CIGA – Cavity Insulation Guarantee Agency

When your contractors installed your Wall Cavity Insulation, a formal part of the process by your contractor was to register your installation with CIGA or another guarantee agency who should have produced a guarantee certificate and sent this to you.

This was important for the contractors especially for those customers who had the installation done under a Green Deal, as this process was needed to be completed before the contractor could draw down their payment for the installation.

We do hear more and more from customers that the installation was not registered with CIGA. This could have happened because the scheme funding for your area or the product was expired and so whether the contractor registered your installation or not, they may not be paid, and because there was no financial benefit for the contractor, they didn’t complete the registration. This can affect the claim and ultimately shows a sign of disregard by the contractor which by all accounts may show a sign of the quality of work carried out. It is best to check as soon as possible and obtain a copy of your guarantee whether you have faults or not.

OBTAINING A COPY OF YOUR GUARANTEE CERTIFICATE

Get a copy of your CIGA file and guarantee FREE OF CHARGE

If your Cavity Wall Insulation is found to have faults that a legal claim might progress under your instructions, your panel solicitor representing your matter will almost certainly require a copy of your guarantee certificate attached to your file before matters can progress. Obtaining a copy from any agency including CIGA who issued approximately 6 million guarantees should be a very simple process and under a Subject Access Request which is free of charge.

A Subject Access Request is a formal request made in writing or verbally and is governed by the Data Protection Act, and CIGA have a legal obligation under the Act to provide a copy of ALL the information they hold on you and your property by law.

The Information Commissioner states you can make a Subject Access Request by telephone or in writing. https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/your-right-to-data-portability/

We would suggest sending the request via email or printed letter by recorded delivery, so you can track safe delivery, and once they have your email or recorded delivery request, telephone them and ensure it is underway.

Telephone CIGA directly and inform them you are making a Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act and wish them to provide a copy of ALL information they hold about you and your property including a copy of your CIGA guarantee certificate which can be sent to you via email or be posted out to you.

CIGA will ask for your full name and address and confirm the property is registered and because this is a formal request under the Data Protection Act, they should request 1) Proof of ID and 2) Proof of address. If you send a written letter or email, it is wise to attach a copy of your Photo ID and Proof of Address dated in the last 3 months.

You do not have to disclose the reason for your request if you do not wish to do so; there is no reason why your request should not be actioned within the statutory period of 30 days. You need this for your house paperwork files and will also need a copy should you decide to sell your property.

If the installation was done prior to your purchase of the house, when you made the purchase, you purchased all rights to the guarantee and any claims made against it. You may need to give CIGA your details to update their records.

You can also write to CIGA and also be able to make a request by email or telephone. Keep a full copy and notes of who you speak to and date and times for your own record.

Email: info@ciga.co.uk

Telephone: 01525 85 33 00

Postal Address: 

CIGA – CIGA House,
3 Vimy Court, Vimy Road
Leighton Buzzard
Bedfordshire.
LU7 1FG

Website: https://ciga.co.uk/

It is a good idea to visit the CIGA website and have a good read through and make yourself aware of who CIGA are and their role.

CIGA PRIVACY POLICY

https://ciga.co.uk/privacy-notice/

Cavity Insulation Guarantee Agency’s registered office is at CIGA House, 3 Vimy Court, Vimy Road, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, LU7 1FG and we are a company registered in England and Wales under company number 03044131. We are registered on the Information Commissioner’s Office Register of Data Controllers under registration number ZA079277, and act as the data controller. Our Appointed Person for the organisation is Amanda Rees, and we can be contacted at CIGA House, 3 Vimy Court, Vimy Road, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, LU7 1FG.

SAMPLE CIGA GUARANTEE

Most guarantee certificates will state the date of installation; confirm what materials were used for the insulation and some other useful information.

Other Guarantee Schemes

12 Million homes have been installed with retro-fit cavity wall insulation. Some houses because of their structure require a specialist installer and should be backed by a different guarantee agency.

We have compiled a list of all of these guarantee agencies to assist you.

Cavity Wall Insulation has been installed in 12 million homes across the UK as part of the massive scheme to reduce energy use and energy loss and ultimately reduce the carbon footprint of the UK.

What a great idea Cavity Wall Insulation seemed to be, and get it installed in your home for free, fantastic! Saving 1/3^rd on your heating bills, AWESOME! Or so the offerings sounded.

