Double glazing warranties in Victoria, and what to do when a window fails
Straight answer: four protections run at the same time. A 10 year seal warranty on the sealed unit, 10 to 15 years on the frame, 5 to 7 on the hardware, and a separate workmanship warranty from the installer of usually 5 to 10 years. Underneath all of them sit the Australian Consumer Law guarantees, which have no expiry date printed on them, and Victoria allows building actions to be brought for up to ten years. Fogging between the panes is always a claim. Condensation on the inside face usually is not.
Glazing warranties confuse people because there is no single warranty. There is a stack of them, held by different businesses, with different lengths and different exclusions, and when something goes wrong the first job is working out which one you are actually standing on. This page sets out the whole stack, the order to escalate in, and the paperwork that turns a frustrating phone call into a claim somebody has to answer. It is written for Victoria specifically, because the dispute pathway here is different from New South Wales and Queensland.
What is covered, by whom, and for how long
Typical Australian market positions for 2026. Your own documents win over anything on this page, so read them, but if a written warranty is materially shorter than the column below, ask why before you sign.
| What can go wrong | Who carries it | Typical period | What it covers | What it does not cover |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sealed unit fogs internally | IGU manufacturer, claimed through the business that sold it to you | 10 years is standard, 5 on budget units | Moisture or haze between the panes, loss of the gas fill, desiccant failure | Breakage, scratches, units modified or re-glazed by someone else |
| Low-E coating deteriorates | Glass processor | 10 years, usually tied to the seal warranty | Peeling, clouding or visible breakdown of the coating | Damage from abrasive cleaners, scrapers, render splash or paint stripper |
| Frame corrodes, fades or warps | Frame manufacturer | 10 to 15 years on powdercoat, 10 years on uPVC profile | Corrosion, blistering, colour change beyond the stated tolerance, distortion | Coastal exposure where the finish was not washed down as specified, chalking within tolerance |
| Locks, rollers, stays and hinges fail | Hardware maker, through your supplier | 5 to 7 years | Mechanical failure, seized rollers, broken stays, locks that will not throw | Wear from grit in unswept tracks, forcing a jammed sash, no lubrication |
| Water leaks, draughts, frame out of square | The installer, under their workmanship warranty | 5 to 10 years: get the number in writing | Perimeter sealing, flashing, packing and levelling, drainage left clear, make good | Movement beyond normal tolerance, damage by other trades after handover |
| Goods or service simply not up to standard | The business you contracted with, under the Australian Consumer Law | No fixed end date: whatever is reasonable for the price paid | Acceptable quality, fit for the purpose you described, services with due care and skill, matching the description quoted | Misuse, normal wear, a fault you were told about before buying |
| Implied warranties on domestic building work | The contractor, under Victorian domestic building law | Victoria caps building actions at ten years | Work carried out in a proper and workmanlike manner, suitable materials, compliance with the law and the plans | Work you directed against advice, and anything outside the written scope |
| Contractor dies, disappears or becomes insolvent | Domestic building insurance, arranged by the contractor | Required above the statutory contract value threshold | Incomplete or defective work, but only in those three circumstances | Everything else while the contractor is still trading and contactable |
General guidance for Victoria in 2026, not legal advice. Confirm current thresholds and time limits with Consumer Affairs Victoria or the Victorian Building Authority before relying on them.
The escalation steps, in order, with realistic timeframes
Work down this list. Do not skip steps, because every step you skip is one the other side will point at later, and conciliators do notice who behaved reasonably.
