Window warranties in Victoria, and what to do the day one fails.
Three separate clocks run over your job. The maker warrants the frame for 10 to 15 years and the glass seal for 10 to 20. The installer warrants the workmanship, normally for 7 years. Over both sit the Australian Consumer Law guarantees, which have no expiry date and cannot be signed away. Knowing which one a problem belongs to is the difference between a repair and an argument.
Cover, by whom, for how long.
Terms below are the ones typically offered by the Australian window manufacturers we buy from and by reputable installers in the City of Casey. Always read your own certificate, because the maintenance conditions differ between brands.
| What is covered | By whom | Typical term | What it will not cover |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frame, powder coat and finish | Window manufacturer | 10-15 years | Chalking or corrosion where the coating was never washed. Six-monthly washing is a written condition of most coating warranties |
| Insulated glass unit edge seal | Glass processor, claimed through the maker | 10-20 years | Breakage, scratching, thermal stress cracks from stick-on films, and units sitting in blocked drainage |
| Hardware: rollers, friction stays, locks, handles | Hardware maker, via the installer | 1-5 years, sometimes 7 | Seizure from dirty tracks or wrong lubricant. Dry silicone only, never a penetrating oil |
| Flyscreens and mesh | Installer or maker | 1-2 years | Pets, impact, sun degradation of mesh over time |
| Installation workmanship: packing, fixing, flashing, make-good | Your installer | 7 years, ours 7-10 | Movement caused by underlying structural problems that existed before the job |
| Perimeter sealant beads | Installer, as a consumable | Defects period only, then 10-15 year service life | Normal weathering. Sealant is a maintenance item, not a permanent fixture |
| Consumer guarantees: due care and skill, fit for purpose, acceptable quality | Australian Consumer Law, against the supplier | No fixed expiry. Judged on what is reasonable for the price and product | Damage you caused, misuse, or a problem you were told about before you bought |
| Implied warranties in a major domestic building contract | Domestic Building Contracts Act 1995 (Vic) | Building actions in Victoria have a 10 year long-stop | Work outside the written contract scope |
| Domestic building insurance | Insurer, for work above the state threshold | Set by the policy and the Act | Everything, unless the builder has died, disappeared or become insolvent. It is a last resort, not a warranty |
If it goes wrong: the steps in order.
| Step | What you do | Timeframe |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Report it, in writing | Email the installer with photos and the room. A phone call is fine as well, but the email is the record | Within days of noticing |
| 2. Inspection | Installer attends, identifies whether it is product, workmanship or maintenance, and puts the finding in writing | Expect an offer of a date within 5-10 business days |
| 3. Formal defect notice | If nothing happens, send a dated, numbered defect notice with photos and a clear deadline | Allow 14-21 days to respond |
| 4. Manufacturer claim in parallel | For a fogged unit or a coating failure, lodge with the maker. They normally require the installer to submit it | Assessment commonly 2-6 weeks |
| 5. Domestic Building Dispute Resolution Victoria | Free conciliation. For most domestic building disputes you must go here before the tribunal will hear it | Assessment then conciliation, typically over some weeks |
| 6. VCAT, Building and Property List | File once DBDRV issues its certificate. Bring the contract, the notice, the photos and any expert report | Months, so treat it as the last option |
| 7. Regulators and insurance | Victorian Building Authority for registration conduct, Consumer Affairs Victoria for contract conduct, and the insurer only if the builder is gone | Any time, and in parallel with the above |
General information for Victorian homeowners, not legal advice. If a claim is large, get advice before step 6. Call (03) 9022 6418 if you want a second opinion on whether something is a defect.
What actually sits behind the paperwork.
Domestic building work in Victoria runs under the Domestic Building Contracts Act 1995 and the Building Act 1993. The Domestic Building Contracts Act implies a set of warranties into the contract whether or not anyone writes them down: that the work is carried out with reasonable care and skill, that the materials are good and suitable for the purpose, that the work complies with the law and the plans, and that it is finished in a reasonable time. Those implied warranties are the reason a bare handshake job still carries obligations, and they cannot be contracted out of.
On top of that sit the consumer guarantees in the Australian Consumer Law, which apply to both the windows as goods and the installation as a service. Goods must be of acceptable quality and fit for purpose; services must be provided with due care and skill. These have no fixed expiry. The test is what a reasonable person would expect given the price and the product, which is why a $2,400 window that fogs after six years is a very different conversation from a $600 one that fogs after fifteen.
