Terms and Conditions

In what follows, “we” and “us” mean Skylights On Sea, a skylight and rooflight installation business operating across south Essex. “You” means the person or company named on the quotation. We are a service-area business working from vehicles at your address, so there is no showroom to visit and no counter to walk into. Everything is arranged by phone on 01702 898232, by email to info@skylightsonsea.co.uk, or through the quotation form.

A contract comes into existence when you accept a written quotation from us and we confirm that acceptance in writing. Nothing said on the phone, at the survey or in a text message forms part of the agreement until it appears on the quotation or on a written variation to it. If something matters to you, for example a colour, a handle position, an opening direction or a date you cannot move, ask for it to be written into the quotation before you accept. Conversations get remembered differently. Documents do not.

The contract is made up of three things: the quotation, the specification attached to it, and these terms. Where those documents conflict, the specification takes priority on technical matters and these terms take priority on everything else.

A price given before anyone has been on the roof is an estimate, not a quotation. It is based on what you have told us and what can be seen from the ground or from photographs, and it can change once the roof has been properly looked at. We say clearly on the document which of the two you are holding.

A quotation follows a survey. The survey is where we measure the opening or the proposed opening, check the roof build-up, look at the structure carrying the load, work out how the units will be got onto the roof, and establish which way each roof plane faces so the glass can be specified for its aspect. Orientation changes the glass, and the glass changes the price, which is one reason a quotation given without a survey is not worth much. There is more on how the glass affects the figure on our costs page.

Quotations are valid for 30 days from the date on them unless the document says otherwise. After that we may need to requote, mainly because glass, aluminium and timber prices move and because manufacturer lead times shift. Prices are inclusive of VAT at the rate applying on the date of the quotation. If the VAT rate changes before installation, the new rate applies.

A quotation covers only what is written on it. Redecoration, plastering beyond making good the immediate reveal, electrical work beyond connecting an electric opening unit to an existing supply, structural steelwork, and the removal of asbestos-containing materials are all outside the price unless listed.

Access decides more about the length of a roof job than the size of the opening does. You agree to give us clear access to the property and to the roof for the working days set out in the programme, including space for a vehicle, space for scaffold or a tower, and a route through or around the house wide enough for the units. Narrow side returns, locked rear gates shared with a neighbour, low arches and steep garden steps all need to be flagged at survey rather than discovered on the first morning.

We work normal daytime hours on weekdays. Roof work stops in high wind, in persistent rain and in any conditions where lifting glazed units overhead would not be safe, and that judgement rests with the installer on site. Weather delays move the programme and do not entitle either side to compensation, though we will always leave the roof watertight overnight.

Before the first day, please clear the room below the opening, take down anything fragile on the walls, and move vehicles off the drive. Dust travels further than people expect through a ceiling. We sheet up, but we cannot be responsible for items left in the working area. If the property is occupied by tenants or shared with others, it is your responsibility to arrange their cooperation with the dates.

Roofs hide things. Rot in a rafter end, a purlin that was cut through decades ago by someone running a soil pipe, a flat roof deck that turns out to be laid over an older one, a cavity full of debris: none of these can be seen until the covering comes off. If we find something that changes the work, we stop, tell you what it is, and give you a written variation with a price and a revised programme before continuing. We do not carry on and present a larger bill at the end.

If you want a change, tell us as early as you can. Made-to-order units cannot be altered once they have gone into manufacture, and a change requested after that point means a new unit at a new price. Changes to size, glass specification, finish or opening type all sit in that category.

Payment is staged, and the exact figures and dates appear on your quotation rather than being set by these terms. The usual pattern is a deposit on acceptance, which funds the order for the units, a stage payment when made-to-order glazing is delivered, and the balance on completion of the installation.

The balance falls due on the day the work is completed, and completion means the units are installed, weathertight and operating, with the internal finish made good to the extent set out in the specification. Outstanding decoration, a Building Control visit still to happen, or a snag on a blind does not defer the balance, though we will of course see any snag through.

Invoices are payable within 7 days by bank transfer to the account shown on the invoice. Please check account details with us by phone if you receive anything by email that asks you to pay somewhere different, because invoice fraud in the building trade is real and a thirty second call settles it. Goods remain our property until they are paid for in full. Once installed, and once paid for, they are yours.