If all parties involved done exactly what was expected of them, Cavity Wall Insulation could probably be a really good thing and deliver as it was expected. But human intervention has turned this upside down, back to front AND inside out.

12 MILLION homes have had Cavity Wall Insulation installed, as many as 400,000 properties that should NEVER EVER have had it installed have had it installed not knowing it was not designed for their properties, and the contractors putting it in should have known better, and the guarantee agencies that did issue a guarantee should have absolutely known better and had systems in place to stop this.

Steel Frame properties, Timber Frame Properties and Many Pre-Fab Construction Properties do not have a BBA test pass for the Cavity Insulation to be installed in these types of houses.

Properties that could potentially be suitable should have had a robust pre-survey check carried out to ensure the property was absolutely suitable to have Cavity Wall Insulation installed, and those that were suitable but needed some repairs prior to the install should have been advised what repairs they needed and why, educating the home owner as to the pros and cons, but many sales people and installers were on commission and price per job and so the lack and negligent attitude means up to 6 million homes potentially have big issues, either showing now or will show in the coming years.

Checking an active damp course was present and was up to date.

Checking the condition of brickwork and pointing and ensuring no cracks or faults.

Checking window seals were right and tight.

Not major jobs and not work that would cost thousands of pounds, but could save a home owner a massive mess of damp and mould and other issues which in the end could cost tens of thousands of pounds to extract the wet cavity wall insulation and repair damp walls and woodwork and replace internal furniture and fixtures damaged by failed wall cavity insulation.

Claims are uncertain if they will be successful. Many installers have closed up their businesses. Oh, there’s a guarantee we hear you say. Unfortunately, many guarantees aren’t worth the paper they are written on. They only cover the extraction of the insulation, and only if the guarantee firm agrees the contractor was at fault, which more often than not they disagree and blame th homeowner for lack of upkeep and repairs of the property.

More worrying is the fact that the insurances the contractors relied on when they registered with the insurance agencies now tend to have a very mixed bag of policies and the excesses on the policies range significantly. Some have £1000 excess; some have £5000 excess, some have £10,000 or £15,000 excess, and astonishingly some have £1 MILLION POUNDS EXCESS, so making claim is going to be extremely difficult.

So, your home is damp, cold, wet, smelly, paper and paint peeling, clothes and furniture being affected, health being affected, and what should have reduced your energy bills by 1/3^rd – is now actually costing you more to heat.

Because your walls are damp and cold, the U-Value of your homes is reduced and the heat from inside will be leaving your house far quicker through the wet walls, so your heating is turned up to compensate, and not only costing you more, it’s wearing your boiler out quicker and the environmental issues are more significant than before insulation was installed.

What a mess !

Claims Legal Expert now offer a bespoke court compliant energy report covering this energy loss and financial liability and claims for this alone can rage from £1000 to £7500 from samples we have seen.

Chartered Surveyors at Claims Legal who trade as Wall Cavity Claims provide court compliant surveyors reporting listing where the faults are, why the insulation failed and who is responsible, and the costs to extract and put it all right.

It’s now down to the legal process and solicitors are jumping on to run these claims without a vast array of knowledge, and some months down the line they are realising the complications within and that these claims are not as easy to progress as they originally thought.

Claims Legal have been helping clients with Cavity Wall Insulation failure for almost 4 years, and voluntarily adopt claims regulation policies to ensure they do things right for home owners.

There are court cases throughout July and August that might give solicitors and barristers a direction to go in, so the industry and claims are evolving.

There are strict timescales in law about when claims can be brought from the ‘Date of Knowledge’ typically being 3 years from when you realised there was a fault to bringing a claim. Solicitors really want the claim as quickly as possibly so they have plenty of time to investigate and prepare a case before the court deadline and give the insurers a chance to litigate and hopefully come to an agreement, and where they can’t, the solicitor will need to issue court proceedings. Court proceedings can be extremely costly as can surveyors reports and energy reports and insurance on the claims to protect the claimant and the solicitor if the claim loses.

It is a very worrying situation for many homeowners.

If you’re affected by failed Cavity Wall Insulation, contact Claims Legal and Wall cavity Claims on freephone 0800-8-654321 and see if they can help. Their service is 100% FREE to you whether you proceed or not, so there’s no financial implication or pressure to proceed, and they give real advice without the red tape.

