Registering a workmanship warranty
The job is finished and nothing is wrong, which is exactly why this hour gets skipped. It is the paperwork that answers a question asked three years from now.
Two warranties
They cover different things, and only one covers the fitting
Almost every warranty argument starts here. A homeowner registers the paperwork that came in the box, assumes the job is covered, and discovers years later that the document they hold is about the product while the failure is about the installation.1
The distinction
What each one is, and what it will not do
The manufacturer's warranty
The product itself: the shingle, the unit, the board, the panel. Issued by whoever made it, and frequently requiring registration within a window that starts at installation.
The catch. It excludes installation, which is what most failures actually are. A correctly made product fitted badly is not a manufacturing defect, and the manufacturer will say so.
The contractor's workmanship warranty
The installation: that the thing was fitted correctly and will stay fitted. Given by the business that did the work, and set by your contract rather than by any manufacturer.
The catch. It is worth exactly as much as the business behind it. A warranty from a contractor who has dissolved is the reason the licensing and bond records matter at the start.
Why now and not later
Every period here is counted from completion
Registration windows, warranty terms and the statutory deadlines for a construction claim are all measured from the day the work finished, not from the day you noticed a problem. That is what makes the hour after handover worth more than any amount of effort three years later, and it is why the paid invoice matters as much as the warranty itself.
The hour
Six things, soonest to expire first
Register the product warranties now
These are the ones with a window. Check whether yours starts at installation or at purchase, because this is the only item here that can be lost purely by waiting.
Get the workmanship warranty in writing, with its length
If the contract stated one, ask for it restated on completion. If it did not, this is the last moment anybody has a reason to give you one.
Keep the final invoice marked paid
It establishes the completion date, and the completion date is what every warranty period and statutory deadline is counted from.
Keep the permit and the final inspection
A passed inspection is a third party's statement about the work, and it is the single most useful document you will hold if anything is ever disputed.
Keep the model and serial numbers
Photograph the plate on anything installed. A warranty claim years later is refused for want of a serial number more often than for anything about the fault.
Write down the date each one runs out
The periods differ per product, per contract and per state, so the only reliable version is the one you calculate once and keep with the documents.
Next
Knowing when they run out
The dates are the part nobody keeps. The deadline checker works out what still applies where you live, and what a contractor’s bond is for is the route that remains when a workmanship warranty turns out to be backed by a business that no longer exists.2
Disclosures
- 1.Satisfy is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. This page describes documents to keep after work on your property is finished. It does not assess any warranty, and it does not say what any manufacturer or contractor will cover.
- 2.Warranty registration windows are set by each manufacturer, the length of a workmanship warranty by your contract, and the deadline for bringing a construction claim by each state. Nothing on this page states a period, because none of them is the same in any two cases.