Does my CIGA guarantee transfer to a new homeowner?

A transferable guarantee is one of the practical strengths of the CIGA scheme. The detail below explains how the transfer works for both seller and buyer.

Why the guarantee is transferable

CIGA guarantees are designed to last the working life of the insulation, which is far longer than most people stay in one home. To make that meaningful, the guarantee is linked to the property's address rather than the individual who bought the work. When a registered installer fits cavity wall insulation, the job is registered with CIGA against that address, and the 25-year cover stays with the property through changes of ownership. So whoever owns the house at the time a defect appears can make the claim — the original purchaser does not need to be involved. This is what allows a buyer to inherit working cover without arranging anything special.

The transferable nature can also be a modest selling point. A buyer comparing two similar homes may take comfort from one that comes with documented, remaining insulation cover, since it signals that any future defect has a clear route to being put right at no cost to them. For the seller, that means keeping the guarantee paperwork to hand is worthwhile rather than something to discard. The cover does not need to be re-bought or re-applied for at each sale; it simply continues against the address, which is the feature that makes it genuinely useful across decades and several owners.

What sellers should do

Although the transfer is automatic, a seller can make it smooth and add value:

• Find the guarantee documents and pass them to the buyer with the rest of the property paperwork.
• Note the installation date so the buyer knows how much of the 25 years remains.
• Mention the guarantee in the property information forms during conveyancing.
• If you cannot find the paperwork, ask CIGA for confirmation against the address so the buyer has a reference.

Providing the documents is reassuring and avoids the buyer having to chase the details later.

Indicative steps for guidance. Source: CIGA guarantee terms.

What buyers should check

If you are buying a home with cavity wall insulation, treat the guarantee as part of your due diligence. Ask whether a CIGA guarantee exists and request the documents, or contact CIGA yourself with the address to confirm the record and the remaining term. Because the cover runs 25 years from installation, a guarantee on insulation fitted long ago may have only a few years left, while recent work could carry most of the term. Knowing this tells you what protection you are inheriting. If a defect later appears, you claim in your own name as the current owner — the guarantee having transferred with the property when you bought it.

It is also sensible to ask whether the property has shown any signs of damp associated with the walls, and to weigh that against the exposure of the location and the age of the fill. A guarantee with many years to run is reassuring, but the most useful position is to know both that cover exists and that there is no obvious unresolved problem waiting to surface. Where a survey raises questions about the walls, the existence of a transferable guarantee means a future defect would have a route to remedy, which can inform how you view the purchase rather than deciding it for you.

If the paperwork is missing

Lost documents do not break the transfer. Because the guarantee is registered against the address, CIGA can confirm whether cover exists even if neither party can find the original certificate. A new owner who never received any paperwork can still contact CIGA, quote the property address, and establish whether a guarantee is in place and how long it has to run. This is the same mechanism that lets people claim years after installation when they have long since misplaced the certificate. The practical takeaway is that the cover is robust: it follows the house, survives a sale, and can be verified from the address alone.

For both sellers and buyers, the simplest way to avoid confusion is to treat the guarantee as part of the property's records rather than a personal document belonging to whoever paid for the work. A seller who keeps and hands over the certificate makes life easier for the buyer and removes a small uncertainty from the sale; a buyer who confirms the position with CIGA at the outset knows exactly what protection comes with the house. Where the paperwork has been lost across one or more previous sales, the address-based record means nothing is truly lost — the cover can be reconstructed from CIGA's own files. Understood this way, the transfer is rarely a problem in practice, and the protection reaches the person who needs it when a defect eventually appears.

Frequently asked questions

Sources & further reading

• CIGA — guarantee transfer and records
• Which? — selling a home with improvements

Figures on this page are typical UK ranges drawn from published sources and depend on your specific property. They are guidance, not a quotation.