Gone Quiet Mid-Install: What to Do When Your Glazing Firm Stops Trading

It usually starts with silence. The fitters don't turn up on the Tuesday they promised, the office line rings out, and the email bounces back. Then a neighbour mentions the van hasn't been seen for a week, and someone finds the company's Companies House page showing a filing that makes your stomach drop.

If you're standing in a half-finished house with a gap where a window should be, the instinct is to panic-pay the next firm that answers the phone. Hold off for a day. The order you do things in genuinely affects whether you see any of your money again — and some of the deadlines involved are shorter than you'd expect.

First, work out what has actually happened

'Stopped trading' covers several very different situations, and they lead to different answers.

• The company is still on the register but has gone quiet. It may be struggling rather than dead. Check the Companies House filing history for late accounts, a notice of intention to appoint administrators, or a change of director.
• An administrator has been appointed. Look for a notice in The Gazette (thegazette.co.uk) and on the company's own website. Administrators often try to sell the order book, so you may get a call from a different firm offering to finish your job. Ask who they are, what they're charging, and whether the money you've already paid transfers across. Do not hand over a second deposit for work you've already funded.
• The company has been wound up or liquidated. You become an unsecured creditor, which is a long queue with very little at the end of it. This is the point where card protections and deposit schemes earn their keep.

Whatever the answer, start a folder today: the signed contract, the quote, every invoice, bank or card statement showing the payment, photos of the work done and not done, and a dated log of calls and texts. If it later turns into a dispute, that folder is your case.

If you paid any of it on a credit card

This is the strongest protection most homeowners have and the one most often overlooked. Under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act, the card provider is jointly liable with the supplier when the cash price of the goods or services is between £100 and £30,000.

Two details matter enormously here. First, the threshold applies to the total contract, not the amount you put on the card — so a £6,000 job with a £200 deposit paid by credit card is covered, and the protection can extend to the whole £6,000. Second, it makes no difference that you paid the deposit months ago; there's no 120-day cut-off in the same way as chargeback, though you should still move quickly.

Ring the card provider, say the words 'Section 75 claim' clearly, and ask what evidence they want. Expect them to push back if the installer was a sole trader who has vanished — be persistent and put the claim in writing as well as on the phone.

One wrinkle worth knowing: if you paid a deposit to a broker or lead-generation company rather than the installer who turned up, the chain can get complicated. Section 75 can still apply to linked transactions, but you may need to explain the arrangement carefully.

Debit card? Chargeback is your route, and it's time-limited

Chargeback isn't a legal right — it's a rule the card schemes impose on banks — but it works, and it's usually the fastest route for a debit card payment.

• The clock typically starts at 120 days from the date you expected the goods or services, not from the date you paid.
• Some schemes allow claims further out for 'failure to supply', but don't rely on it.
• You'll need the same evidence folder, plus a short written account of what was promised and what was delivered.

Ask your bank for chargeback in writing, and if they refuse, ask for the reason in writing and escalate to their complaints process and then the Financial Ombudsman Service. That escalation step is free and often does the trick.

If you paid by bank transfer

This is the hard case, and it's why so many consumer bodies bang on about paying deposits by card. Once money has left your account by faster payment, it is very difficult to retrieve. Report it to your bank immediately in case the receiving account has been flagged, but be realistic.

Your remaining options are the insolvency process (register as a creditor — you probably won't recover much), and any deposit protection or insurance-backed guarantee attached to the installer.

Deposit protection and insurance-backed guarantees

Some glazing installers belong to trade bodies or ombudsman schemes that offer deposit protection as part of membership — the Glazing Ombudsman and DGCOS are the two names you'll come across most often. Membership isn't compulsory, so plenty of perfectly good firms don't have it, but if yours did, this is the moment to dig out the paperwork and make a claim.

The other thing to check is whether your guarantee is insurance-backed. A standard guarantee is only as good as the company behind it; an insurance-backed one survives the firm going under and can pay for remedial work later on. If your installer has folded but your windows are fitted and leaking in four years' time, that difference is everything.

Be aware that FENSA and Certass registration covers Building Regulations compliance, not your deposit. Plenty of homeowners assume otherwise. If your job was never registered because the firm went bust, you may need to ask your local Building Control team about a regularisation certificate later — worth noting now rather than at the point of selling.

The half-finished house: safety first, then paperwork

If a window is missing or a door won't secure, get it weathertight and locked before anything else. Boarding, temporary sheeting and a temporary lock are cheap compared with water damage or a break-in. Photograph everything before you touch it, though — the state of the job is evidence.

Don't skip this either: materials on site may not be yours. If the installer hadn't paid their supplier, glass and doors delivered but not fitted can sometimes be claimed back under retention of title. Leave them where they are and ask before you let a new firm skip them.

When you do bring in someone else, be upfront that the job is a part-completion. A good installer will want to survey what's already there before quoting, and some warranties won't cover units they didn't supply.

Get advice, and report it

Citizens Advice Consumer Service (0808 223 1133) is the first call for free, impartial guidance, and they pass details to Trading Standards. If you suspect the company took deposits knowing it couldn't deliver, report it to the police as a potential fraud — Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040. And keep an eye on The Gazette: if a liquidator is appointed, there's usually a deadline for submitting a claim.

Doing it differently next time

None of this is about being paranoid; it's about spreading risk sensibly.

• Pay a modest deposit by credit card, even if the rest goes by transfer.
• Tie staged payments to milestones you can see: base layer in, units fitted, job signed off. Never pay the bulk up front for 'materials'.
• Check Companies House before signing — how long has the firm traded, and are the accounts filed on time?
• Ask directly: 'Is your guarantee insurance-backed, and are you in a deposit protection scheme?' A decent firm will answer without flinching.
• Get the schedule of works in writing, including dates.

A glazing firm going under is rotten luck, but it isn't always the end of your money. Move fast, use the card protections you already have, and let the paperwork do the arguing for you.