| Step | When | What you do | Allow |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Record it | The day you notice | Dated photos wide and close, a short note of the conditions, and which opening it is from the window schedule. | Same day |
| 2. Phone call, then confirm in writing | Within a few days | Ring them, then email a summary of what was agreed on the call. The email is the record, not the call. | 2 to 5 days for a reply |
| 3. Formal defect notice | If nothing has moved in a week | A written notice with the elements listed further down this page, sent by email and registered post the same day. | 14 days to respond, 30 days to rectify |
| 4. Claim direct with the manufacturer | For product faults only | Seal failure, coating or frame faults can go straight to the maker with your invoice and the batch details from the spacer bar. | 21 to 45 days |
| 5. Consumer Affairs Victoria | Any time after step 3 | Lodge for advice and assistance. It is free, and a letter from a regulator moves a surprising number of stalled jobs. | 2 to 6 weeks |
| 6. Domestic Building Dispute Resolution Victoria | Once it is clearly a dispute | Free conciliation for domestic building work. You generally need their certificate before the tribunal will hear the matter. | 4 to 12 weeks |
| 7. VCAT | After conciliation fails | Apply to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal with your certificate, contract, notices and photos. | Several months, filing fees apply |
| 8. Insurance claim | Only if the contractor has gone | If the business is insolvent or has vanished, the domestic building insurance policy is the remaining path. | Varies, start early |
Storm, impact or break in damage is a different pathway entirely: that is an insurance claim, and it is covered on our insurance claims page.
Not sure whether what you are looking at is a defect?
Send us a photo and the age of the window and we will tell you straight, even if we did not install it and there is nothing in it for us.
The Victorian framework, named
You do not need to be a lawyer, but knowing the names of these makes every phone call go better, because it signals you have done your reading.
- Australian Consumer Law. The consumer guarantees in the national law apply to the windows as goods and to the installation as a service. Goods must be of acceptable quality and fit for the purpose you described; services must be carried out with due care and skill. These cannot be signed away by any warranty document, and no warranty card shortens them. For a major failure you can choose between a refund or a replacement; for a minor one the supplier can choose to repair.
- Victoria’s domestic building law. Domestic building work carries implied warranties covering workmanlike execution, suitable materials and compliance with the law. Work over ten thousand dollars generally requires a written major domestic building contract and a contractor registered with the Victorian Building Authority. There is a cooling off period of five business days after you sign such a contract, and deposits are capped: broadly ten per cent under twenty thousand dollars and five per cent at or above it. Anyone asking for half up front is outside those rules.
- Domestic building insurance. Required once the contract price passes the statutory threshold, currently sixteen thousand dollars. It is not a general warranty policy: it responds only if the contractor dies, disappears or becomes insolvent. Ask for the certificate before you pay a deposit if your job is over the threshold, and confirm the current figure, because it is reviewed from time to time.
- Time limits. Victoria caps building actions at ten years from the relevant completion date. That is a hard stop, so a defect you have been living with since 2018 is not something to keep sitting on.
- The standards behind a compliant window. AS 2047 for windows and external glazed doors, AS 1288 for where safety glass must go, and AS/NZS 4666 for the sealed units themselves. A window that does not meet them is not just poor quality, it is arguably not compliant, which is a much stronger position in a dispute. Photograph the compliance labels at handover, before anybody paints over them.
The paperwork to keep, and where people lose claims
Claims fail on evidence far more often than on entitlement. Put all of this in one folder, digital or paper, on the day the job finishes.
- The written quote and the signed contract, including the window schedule that labels every opening.
- The specification: glass makeup, cavity width, gas fill, spacer type, frame system, and the whole of window U-value and SHGC that were quoted. Without this you cannot prove you did not get what you paid for.
- Photographs of the AS 2047 compliance labels on each unit, taken at handover before painting.
- The WERS certificate or performance data for the system supplied.
- Every invoice and receipt, including the deposit, with the ABN visible.
- The contractor’s public liability certificate of currency, and the domestic building insurance certificate if the job was above the threshold.
- Photos before, during and after, especially the perimeter sealing and flashing before the architraves go back on. Five minutes with a phone at that moment is worth more than any argument later.
- Every text and email, in date order. Verbal promises are worth what they are written on.
