Windows, doors and glazing
A FENSA-style certificate is mentioned for the windows and the paper was not seen. Why is a competent-person scheme only one route, not proof the survey inspected the frames?
A competent-person scheme is only one route to building-regulations compliance, and it is not proof the survey inspected the frames. A FENSA-style certificate is mentioned and the paper was not seen, so the survey has not verified a registration and has not issued a certificate of its own. It is not the only route: a building-control application is another. The visit did not treat a named scheme as the sole lawful path, and it did not open the frames or decide the installation. The missing paper and the uninspected frames are separate limits.
Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless this answer says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.
What is the fuller explanation?
Windows can be signed off by more than one paperwork path, and a mention of a scheme in the particulars is not the certificate. Until the paper is seen, nobody should claim the scheme was used, let alone that it was the only way the work could have complied. Separately, a certificate, even when it exists, is not a surveyor handling the frames, the seals, the hinges or the trickle paths. This inspection did not do that handling. Condition and paperwork stay two unanswered points.
Ask your solicitor to call for the certificate itself, and for any building-control record, and keep both outside the survey. If you need the frames described properly, that is a closer look than this mention allows. Do not tell a lender the windows are certified, and do not tell them the frames were inspected, because neither thing happened here. Say a scheme was named and the paper was absent.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Was the FENSA-style certificate actually seen?
- Did the survey inspect the frames, or only hear of a scheme?
- Is a competent-person route being treated as the only route?
What are the typical next steps?
- Keep the missing paper and the uninspected frames apart.
- Ask the solicitor for the certificate or a building-control record.
- Do not tell a lender the windows were certified or frame-inspected.
Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.
Also asked about this
Does missing paper prove the installation was unlawful?
No. Missing paper proves the paper was not in the pack. A competent-person scheme is one route, not the only one, and this survey did not search every route or issue a certificate. Unlawfulness is not a finding. Ask the solicitor to check the record. The frames, meanwhile, were still not inspected.
Can trickle vents be assumed because a scheme was named?
No. Naming a scheme does not describe the vents, and the certificate was not seen. The survey did not inspect the frames and did not count ventilators. Air paths are a condition point of their own. Leave them unstated unless the visit actually recorded them. The scheme mention does not fill that gap.