You can also visit their website or Facebook pages as below, and there’s a whole host of informative blogs on their website to help you understand a bit more about CWI and the pros and cons and why it has all gone so terribly wrong.

www.wallcavityclaims.co.uk

www.Facebook.com/wallcavityclaims

Freephone: 0800-8-654321

 Even for those people who keep a close eye on problems caused by retro-fit cavity wall insulation, and who are aware that adding modern insulation to older houses can find the issues surrounding cavity wall insulation confusing to say the least seeing we are not builders or construction experts.

There are many different ways that cavity wall insulation problems can occur in your house, and this can make it difficult to attribute the problems to cavity wall insulation failure.

There can be many problems caused by cavity wall insulation and adding insulation to a cavity wall can cause rain water to penetrate the inner wall in many ways such as spalled brickwork or bad pointing or cracked bricks or render, resulting in a damp house potentially top to bottom. However, it is also true that there are many more kinds of problems caused by cavity wall insulation than rain penetration.

Rain water doesn’t need to penetrate the inner wall to cause cavity wall insulation problems. It is possible for your house to become damp in a few different ways due to various cavity wall insulation problems.

Problems with Cavity Wall Insulation are not always caused by rain penetration!

Even when insulation is not affected by rain penetration from the outer wall because the outer wall bricks and mortar are in excellent condition, filling your cavity wall with insulation of any kind can result in damp if the insulation is installed where full and proper pre-checks and treatment where required are not carried out prior to install, and ultimately cause a colder house due to wet cavity wall insulation problems. This can mean your boiler is turned up and heat is being drained out of your wet walls quicker than it is heating your house.

One of the ways you may experience problems with cavity wall insulation, is that your house can become damp caused by cold spots. When cavity wall insulation is poorly installed, gaps can be left in the insulation, creating cold spots. This is a big cause of problems with cavity wall insulation. The insulation in your cavity wall warms the house up, which is great in theory, but in the places where there are cold spots, this condenses more quickly because of the warmer air. This condensation has nowhere to run off, and so festers, hot air and cold air meet meaning more and more damp.

Cavity Wall Insulation problems caused by condensation are often found near the floor on the ground level, and near the ceiling especially in the upper levels and bedrooms. Other danger areas for condensation are near windows and doors.

Installers should carry out fill checks on site prior to installing insulation and this is typically done in a see-through test box and done to check the machines and insulation material all perform and fill as they should. Most installers did not carry this out. We have seen very little evidence of this from hundreds of installers on thousands of houses installed with cavity Wall Insulation.

Another method where insulation can get wet and cause damp is where rubble in the cavity is not removed and bridges over the damp proof course and then more than likely into the insulation and the damp comes from the bottom up and will cause damp around the bottom of your walls and skirting boards.

Properties near the coast often have a lot of sand that over the years has penetrated the cavities and builds up in the cavity and is already above the damp course line, meaning cavity wall insulation should never have been installed until the cavity was fully cleared of sand and rubble.

Damp cavity wall insulation of this nature can be some of the worst because when the rain hits the ground it gathers and around some elevations in particular and constantly soaks the insulation. Many parts of the UK encounter a lot of rain and this is a particularly big issue again with failed cavity wall insulation.

Damp can quickly cause mould and have an adverse and severe effects on the internal décor, furniture and fittings, and more importantly your health, so if you are worried that you may be experiencing the first signs of cavity wall insulation problems or want advice on making a claim against the installer or removing insulation, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our friendly team.

Wall Cavity Claims are a regulated claims management company. We serve and help clients across England and Wales affected by failed wall cavity insulation.

Call us freephone 0800-8-654321

Check out our website at www.wallcavityclaims.co.uk

Follow us on Facebook – www.Facebook.com/wallcavityclaims

Why might you need to have your cavity wall insulation removed?

When the right material is correctly installed, and your property is suitable and in good condition externally, cavity wall insulation will help your home stay warm, safe and energy efficient.

However, cavity wall insulation can cause penetrating damp, mould and excessive condensation if:

• It’s old and worn
• It was installed incorrectly
• Your home is in a high exposure area. (Find out if yours is)
• The cavity was not clear before the insulation was installed
• The structure of your home is not suitable for cavity wall insulation
• You have damaged walls such as cracks in the brickwork, render or pointing
• Blockages have entered the cavity because of building works

Because:

• Gaps in the insulation allow heat to escape and damp to penetrate
• If the insulation gets wet it will act as a sponge, drawing water across and holding it against your walls
• The insulation can prevent adequate ventilation and cause damage to, for example, a steel or timber frame, suspended wooden floors and can corrode wall ties.