Where you are a consumer, we may charge statutory interest on late payment. Where you are a business, the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 applies. On commercial installations we will normally agree payment terms in writing at order stage instead.

Because we survey and sign at your address rather than at premises of our own, a contract with a consumer is normally an off-premises contract under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013. That gives you a right to cancel within 14 days, running from the day the contract is concluded for the installation service, and from the day the goods come into your possession for the units themselves. You do not have to give a reason. Tell us in writing, by email or by post, and keep a copy.

Two points follow from that, and we set both of them out on the quotation so there is no ambiguity.

• If you ask us to start inside the 14 days. Work does not begin during the cancellation period unless you ask us in writing to start sooner. It usually makes sense to ask, because otherwise the start date sits a fortnight further out. If you then cancel, you keep the right to do so, but you pay a proportionate amount for the work already carried out and for materials already ordered on your instruction.
• Made-to-measure units. The cancellation right does not extend to goods manufactured to your own specification or clearly personalised. A lantern cut to your exact opening, a bespoke custom rooflight or a unit in a non-standard finish falls into that category once it has gone into production. Standard stock units do not.

If we cancel, which would normally only be because a survey shows the work cannot be done safely or lawfully as described, we refund everything you have paid, less the cost of any bespoke goods already made where you have asked us to proceed.

A new or enlarged rooflight is notifiable under the Building Regulations. We make that notification to Southend-on-Sea City Council, or to whichever local authority covers your address, as part of the job. You do not have to arrange it and there is no separate fee unless the quotation says so.

The installation is carried out to current Building Regulations, including Part L for thermal performance and Part K for safety glazing and guarding. The completion certificate is issued by the local authority, not by us, and the timing of it sits with them. Keep it with your deeds, because a buyer’s solicitor will ask for it.

Planning permission is a separate question from Building Control. Rooflights on a house are often permitted development, but conservation areas, Article 4 Directions, listed buildings, flats and maisonettes are all exceptions, and the position depends on your address. We will tell you what we think applies and we will help with drawings, but the responsibility for obtaining planning permission where it is needed rests with you as the property owner. Always check with the local planning authority before ordering.

Every installation carries a 10-year workmanship guarantee. That covers the parts of the job that are ours: the structural opening and trimming, the upstand or kerb, the flashings and weathering details, the mechanical fastening of the unit, the insulation line and the internal reveal finish. If water gets past a detail we formed, or a fastening we made lets go, we come back and put it right at our cost, including any scaffold or access equipment needed to do so.

What the guarantee does not cover is worth stating plainly, because a guarantee that pretends to cover everything covers nothing. It excludes storm damage and other events outside anyone’s control, movement or failure in parts of the roof we did not touch, blocked gutters and outlets, condensation caused by the way a room is ventilated or heated, accidental damage, alterations made by others after we leave, and any consequential loss such as decoration or floor coverings. It also excludes maintenance, which for a rooflight means keeping the glass and the drainage channels clear.

The units themselves carry the manufacturer’s own warranty, which typically runs 10 years on the sealed glazing unit against failure of the seal, and shorter periods on moving parts, motors, controls and surface finishes. Those warranties pass through to you. We register them where registration is required and we hand you the paperwork at completion. If a unit fails within its warranty term we deal with the manufacturer on your behalf and carry out the replacement.

Guarantee and warranty cover both depend on the balance having been paid in full and on the units having been used as intended. Neither is transferable to a new owner unless the manufacturer’s own terms say so.

We do not exclude or limit our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be excluded. Subject to that, our liability for any claim arising out of the contract is limited to the total price paid under it, and we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, loss of profit, or loss arising from delay where the delay is caused by weather, by a supplier, by a shortage of materials or by any other event outside our reasonable control.

If something goes wrong, tell us first and give us the chance to sort it. Put it in writing to info@skylightsonsea.co.uk with the address, the date of installation and a description of the problem, and photographs if the problem is visible. We will acknowledge it and set out what we propose to do about it. If you remain unhappy, you keep every right you would otherwise have, including the right to bring a claim through the courts.

These terms and any dispute arising from them are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction. If any part of these terms turns out to be unenforceable, the rest of them carry on unaffected. We may update these terms from time to time; the version that applies to your job is the version in force on the date you accepted the quotation.

If anything above is unclear before you commit to a job, ask. You can reach us on 01702 898232 or through the contact page,, and we would rather answer a question now than argue about a clause later.