Dear Tony
8th April 2014

The Elephant In The Room

It was refreshing to see a response to my earlier letter in regards to CE Marking, and I must thank Mike Gallard of CENSolutions for his support and taking this matter seriously.

One of the points that Mike made, and I would also like to stress if FENSA would check for the CE Mark, and non-compliance is found, pass it on to the relevant authority (trading standards), this would at least limit the growing problem. If FENSA did not exist, windows would still be checked by the local authority building inspector, and this issue would have been put to bed on 1st July 2013. If Veka Network can check for CE Marking compliance within their system, I cannot understand why FENSA cannot.

I am rather confused by the response from Richard Bate of Build Check as the statement in the trade publication clearly reads “Up to 80% of companies operating in the window industry are still not fully compliant with CE Marking”. Also he states, ‘not yet compliant’, ‘nearly compliant’ and ‘lapsed compliant’ which are apparently categories.

You are either compliant, or you are not, legal or illegal, there are no grey areas within the law. Unless the companies in these categories have not been fitting windows since the 1st July 2013 until they have reached full compliance. Otherwise its rather like having a criminal who has been burgling homes for the last 9 months, but has decide to go straight, and expects the police not to press charges as he has stopped committing the crimes?

There is little escape from this, and once a company is reported to trading standards I doubt that any money back guarantees or insurance would cover the fitting of an illegal product. The other option is for the company swamped with customer re-funds to go into administration, which is often the practice within the market. I’m not sure if the limited liability within company law covers an illegal product, so the directors could become personally liable for any outstanding claims and possible criminal charges.

When is the industry going to wake up to this, its the Elephant In The Room, but this elephant keeps growing as time passes. I am totally dismayed with the lack of response and effort from the governing bodies of our industry such as FENSA, they seem to feel they have a “get out of jail free card” so they are not responsible. I wonder how they would function if half their members disappeared due to action taken by trading standards, its not a case of if, its simply when.


Dennis Sumner

Managing Director Force 8