It may take a few years before you notice anything, but damp could still be damaging your walls before it becomes obvious. It’s likely your energy costs will be rising too, as your heating will have to work harder to maintain a comfortable temperature.

OSCAR is the accredited body that can certify quality workmanship has been maintained and that your cavity wall insulation extraction has been completed to a high standard and it is certificated to prove so.

1. OSCAR approved extractors undertake a thorough process from start to finish and evidence the extraction. They can then let you know how much it will cost to clear your cavities.
2. They prepare the site and erect scaffolding if necessary.
3. They typically create openings at damp proof level in the external wall by removing bricks at predetermined distances right around the house.
4. They fix specially designed extraction covers to the openings and attach an extractor.
5. They drill a series of holes in the mortar line or render and use air pressure to force the insulation materials down to the extractor.
6. They inspect the cavity at regular intervals throughout the extraction using a 360^ovideo borescope that gives them a 2m view in every direction.
7. When the extraction is complete, and they’ve confirmed all the cavities are completely clear they reinstate the walls and return your home to its original state.
8. They then clear and clean the site.
9. They carry out a final inspection of your property.
10. OSCAR technicians should visit and carry out the final inspection to check the work has been done 100% correctly.

You would expect one of the big 6 energy companies to do things right when it comes to installing energy saving products around the home, wouldn’t you?

It has been branded a failure and a disappointing flop in Westminster. Energy insiders have dismissed it as expensive and chaotic. And now it seems the public, too, has lost patience with the Green Deal, the controversial scheme to encourage people to install energy-efficient home improvements, ultimately to help climate change and reduce greenhouse effects on a mass scale by using less energy to heat the home.

The Government’s flagship energy efficiency policy has become a headache for thousands of householders left with poor workmanship on wall cavity insulation installations across the country or waiting for promised cashback payments that fail to materialise. In a lot cases, the energy companies responsible for carrying out the works have left householders with botched improvement works in the rush to meet energy efficiency targets. Industry estimates say that as many as 3 MILLION homes are affected by failed cavity wall insulation and British Gas is amongst them and by no means alone.

The ‘BIG 6’ energy firms:
British Gas (owned by UK firm Centrica which is listed on the LSE)
EDF Energy (owned by French firm Électricité de France )
npower (owned by German firm innogy)
E.ON UK (German-owned)
Scottish Power (Spanish-owned)
SSE (listed on the LSE)

Others have forked out £150 for a Green Deal assessment, lured by the promise of generous cashback, only to be disappointed by a lack of funds on a scheme.

The background
The two-stage scheme was introduced in 2012 to tackle the upfront cost of installing efficiency measures such as a new boiler, double glazing or insulation.

The first phase offered householders 25-year loans to pay for the measures, which were to be repaid through energy bills. The Green Deal’s “Golden Rule” states that the home owner will not pay back any more than they make in energy bill savings.
But take-up has been low. Just 2% of households assessed for the Green Deal had signed up, according to the government figures available at early 2016.
To make matters worse, the company set up by the Government to aggregate loans for the Green Deal was bailed out in November 2015 with a multi-million-pound loan of public money.

The Green Deal Finance Company needed £34m after admitting that it would need to sign 60,000 Green Deal plans a year to break even – while just 8,000 plans had so far then been signed.
In a much-needed overhaul after that, the Government began offering “cashback” as well as a loan, paying householders up to £7,600 for installing certain energy-efficiency measures.

This second phase, called the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund, released a total of £540m of taxpayer cash in drips every few months as an incentive to home owners.
A fund for solid wall insulation – cladding on interior or exterior walls to keep in heat – pays 67pc of the cost of the work, capped at £4,000. It is used when cavity wall insulation isn’t possible. House¬holders can also get up to £1,000 cashback on two other energy-efficiency improvements, such as installing double glazing or a new boiler.

If this sounds complicated, it is – and many who have tried to apply and use the scheme have described it as chaotic. One release of £24m, offered in the month of December for householders to spend on solid wall insulation, ran out within just 24 hours after 6,000 people rushed to claim on the first day. How can that be so?

The verdict
In a parliamentary inquiry held in September 2014, MPs called the Green Deal a “disappointing failure”, with flawed planning that has left consumers without promised cashback and improvement works.
The Government has so far paid out £42.5m towards improvement works through the cashback scheme, with solid wall insulation (61pc) proving the most popular measure.
Yet relatively few householders have benefited, and fewer than 9,000 people have been paid cashback.
Green Deal loans, which typically charge borrowers a high interest rate of 6pc 7pc, were also criticised by the Energy & Climate Change Select Committee’s inquiry.
Public opinion reflects this. Householders reporting problems relating to the Green Deal have increased in number by 41pc from the same time last year, according to Citizens Advice. But this included complaints about Green Deal installers as well as rogue firms that pretend to offer the scheme in order to con householders into paying upfront fees.

