What's your warranty really worth?

In these risk-averse and litigious times, product warranties are often seen as an insurance policy, but with the demand for extended warranties on the smallest building products growing within PFI projects, can you be sure you’re covered? GEZE UK’s managing director Andrew Hall takes a look at where responsibility lies and how everyone can reduce their liability and risk.

By its very nature, a PFI building will be for public use, experiencing high footfall, making reliability, durability and compliance essential for all products throughout the development. Whether it’s a hospital or a school, attention to detail is vital to avoid accidents, ensure public safety and in the case of doors and entrances, accessible. To meet this requirement, it is becoming common practice for leasing companies to request warranties on all building products that are equal in length to the terms of the lease, which in the case of PFI projects is normally 25 years.

Just as the most expensive car will never be fully covered by a warranty unless it is regularly serviced and well maintained, and the longest warranties are limited to a few years because of the speed of legislative changes and the development of new technologies, many building products are subject to the same clauses. In many cases, facilities managers could find that their warranties of up to 25 years could be worthless, leaving them exposed to risk and liable for damages.

The responsibility for this lies in three places – initially with the specifier, who must choose wisely, by selecting high quality, certificated products from a reputable firm with a long pedigree, then with the facilities manager to keep up to date with their maintenance and keep abreast of current legislation. Finally, responsibility lies with the manufacturer to stand by their product for the duration of the warranty.

We’re all well aware that when choosing doors, door closers and automatic doors, specifiers need to take into account a wide range of building regulations. What is the projected footfall, how will the traffic flow through the space, can it be made secure?

Ensuring hardware is specified correctly in the first place and that products meet the highest standards is a vital part of minimising risk for the duration of the lease. Choosing a Guildmark member company on a PFI project ensures you are dealing with registered architectural ironmongers with professional indemnity insurance.

With current pressure to reduce costs, it can be easier for developers to choose a cheaper product, from a more obscure company who may promise the earth in terms of warranty. It’s worth asking the question – will this company still be here in ten years, or even 20, to honour their promises? If not, your warranty, and the product, may not give you the protection you need, and leave you covering the costs, possibly facing heavy fines for non-compliance and even placing lives in danger.

So, if the developer has used a registered architectural ironmonger, chosen the best product from a well-resourced and responsible manufacturer, then you can be sure that due diligence has been done and the leasing company can just hand over the keys, right? Well, not entirely. Many facilities managers are aware how important their ongoing responsibilities to door maintenance can be, yet some have their blinkers on when it comes to ongoing public safety.

Automatic doors are used to enable access for all especially in public buildings. In particular, schools and hospitals are turning to automatic solutions to meet access, fire and security demands. The proliferation of automatic entrances has led to a surge in the need for ongoing maintenance, especially with the increasingly complex, technical systems on offer, from secure access to electronic locking. Regular and ongoing maintenance is essential to ensure the optimal operational performance of the door.

A warranty on an automatic door gives no assurances or protection, without regular and ongoing maintenance, so it’s up to facilities managers to reduce their business’ liability by ensuring that minor issues are quickly fixed before larger problems occur. All automatic doors require regular testing and maintenance to ensure safety at all times and increase the life expectancy of the equipment. The code of practice for automatic doors, BS 7036:1996, states that automatic doors should be regularly serviced by trained and knowledgeable engineers. At GEZE UK, we have a team of service engineers right across the country that are qualified to service all brands of doors, not just GEZE models,

Which leads us onto the responsibility of the manufacturer. Once the specifier has provided the best possible products and the facilities manager has agreed to an appropriate maintenance package with qualified engineers, an approved supplier to PFI projects is committing to a continuity of the product. Manufacturers like GEZE UK not only invest in a superior technical team who can offer support, guidance and solutions, and qualified and experienced on-site engineers, but also we run industry-leading seminars and take leading roles in trade associations and industry regulators.

Prevention is better than cure. Peace of mind cannot be bought with a simple piece of paper, and risk cannot be determined 20 years in advance. It’s important for everyone to understand the implications of long leases and matching warranties and the responsibilities that remain for their duration.