Illegal Windows

The value of your property will vary dependant on the quality and age of your home improvements and will be flagged up in a home report as soon as you try and sell your property.

If you have a window where the sill height is below 80 cm then current building regulations require that glazing to be toughened glass. 

Why is toughened glass important?

High quality grade “A” toughened glass is ten times stronger than regular glass and if breaks  it will usually shatter into small fragments instead of sharp shards when broken, making it less likely to cause severe injury and deep lacerations

If your window is illegal then you have two option, either replace the window and make the property easier to sell with a transferable guarantee or take the hit and have the value of your home reduced to allow for the window / windows that should have be changed for safety reasons.

Even if you plan to sell in a few years time it is still worth changing your illegal windows for safety reasons just encase you trip or if a child falls near the window.

Another very common style of windows that are illegal are in bedrooms. All bedroom windows should have an opening large enough to be used as a fire exit.

The minimum width of a side hung window with and egress hinge is 63cm by 88 cm high which will provide a legal fire escape gap of 45cm by 45cm.

Another consideration with upstairs windows is that you must be able to clean all of the outside of the window safely from inside otherwise it is now illegal. This is very common on windows with top openers sometimes called hoppers.

Looking at the picture above the downstairs window is legal as the window sill is above 800mm or 80 cm from the floor and fire and cleaning regulations do not apply. However both windows above are illegal as you can not clean them form the inside and neither meet the fire regulations.

Typical solutions are to fit a casement window on either side with a fixed panel in the middle that you can reach to clean or alternatively fit two tilt and turn windows or two fully reversible windows side by side.

Aluminium windows are more complicated as you have limited design options therefore you have to ensure that what ever you fit is better or no worse than your existing windows.

Be very careful as the liability is on you to get this right, some double glazing companies will happily sell you a fixed window with hoppers along the top for a bedroom, these are illegal and you will be throwing your money away.

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