Cashback: ‘I was offered (non-existent) returns of £410’
One unhappy householder is James Hannam, a historian from Kent paid £150 for a non-refundable Green Deal assessment in the hope of replacing his old and inefficient boiler. Mr Hannam, 42, thought that he would receive £310 towards the new boiler and £100 for an up-to-date thermostat. But he later found “loads of conditions in the small print” that meant he would need cavity wall insulation to an extension to qualify. “So I needed to spend £1,500 more than I’d budgeted for,” he said.
Mr Hannam also complained that he “couldn’t just use the local plumber you know and trust”.
This is because, once customers sign up, they must use a Green Deal-registered assessor and installer.
“These are bigger companies with the staff to deal with all the paperwork, not your local tradesmen, so are already more expensive,” Mr Hannam said.
Poor-quality workmanship is another nasty side-effect of the deal, according to building trade experts.
“Householders are encouraged to have works carried out when it may not be a good idea,” said Jeff Howell, The Telegraph’s House Doctor columnist.
“External wall insulation, for example, sounds useful but is not always the most sensible way of insulating a house,” he said.
There are also anecdotal reports of installers cutting corners in order to deliver Green Deal works as cheaply as possible. Many claims management firms such as Claims Legal who trade as Wall Cavity Claims have seen a very sharp rise in claim enquiries over the past few months with winter upon us and damp and mould and lots of issues relating to Cavity Wall Insulation showing more so in the winter months, and more marketing is now making people aware of the correlation between CWI and faults within the home such as damp and mould.
British Gas Cavity Wall Insulation was fitted by tradesman and contractors and they the same as most other firms rushed jobs and never properly surveyed properties and made them properly suitable to have the cavity wall insulation installed as they too were under pressure to meet Government and EU targets.
Richard Twinn, from the UK Green Building Council, a group that represents energy efficiency installers, said: “This means less reputable installers are offering poorer quality in order to offer a lower price tag, and householders think they’re getting a good deal.”

The loan: ‘£50 Nando’s vouchers and our home is a wreck’
When British Gas doorstepped Heidi and Jonathan McInally-Henry in December 2013, the couple were promised an energy-efficient revamp that would increase the value of their home by £8,000. One year and a £3,634 bill later, the couple say their home is barely habitable!
The couple took out a Green Deal loan to insulate their home in Plymouth. Half of the cost of installing insulation, a boiler flue and soil pipe was met by British Gas as part of the Energy Companies Obligation, a government directive to help householders install efficiency measures.
The remainder was paid for upfront (£3,634) and using a Green Deal loan – just £456 was borrowed but the 25-year repayments amounted to £1,550.
Render applied to the front of the house has blocked window ventilation, aggravating Mrs McInally-Henry’s asthma. The couple say water is seeping in where windows have not been sealed properly. Mr McInally-Henry, of the Army Reserve, said it was “a farce” that ruined their home.

