The short answer
Often yes. The CIGA guarantee is attached to the property, not the person who originally paid for the work, so if the insulation was CIGA-registered, any remaining cover from its 25-year term normally transfers to you as the new owner. You can claim on it for a genuine defect even though you were not the original customer. Where there is no CIGA guarantee, your routes are different: you would look at the information you were given when you bought the house, any survey done before purchase, and potentially the conveyancing process — though claiming against a previous owner is usually difficult. The first step is to ask CIGA whether a guarantee exists for the address and how long is left to run.
Inheriting failed insulation with a house is common, and the guarantee scheme was designed to follow the property. The detail below sets out your position.
Buying with failed fill
- CIGA guaranteetransfers with the property
- Remaining term25 years from install date
- First stepask CIGA about the address
- No guaranteesurvey / conveyancing routes
- Pre-purchase surveymay carry separate liability
The guarantee follows the property
The key fact is that a CIGA guarantee is linked to the address, not to the original purchaser. When cavity wall insulation is installed by a registered contractor, the job is registered against the property, and the 25-year guarantee remains valid through changes of ownership. So if you buy a house that had insulation fitted by the previous owner, and that work was CIGA-registered, the remaining cover normally passes to you automatically. You do not need a transfer form in most cases, and you can make a claim for a genuine defect just as the original owner could have. The cover that remains depends on how long ago the fill was installed.
This design is deliberate. Cavity wall insulation outlasts the average period of home ownership by a wide margin, so a guarantee that ended at the point of sale would protect almost nobody when defects eventually appear. By attaching the cover to the address, the scheme ensures the protection reaches whoever owns the house at the time a problem shows itself. For a buyer, that means failed insulation discovered after moving in is not automatically a loss to absorb — if the work was registered, the right to have a genuine defect put right came with the property, and the claim is yours to make.
Finding out what cover you have
Because you were not the original customer, you may not hold the paperwork. To establish your position:
- Contact CIGA with the property address — they can confirm whether a guarantee was registered and when the work was done.
- Check the conveyancing file — guarantee documents are sometimes passed on in the property information forms at sale.
- Note the installation date — this tells you how much of the 25 years is left.
- Gather evidence of the defect — photographs, damp readings and any survey, as for any claim.
| Question | How to check | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Is there a guarantee? | ask CIGA by address | decides main route |
| When installed? | CIGA records | remaining term |
| Defect proven? | survey / borescope | supports claim |
| Disclosed at sale? | conveyancing file | other routes |
Indicative checklist for guidance. Sources: CIGA; Citizens Advice.
If there is no CIGA guarantee
Not every installation is registered, and some older work predates the scheme. Without a CIGA guarantee, your options change. You cannot usually claim against the previous owner simply because the insulation later failed, unless they actively misrepresented its condition. What can matter is the information provided at sale and your own pre-purchase survey: if a homebuyer's surveyor missed an obvious defect they were instructed to assess, that may give a separate route against the surveyor. These claims are fact-specific and subject to time limits, so they are weaker and less certain than a transferable guarantee. Confirming with CIGA first is always the sensible starting point.
The property information forms completed during the sale can be relevant here. Sellers are asked about works carried out and any guarantees, and a seller who knowingly gave false answers may be in a different position from one who simply did not know of a latent problem. Equally, the level of survey you commissioned affects what you could reasonably expect it to find — a basic valuation is not the same as a full building survey. None of these routes is as clean as an inherited guarantee, which is why establishing whether CIGA cover exists is always the first thing to check.
Practical steps for new owners
If you have moved into a home and suspect the cavity insulation has failed, work through it in order. First, ask CIGA whether a guarantee covers the address and how long remains. Second, document the problem with dated photographs and, where the cause is unclear or disputed, an independent survey that rules out unrelated damp from gutters, roof or rising damp. Third, if a guarantee exists, register a claim with CIGA and let them inspect. If it does not, review your survey and conveyancing position. Acting early protects you against remaining-term and limitation deadlines, which can be shorter than expected if the fill was installed long before you bought.
A common mistake among new owners is to assume that because the work was done before their time, the problem and the cost are simply theirs to shoulder. That is rarely the full picture. The whole purpose of attaching the guarantee to the address is to carry the protection forward to whoever lives in the house when a defect surfaces, which in many cases is a later owner rather than the person who commissioned the work. Establishing what cover exists, dating the installation, and getting the cause properly diagnosed turns a vague worry about inherited damp into a defined position with a route to remedy. Even where no guarantee exists, the pre-purchase survey and the information given at sale may offer a route, so the sensible course is always to check rather than assume the loss is unavoidable.
Frequently asked questions
Does the CIGA guarantee transfer automatically when I buy a house?
Generally yes. The guarantee is attached to the property rather than the original buyer, so remaining cover normally passes to the new owner without a separate transfer. You can confirm the position by contacting CIGA with the address.
Can I claim against the person I bought the house from?
Usually not, simply because the insulation later failed. A claim against a previous owner generally needs active misrepresentation. The more reliable routes are the transferable CIGA guarantee or, in some cases, your pre-purchase surveyor.
How do I find out if the insulation was CIGA-registered?
Contact CIGA directly with the property address. They keep records of registered installations and can confirm whether a guarantee exists, when the work was done, and how much of the 25-year term remains.
Sources & further reading
Figures on this page are typical UK ranges drawn from published sources and depend on your specific property. They are guidance, not a quotation.