Victoria also sets a dollar threshold above which domestic building work must be done under a written major domestic building contract by a registered practitioner who holds domestic building insurance. A whole-house re-window is comfortably above that threshold. A single window may well sit below it. The figure has been stable for years but it does get reviewed, so check the current amount with Consumer Affairs Victoria or the Victorian Managed Insurance Authority rather than accepting anyone's assurance. Ask for the practitioner registration number and the insurance certificate before you pay a deposit, and check the registration on the Victorian Building Authority register yourself: it takes two minutes.
One more number worth knowing. Building actions in Victoria carry a ten year long-stop, measured from the relevant occupancy permit or final inspection certificate. Beyond that point the courts and the tribunal will not hear a building claim, no matter how genuine. That is the outer limit on the whole framework and it is why sitting on a known defect for years is the worst thing you can do with it.
Want a scope written so a dispute never starts?
Every opening itemised, glazing and hardware named, and who makes good the reveals stated in writing before anything is ordered.
What to keep, and what a defect notice should say.
Keep all of this in one folder, physical or digital, for at least ten years: the signed contract or quote with the full scope; the practitioner registration number and the domestic building insurance certificate if the job needed one; the AS 2047 compliance documentation for the windows; the energy performance certificate if one was issued; every invoice and receipt showing the ABN; the manufacturer warranty certificates for the frames, the glass and the hardware, registered in your name where registration is required; and dated photos of each opening before, during and after. Photographs taken while the frame is out, showing the flashing and the packing, are worth more than anything else in the folder if a leak ever turns up.
A defect notice is a short factual email, not a letter of complaint. It should carry the property address, the contract or invoice number and date, a numbered list of each defect with the room it is in, a dated photo of each, what outcome you want, and a reasonable deadline to respond, normally 14 to 21 days. Do not speculate about cause and do not threaten anything at that stage. If it goes to conciliation, that email is the first document anyone reads, and a calm numbered list makes you look exactly like the reasonable party.
Which of these is actually a claim.
Water at the head or the sill in the first winter. Defect, and a workmanship one. It usually means missing or reversed head flashing, or a window rated below the site wind class. This is urgent because water in a stud wall becomes a mould problem within a season.
Fog sealed between the two panes. Defect. The insulated glass unit edge seal has failed and the desiccant is saturated. It cannot be cleaned or dried out and the unit has to be replaced. Product warranty, typically 10 to 20 years.
Condensation on the room-side face of the glass. Not a defect. That is warm humid indoor air meeting a cold surface, and it is driven by unflued gas heaters, drying clothes inside, long showers and no ventilation. Double glazing should reduce it dramatically, and if it has not, the cause is almost always the moisture load in the house rather than the window.
A slider that has become heavy after eight years. Almost always maintenance. Casey clay dust in the bottom track grinds the rollers. Vacuum the track and use dry silicone rather than a penetrating oil, which is covered step by step on our window maintenance page. If the same slider was heavy from the first week, that is a workmanship claim, because it was not levelled and adjusted at handover.
Chalky white powder coat at year eight. Usually excluded. Nearly every coating warranty is conditional on washing with a mild detergent roughly every six months, and unwashed frames on the older Casey estate houses are exactly what a lapsed condition looks like.
Hairline crack in the perimeter silicone at year twelve. Fair wear. Sealant is a consumable with a service life around 10 to 15 years in this climate, and it needs cutting out and redoing rather than smearing over.
Hail or storm damage, or a cricket ball. Neither warranty covers it. That is a home insurance matter, and the way to run it is set out on our window insurance claims page.
The honest note. Almost every dispute we have ever been asked to look at was decided before the work started, by a scope that did not say enough. Colour, glazing type, hardware brand, screen type, who makes good the reveals, who paints, what happens if rotten framing is found behind the render, and the fixed price after check measure. Put those eight things in writing and the odds of ever needing step 3 collapse. And be honest about the flip side: if you engaged someone unregistered because they were $6,000 cheaper, the statutory framework helps you a great deal less than it looks like it should on paper. That trade-off is priced out on our budget page, and the case for and against doing it yourself is on the DIY versus professional page.
Get a scope and a warranty you can actually read.
Free on-site measure across Casey, a written quote within 7 days, and the frame, glass and workmanship warranty terms stated on the quote rather than mentioned later.
What Victorian homeowners ask about window warranties.
How long is the warranty on replacement windows in Victoria?
What is the difference between a product warranty and a workmanship warranty?
Do I need a registered builder to replace windows in Victoria?
What should a written defect notice for windows say?
Where do I go if the window installer will not fix a defect?
Is condensation on my new windows a warranty defect?
Get it in writing before the deposit, not after the leak.
Free measure across Berwick, Cranbourne, Narre Warren, Hampton Park and Endeavour Hills. Registration, insurance and warranty terms supplied with every quote.