The couple felt they had no control over workmen coming in and out of the house. “I would see strangers outside the house, leaving debris in the garden and looking in,” Mrs McInally-Henry said.
As an apology, British Gas originally sent the couple £50 in vouchers to spend at chicken restaurant Nando’s.
After pressure from a newspaper group newspaper, a British Gas employee, who was not a chartered surveyor, inspected the property.
But the report did not accept responsibility for damp, saying this was a pre-existing problem, which seems to be a typical answer to the problem when householders complain to the installer directly or the associated guarantee agency who typically give a 25 year guarantee after CWI is installed.
British Gas accepted that the work for Mrs McInally-Henry was “a bit messy” in parts and that the house had been painted the wrong colour. It said damp and mould had been caused by ‘existing defective rain gutters’, and that damp in one bedroom had arisen because it was “used as storage”, causing “bad circulation”.
The Telegraph’s Jeff Howell, a qualified surveyor, said the report was “appallingly badly written”, adding that pre-existing dampness problems should have been identified and recorded in the pre works survey.
British Gas has now agreed to send an independent damp-proofing specialist to assess how the damage was caused and offer compensation for stress and inconvenience. It also said Mr McInally-Henry’s loss of earnings from being at home during the works would be compensated.
British Gas said that every time the McInally-Henrys contacted the company to complain they were visited “to put the situation right”. A spokesman said: “It is very rare for customers to be dissatisfied with insulation work.”
Interestingly, it is thought that British Gas is aware of a bigger problem in numbers and has a team of ‘problem solvers’ especially for Cavity Wall Insulation complaints.
UK Parliament discussed the huge scale of the problem in November 2016 and since then very little has been heard from Government.
The solution
Alan Hoey, Managing Director at Claims Legal who have been helping clients seek redress for the last 3 years and has a growing panel of specialist solicitors trained and dedicated to helping home owners protect their homes and families health said “It is a shocking situation for homeowners on a large scale and as well as damp, mould, condensation, cold spots, damp smells, and all the usual issues, wall ties within the strength and fabric of the buildings can be affected and cause structural problems. The best route for any home owners is to seek legal representation and get the professional services of a Chartered Surveyors included. Our panel solicitors and barristers use leading Chartered Surveyors and they work for you, not the Government or the big energy companies, so your interests are always their first concern.”
“Devaluation is a real concern, if you image a 1/3rd of the price of your home can be wiped out because of failed cavity wall insulation, and multiply that potentially 3 million homes affected, the bill could come to as much as £100 BILLION POUNDS.”
Ironically, the whole issue to lower greenhouse gases and improve the environment has been turned upside down. When heating cold and damp walls, the heating usage is much larger. That is without the massive effect that is about to come with all of the extracted insulation materials needing to go to landfill as a full extraction is always recommended and cross insulation should never be done. With an average of 25 bin liners of material needing binned per home, multiply by 3 MILLION again, it is one big fat mess.
So, if British Gas have installed your Wall Cavity Insulation and you have problems, you might be best contacting Wall cavity Claims and see what they can help you with. You’ll never be asked to make any payments upfront or if your claim is unsuccessful.
www.wallcavityclaims.co.uk
www.Facebook.com/wallcavityclaims
Wall Cavity Claims offer a national service covering all of England and Wales, and specialist solicitor all work No Win No Fee. Contact them today on Freephone 0800-8-654321

CIGA – Cavity Insulation Guarantee Agency issued around 6 million guarantee certificates from the 12 million that have been issued by various guarantee agencies for Cavity Wall Insulation.

If you haven’t got a copy of your Guarantee – it is extremely important you get a copy and retain this. It will be required if you need to make a claim for failed Cavity Wall insulation, or if you want to sell your house.

CIGA can be contact on:

Postal Address:

The Cavity Insulation Guarantee Agency
CIGA House,
3 Vimy Court, Vimy Road
Leighton Buzzard
Bedfordshire.
LU7 1FG

Contact numbers & email:

For general enquiries*

Phone: 01525 853300
Fax: 01525 385926
Email:  info@ciga.co.uk

To report concerns with insulation*

Phone: 01525 853300
Fax: 01525 385926
Email: concerns@ciga.co.uk 

Below are contact details for other agencies that may have guaranteed the cavity wall insulation in your property:

• Enterprise ECO Guarantee
  hiesscheme.org.uk

Phone: 0844 324 5242
Email: info@hiesscheme.org.uk

• REIGA Guarantee
  via elite-insurance.co.uk

Phone: 01273 245513

• Kinnell Green Deal Guarantee
  kinnell-holdings.co.uk/qreen-deal

Phone: 01292 268020

• IWA ECO Guarantee
  iwa.biz

E-mail: sarah@iwa.biz

• Jelf Insurance Partnership ECO Guarantee
  insurance-partnership.com

Phone: 01482 388597

• BUFCA ECO BASF Walltite CV 100 Guarantee
  BUFCA ECO Technitherm Guarantee
  bufcawarranty.co.uk

Phone: 01482 388597

• The Green Deal & Eco Guarantee Company
  wgscheme.co.uk

Phone: 08453 400 523
Email: info@gdgc.co.uk

• Kinnell ECO Guarantee
  kinnelleco.co.uk

Phone: 01292 268020

CIGA now charge £25.00 for a copy of your guarantee certificate

https://ciga.co.uk/the-ciga-guarantee/

CIGA is the main guarantee issuing body for Cavity Wall Insulation, having issued around 6 million guarantees out of the estimated 12 million homes that have been installed with Cavity Wall Insulation.

