated period. The other is a manufacturer warranty on a product, such as a tile, a membrane or a dry-fix system, which says the maker will deal with defects in the product itself.

Those are separate promises from separate companies, and each has its own terms on whether it can be passed to someone else. Our page on roofer guarantees explained covers what each type covers. This page is only about the moment of sale.

There is no automatic rule that a guarantee follows the house. It depends on what the document says. Look for these points in the wording.

• Assignment. Does it say the benefit can be passed to a later owner, or that it belongs only to the original customer?
• Conditions. Some require the new owner to be notified to the provider within a set time, or require a registration form.
• The remaining term. A guarantee does not restart on sale. A buyer receives whatever is left of the period.
• Exclusions. Later alterations, a change of covering or work by someone else can end the cover.
• Who stands behind it. The cover is worth what the issuing business is worth. If it has closed down, the paper may have little left behind it.

If the wording is unclear, ask your conveyancer or the provider to confirm it in writing. Do not assume. This is general information and not legal advice.

Our workmanship guarantee lasts 10 years and is given in writing with the finished job. It covers the quality of our work and sits on our word alone, with no insurer underneath. Because you hold it as a written document, it is something you can hand to a conveyancer, who can read its terms and decide how to describe it to the buyer's side.

We do not tell you what a buyer's solicitor will accept, because that is for the solicitors. What we can do is keep the paper plain: the work covered, the completion date and who gave it. If you contact us for a copy of the quote or the guarantee wording years later, we will point you to what was agreed, though the best protection is to keep your own set of papers in one place from the day the job ends.

When a house with recent roof work goes on the market, the buyer's solicitor sends enquiries, and the roof often comes up. A neat file saves time. Gather the following before you instruct anyone.

• The written quote and the final invoice, so the work done is clear.
• The written guarantee, with its terms and start date.
• Any manufacturer warranty or product registration for the covering.
• Where the work was notifiable, the Building Regulations completion certificate from building control, or from a registered building control approver.
• Photographs from the survey and from the finished roof.
• Any consent paperwork, such as listed building consent, where it applied.

The completion certificate is the one most often missing. If the work needed one and the certificate has gone missing, the council's building control team, in Stroud District the Gloucestershire Building Control Partnership, can tell you what is on record. Our page on building control in Stroud explains who to contact.

Guarantees tend to go missing for ordinary reasons: an email account is closed, a folder is cleared, a house is let and the paper stays behind. A few habits help.

Keep the originals with the deeds or in a folder that moves with the house. Scan or photograph each document and store a copy somewhere that is not tied to one device. Write the roofer's name, the date and the work done on the front of the folder. If a product warranty needs registering, do it at the time and save the confirmation.

If your roofer changes its name or you cannot reach it, do not wait for the day of sale to find out. Check once, early, that the guarantee can still be called on.

If you hold a guarantee, mention it in the sale information and pass the paper on at completion. Be accurate about what it is and when it ends. Over-describing it is worse than saying less, because a buyer who relies on a guarantee that does not exist can come back to you.

If there is no guarantee, or the work was done long ago, a clear record of what was done still helps. An invoice and a set of photographs tell a surveyor what the roof is and how it was treated. Sellers deciding whether to repair before listing can read our page on fixing the roof before selling your Stroud house.

For the form of the sale itself, your conveyancer decides what to disclose. Our part is to leave you with roof paperwork that exists, is accurate and is simple to find. Ring 01453 933613 or use the enquiry form if you need a copy of an earlier quote. The home page lists our other services.