One extra habit that pays off: after the first heavy rain and again after the first real cold snap, walk the house and look at every reveal and every sill. Problems that show up in the first season are cheap and uncontroversial to fix. The same problem found in year six is an argument about whether the house moved.
What a defect notice should say
Keep it to one page, factual and unemotional. You may end up reading it aloud at a conciliation, so write it as though a stranger will judge whether you were reasonable.
- Your name, the property address, and the date the work was carried out.
- The contract or invoice number, and the name of the contracting business as it appears on the invoice.
- Which openings are affected, using the labels from the window schedule rather than "the one in the back bedroom".
- What the defect is, in plain language, and the date you first noticed it.
- Dated photographs attached, wide shot and close up for each opening.
- What you want done: rectification, replacement, or a refund of a specific amount.
- A clear deadline: 14 days to respond and 30 days to complete rectification is normal and defensible.
- A single line noting that the notice is given under the contract and the consumer guarantees in the Australian Consumer Law.
- Send it by email and registered post on the same day, and keep the posting receipt.
What not to put in it: threats, an ultimatum you will not follow through on, an allegation of fraud, or a demand for compensation you cannot itemise. All of those make a settlement harder, not easier.
Defect or fair wear? The honest dividing line
This is where most arguments actually happen, so here is how we call it on a site visit.
| Symptom | Our call | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Haze or water droplets between the two panes | Defect, always | The edge seal has failed. Nothing you did caused it and it cannot be cleaned. |
| Condensation on the inside face of the glass | Usually not a defect | Indoor humidity plus a cold surface. Check the spec was right, then look at ventilation, drying clothes inside and unflued heaters. |
| Condensation on the outside face on a clear morning | Not a defect at all | It means the outer pane is staying cold because the unit is doing its job. It is a good sign, oddly enough. |
| Water in the bottom track after rain | Defect if it will not drain | Sliders are designed to collect and drain water. Blocked or siliconed drainage slots are an install fault. |
| A draught you can feel at the frame edge | Defect in the first years | The perimeter should be foamed, flashed and sealed. Air movement there means it was not. |
| Powdercoat slightly duller at 12 years | Fair wear | Chalking within the stated tolerance is normal in Australian UV, and washing it down is your side of the deal. |
| Rubber seals hardening at 12 to 15 years | Fair wear, cheap to fix | Replacement gaskets are a consumable, usually $60 to $180 per opening. |
| Hairline cracks in reveal paint after two winters | Fair wear on clay | Houses on reactive clay across Casey and Cardinia move seasonally. Paint follows the movement. |
Expected service life by component is set out on our how long does double glazing last page, and the routine care that keeps warranties intact is on the maintenance page.
The honest note: most disputes are prevented at the quote stage
In our experience the arguments almost never start because someone was dishonest. They start because two people had different pictures in their heads and nobody wrote it down. A quote that names the glass makeup, the frame system, the U-value, which openings get safety glass, who makes good the reveals, who takes the rubbish, who provides access equipment and what the payment stages are will settle nearly every disagreement before it becomes one. If a contractor will not put those on paper, the missing paperwork is the warning, not the price.
Two more things worth saying plainly. First, we do not warrant glass we did not supply or frames we did not install, and no honest glazier will: if you buy units online and hire a handyman, you own the gap between them. Second, no warranty in the country covers a house moving beyond normal tolerance, so if your reactive clay site is cracking cornices as well as window reveals, that is a footing conversation, not a glazing one, and we will say so rather than sell you windows. Our terms and who we are is on the about page, pricing is on the pricing page, and if a unit has already fogged the repair itself is covered on our fogged unit replacement page.
If you are still at the buying stage, the two pages worth reading before you sign anything are the glass specification guide, which tells you what to demand in writing, and the budget guide, which shows what a low quote usually leaves out. We work across all of South East Melbourne.
Get a written warranty and a specified scope before you pay a deposit
Send this through and we will quote with the glass makeup, U-value, safety glass and workmanship warranty period named per opening, back to you within 7 days.