In most cases when something goes wrong or you need a copy of guarantee for something like selling your house, you will be directed to them for a copy of a CIGA guarantee certificate if you don’t have one. This is a vital document in processing a claim for failed cavity wall insulation.

In 2016 you could request a copy of your certificate free of charge.

In 2017 CIGA started to charge £10 for a copy of your guarantee certificate. A good money earner if all 6 million guarantee holders all requested a copy, this would generate £60 MILLION pounds income for CIGA.

At £25.00 per certificate this would generate an income to CIGA of £150 MILLION POUNDS.

Interestingly, it is easy for CIGA to email a copy of the guarantee, and apart from a little staff time, it wouldn’t cost them anything to provide it to you this way.

Don’t want to pay £25.00 ? – Read More Below

DATA SUBJECT ACCESS REQUEST – DATA PROTECTION ACT – SECTION 7

If you send a written request to CIGA like the template we have drafted below, the maximum fee CIGA can charge is £10.00 – this is called the ‘maximum statutory fee’ that can be charged for a copy of ALL information CIGA hold on you including a copy of your CIGA guarantee certificate.

DSAR – This is a legal request under the Data Protection Act and failure by CIGA to provide the full release of information within 40 days maximum is a breach of their regulatory requirement and you can make a formal complaint to the Information Commissioners Office. CIGA could be warned or even heavily fined for failing to provide adequate and timely responses to requests for information, so don’t be afraid to use this request process and let CIGA know you have the Information Commissioners Office and the Data Protection Act FULLY on your side!

You can read more from the Information Commissioners website and Section 7 by clicking HERE

Below is a link to all the guarantee agencies, what kind of Cavity Wall Insulation they specialised in and guaranteed and also their contact information and websites to read more information:

https://www.wallcavityclaims.co.uk/ciga/get-a-copy-of-your-ciga-certificate/

SAMPLE DATA SUBJECT ACCESS REQUEST LETTER >>

YOUR NAME
YOUR ADDRESS
YOUR POSTCODE

The Cavity Insulation Guarantee Agency
CIGA House,
3 Vimy Court, Vimy Road
Leighton Buzzard
Bedfordshire.
LU7 1FG

[DATE OF REQUEST]

Dear Cavity Insulation Guarantee Agency

DATA SUBJECT ACCESS REQUEST – DATA PROTECTION ACT 1998

I am writing to request information pursuant to section 7 of the Data Protection Act 1998.

I am sending this DSAR request for the following information which I request pursuant to the Data Protection Act under a Data Subject Access Request:

• A copy of my CIGA guarantee certificate
• A copy of all electronic and paper notes you hold in relation to me and my property.
• A copy of all installer paperwork submitted to CIGA
• A copy of all manual intervention notes you hold on your system
• A copy of the installers registration with CIGA and details of their insurer at the time of install if the installer is no longer trading
• Any and all other data you hold on my address.

While we understand the Act allows 40 days for the provision of the information, I would be extremely grateful if this matter could be dealt with as quickly as possible.

We remind you that this request is made subject to Section 7 of the Data Protection Act and remind you of your legal obligations under the Act. Failure to respond in full with the requested information could result in a formal complaint being made to the Information Commissions Office without further notice to you.

I enclose the statutory fee of £10.00 to cover all accounts.

Yours Sincerely

[YOUR NAME]

CIGA is the main certification body for cavity wall insulation. In most cases, you will be directed to them for a copy of a CIGA guarantee if you don’t have one. This is a vital document in processing a claim for failed cavity wall insulation. However, every now and again CIGA may not have a record of your property being registered with them. So, what should you do if this is the case?

There are a few reasons for this, one of which is your property may have simply been registered with another guarantee agency. Of the 12 million homes estimated to have had cavity wall insulation installed, about 6 million were certificated by CIGA. So, it is very possible another certification body certified your home. There is a total of 11 certification bodies approved by Ofgem with a slight variation in the kind of cavity wall insulation they certify. Below is a link to the agencies, what kind of CWI they specialise in and their contact information:

https://www.wallcavityclaims.co.uk/ciga/get-a-copy-of-your-ciga-certificate/

It is also possible the installer of your Cavity Wall Insulation simply did not register your property with a guarantee body at all. This was usually because funding for the Cavity Wall Insulation would run out and it cost the installer to register the property, so they simply didn’t do it.

In this case the best thing to do would be to find out if neighbours and other properties in close proximity to yours had Cavity Wall Insulation installed at a similar time and see if they have a guarantee certificate or are registered.

