Complaints Procedure

If something about an installation or the service around it is wrong, the fastest route to it being sorted is a written description sent to info@sunspireskylightschelmsford.co.uk. Everything below is what happens after that, in the order it happens.

This procedure is published so that a customer who knows the steps in advance can tell whether they are being followed.

What this procedure is for

It covers anything you are unhappy with: the standard of the work on the roof, the internal finish, the conduct of anyone on site, a delay, an invoice you do not recognise, or an answer you were given that turned out to be wrong.

It also covers anything you believe falls under the ten-year workmanship guarantee, such as a wet mark appearing at a reveal. Guarantee matters and complaints run through the same route on purpose, so that nobody spends a fortnight arguing about categories before anyone looks at it.

Stage one: put it in writing

Email the address above. A conversation can follow, but the written version is what starts the clock and what both sides can refer back to months later. The more precise the description, the shorter the process: on anything involving water, the detail decides the diagnosis before anyone gets on the roof.

What to include

• The address where the work was carried out, and roughly when it was done.
• What you are seeing or experiencing, described plainly.
• When it happens. Only in driving rain. Only when the wind is from one quarter. Cold still mornings. First thing, or after a shower has been run.
• Photographs taken from ground level or from inside the room. Please do not go up onto the roof to take one.
• What outcome would resolve it from your point of view.

Acknowledgement and first response

Every complaint is acknowledged in writing, and the acknowledgement confirms who is dealing with it and what happens next. The target timescales for acknowledgement and for a substantive response are [to be confirmed], and they will be stated here rather than left to expectation once they are set.

Where the answer is straightforward, such as an invoice line that needs explaining or a piece of paperwork that has not arrived, it is usually settled in that first reply without anyone visiting.

The inspection

Where the complaint concerns the work itself, the next step is a look at the installation: the roof, the perimeter detailing around the unit, the internal reveal and, where there is access, the void above the ceiling.

Inspection is diagnostic rather than defensive. Water shows itself at the lowest point it can reach, frequently a long way from where it entered, so the job is to trace the path rather than inspect the nearest suspicious-looking joint. Where the cause sits outside the installation, in a covering that has reached the end of its life or a blocked outlet, you are told plainly and shown why, so you know what to arrange next.

What you are given at the end of the inspection

A written summary follows every inspection. It says what was found, what is being proposed, who carries the cost, and when it can be done.

Where the finding falls under the workmanship guarantee, putting it right is at no cost to you. Where it falls under a manufacturer’s product warranty, the claim is raised with the manufacturer and the position is explained to you as it progresses. Where the cause lies elsewhere on the building, you get an honest description of it and a figure for the work we can carry out.

Stage two: if the answer is not accepted

Reply in writing and say which part of the outcome you disagree with and why. The file is then reviewed from the beginning: the quotation and its stated assumptions, the survey notes, photographs from the installation, the inspection findings and the correspondence since.

A second inspection is arranged where the review turns up a question the first visit did not answer. The outcome of the review is confirmed in writing, and it is the final position at this level.

If you are still not satisfied

You keep every right the law gives you, and none of them are affected by anything in this procedure. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, services must be carried out with reasonable care and skill, and the statutory remedies of repeat performance and price reduction remain available.

Independent guidance on a consumer dispute is available from the Citizens Advice consumer service, which is free to use. Membership of any alternative dispute resolution or ombudsman scheme is [to be confirmed]. A claim can also be brought in the county court, where the small claims track handles most disputes of this size without either side needing a solicitor.

Records, and what happens to them

Correspondence, photographs and inspection notes relating to a complaint are kept as part of the job file. They are used to answer the complaint and to check whether the same detail is turning up more than once, which is the only way a small recurring error ever gets found.

How that information is stored, who sees it and how long it is held is set out in the privacy policy. Retention periods are [to be confirmed].

Why the procedure is written down at all

Rooflight work is hidden once it is finished. The customer cannot inspect an upstand or a flashing lap, and there is no realistic way to verify the four details that decide whether it stays dry. That asymmetry is why the workmanship carries a ten-year guarantee, and the same reason this route is published rather than improvised.

A complaint that gets a straight answer within a known process is a manageable event. One that disappears into silence becomes something else, and by then the roof is rarely the subject.