If this is the case, you can write to said certification body and ask them to issue a guarantee for your home in line as this was promised by the installer at time of install who would have been registered with the guarantee agency.

TCF – Treat Customers Fairly

If you were promised a suitable install and a guarantee, and they provided your neighbours with one but not you, they have a moral obligation to issue a certificate back dated to the date of install.

Is cavity wall insulation safe?

Most cavity wall insulation is perfectly safe – but it can depend on the material used, and more often and important the quality of the workmanship. Modern retrofit cavity wall insulation methods should pose no threat to those living in the home, but if your walls were insulated decades ago, you may want to check what was used. Similarly, if your cavity walls were wrongly insulated, this could cause you problems such as damp, and poor air quality because of lack of air flow.

Urea formaldehyde foam insulation

In the 1970s. 80s and 90’s, there was a rush to insulate thousands of homes as quickly and cheaply as possible – and this saw the widespread use of formaldehyde foam insulation, sprayed into cavity walls. In some cases, it was an effective insulant, and it wasn’t until later that people noticed the issues it caused.

Once inside the cavity, this foam shrinks as it cures, leaving air gaps in the walls which encourage cold bridging. But urea formaldehyde has been blamed for more sinister problems too.

When urea formaldehyde decomposes over time, it creates chemical fumes. There is evidence that exposure to high levels of airborne formaldehyde can lead to respiratory problems and other health issues.

If you’re worried that your home may have been insulated with it, it’s best to get a professional to take a look. If you don’t have the paperwork, they will be able to check with a borescope inspection to see whether or not it’s this type of insulation, and can also measure the levels of formaldehyde in the air to see if they are potentially dangerous.

Urea formaldehyde (UF) foam 1.1 Insulating materials which give off formaldehyde fumes (either when used or later in normal use) may be used to insulate the cavity in a cavity wall where there is a continuous barrier which will minimise as far as practicable the passage of fumes to the occupiable parts.

Blown fibre insulation

Another material that was once commonly used to insulate cavity walls is fibre. This is injected into the cavity, where it settles and compacts. Although it has no health effects when fully sealed within the cavity, if it escapes through gaps it can be a bit of a nightmare. Although blown fibre insulation isn’t classed as hazardous, it is an irritant – if it escapes, it can really itch your eyes and skin.

Another issue is that fibre insulation has often been installed in properties where it was unsuitable, or it was rushed. Once rainwater gets into the cavity, it saturates the fibre. This water can then track across into internal walls and present as damp. Aside from wet fibre being absolutely no use as an insulator, damp and mould can have serious health implications.

If you think this is an issue in your property, it’s wise to take steps to protect your home, your family and your health, take the cavity wall insulation out and start again.

We can recommend people we trust to do this for you. Bear in mind that if you’re removing/exposing blown fibre insulation, you have a responsibility to make sure it doesn’t escape and cause problems for your neighbours!

New cavity wall insulation – Polystyrene Beads

If you’re installing cavity wall insulation, it’s worth opting for a modern insulating material with proven performance! EPS (expanded polystyrene beads) and polyurethane foam are the most commonly used these days, and with good reason. Neither have health implications, and they are waterproof, so should be as effective in decades’ time as they are now. Always ask for an explanation of the insulation material your installer is using if there’s anything you’re not sure about.

Polystyrene Beads when used with a bonding agent that holds the beads together as they settle inside the cavity seem to be the preferred product, but have only been installed in a small number of properties because of the extra costs, and contractors opted for the lower cost fibre material.

Those who had beads installed may have found them across their lawns, garages, inside kitchen cupboards, coming up their sinks, leaking through air vents, and so on. This gives an indication that the beads were not glued, and because of bead loss, gaps at the top of the internal walls will create cold spots and then lead into damp and mould.

Probably one of the easiest products to extract, depending on the property.

If you’re one of the 3 MILLION homes that is affected by damp and mould, cold spots, damp smells, leaking insulation or excessive condensation, or you think you might have foam insulation, partial fill, or any other problems, don’t leave it to get worse. Statute of Limitations Act gives you a set time from date of knowledge to bringing an action.

Contact Wall Cavity Claims today for free and impartial service from industry experts, panel solicitors, the countries’ leading Chartered Surveyors and industry recognised extractors and repairers.

Freephone:                        0800-8-654321

Follow us on Facebook:                www.Facebook.com/wallcavityclaims

Website:                             www.wallcavityclaims.co.uk