Entry 21 · Windows & Glazing
A lost FENSA certificate: how to get a replacement
Lost the FENSA certificate for your windows or doors? How to find the record, order a £30 copy, and what to do when no certificate turns up at all.
If you have lost the FENSA certificate for replacement windows or doors, FENSA can reissue it from its own records: you search for the installation by address on its order page and pay a fee of £30 including VAT, by card online or by cheque, as listed in October 2026. If no record turns up, the work was either certified through another scheme, approved by building control, or never registered at all, and each of those cases has its own route to a document a buyer's solicitor will accept.
01 Can FENSA replace a certificate you have lost?
Yes, provided the job was registered with FENSA in the first place. FENSA states that it keeps a record of all FENSA registered installations and can reissue the certificate through its website, which turns a lost paper into an administrative task rather than a problem. The record exists because a FENSA Approved Installer notifies the job when the work is complete. The certificate you were posted was a copy of that record, not the record itself, so losing it does not erase anything.
The scope is the same as for the original certificate. FENSA covers the replacement of external windows, doors, roof windows and roof lights in a home, on condition that the property sits on its original footprint and the use and size of rooms do not change. A replacement front or back door is therefore inside the scheme on the same terms as a window. Conservatories, porches, new builds, extensions, repairs that leave the old frame in place and commercial property sit outside it, so no FENSA certificate exists for those jobs and none can be reissued.
Dates matter too. According to FENSA, replacement glazing has fallen within the scope of the Building Regulations since April 2002. Windows fitted before then were never expected to carry a certificate, so there is nothing to search for. If you do not know when the windows went in, the date on an old invoice, a guarantee or the previous owner's sale pack is the quickest clue.
02 How do you order a replacement copy?
Start on FENSA's certificate order page. It offers two searches: one by address, and one by FENSA certificate details if you still have a reference from the original paperwork. Enter the address as it was when the work was done, with the full postcode, because a renamed house or a flat number written another way can hide an entry that is there.
Once the installation appears, you can pay online. The page lists the fee as £30.00 including VAT and asks for a credit or debit card. If you prefer not to pay online, FENSA accepts a cheque for the same £30.00, which it describes as including VAT and an administration charge. The cheque travels with a covering letter that gives:
- the full company name and business address of the FENSA registered firm that did the work;
- your full name and the address of the installation, including the postcode;
- a different delivery address and a contact name, if the certificate should be sent somewhere else.
The letter goes to Attn: Operations, FENSA Ltd, Newspaper House, 40 Rushworth Street, London SE1 0RB. The order page does not publish a delivery time, so if you are selling, order as soon as the buyer's solicitor raises the question rather than when exchange comes into view. Guides written in 2025 often quote £25 for an online order; the figure on the order page itself is the one to rely on, and it is worth reading again on the day you pay.
03 Why might the search find nothing?
FENSA lists five reasons an installation may not appear, and they are worth working through in order before you conclude that no certificate was ever issued:
- the address or postcode entered is wrong;
- the job included more than replacing windows and doors;
- the windows and doors are inside the building;
- the installer was not a FENSA Approved Installer at the time;
- the installer did not notify FENSA when the job was complete.
The first is fixed with a second, more careful search. The second explains many gaps in older houses: when the same job widened an opening or inserted a new lintel, building control had to inspect that part, as the entry on where window replacement sits in a renovation sets out, and the record may sit with the council instead. The last two are the hard cases, because they mean the job was either certified by someone else or never notified. FENSA's own reminder applies here: you only get a FENSA certificate when a FENSA Approved Installer does the work. If you still have a trading name from the paperwork, checking a glazing firm online shows how to trace the company behind it.
04 Could another scheme hold the record?
FENSA is one of several bodies allowed to self-certify this work. The GOV.UK list of authorised competent person schemes, last updated on 17 September 2026, names Blue Flame Certification, CERTASS, Certsure, FENSA, NAPIT and ASSURE for replacement windows, doors, roof windows or rooflights in existing dwellings. An installer registered with any of them can certify the job, and the certificate then carries that scheme's name rather than FENSA's.
A failed FENSA search is therefore not the end of the trail. Look at the old quote, invoice or guarantee for a scheme logo or registration number, then go to that scheme. CERTASS, for example, runs its own order route for a replacement compliance certificate from its website. GOV.UK also points homeowners to the Competent Persons Register to check whether a tradesperson belongs to a scheme, which helps when all you have is a trading name.
GOV.UK adds two details that hold for every scheme. A registered installer tells the local authority about the work on your behalf, and should give you a certificate within 8 weeks of completion, one that will also show up in solicitors' searches when you sell. That second point is the safety net for a lost paper: the notification leaves a trace outside your own filing cabinet.
05 Does the council keep a copy?
It often holds the notification, even if it never sent you anything. Because schemes report completed jobs to the local authority, many councils log them in their building control register. Cherwell District Council's public register, to take one example, lists window and door replacements under a FENSA reference, with the decision recorded as a FENSA approval. Not every council publishes its register online, but its building control team can say what it holds for an address, and a buyer's solicitor can raise the same question during the local search.
Building control is also the place to ask when the work never went through a scheme. If a householder or an unregistered firm applied for approval directly, the proof is a completion certificate from the building control body that approved the job, usually the council, and a copy has to come from that body. Ask for the reference, the date and any fee in writing before you pay, and keep the reply with the rest of the house papers.
06 What if no certificate was ever issued?
Then the question changes from finding a paper to proving or covering compliance. GOV.UK describes regularisation as retrospective approval for work carried out without consent. It is granted by a local authority only, and only for work carried out after 11 November 1985. The authority may ask for alterations before it agrees that the work complies and issues a regularisation certificate, and each authority sets its own fees, as the GOV.UK page on how to apply for building regulations approval explains.
The other route is a building regulations indemnity policy, usually arranged through the conveyancer. Conveyancers quoted by Homebuilding & Renovating in March 2025 set out its limits plainly: such a policy compensates the owner if the local authority takes enforcement action, it does not stop that action, it is of no help if the glazing itself fails, and it does not apply once the council has been told about the issue. That last point is why the order of steps matters. Talk to your conveyancer before anyone approaches the council, then choose between the slower route that checks the work and the quicker one that only insures the risk. The background on what a FENSA certificate proves and which papers to keep explains why buyers ask for this evidence at all.
07 Which route fits which situation?
The table sets the common cases side by side. It follows the routes named by FENSA and GOV.UK; fees other than FENSA's are set by each body and are not repeated here.
| Your situation | Where the record sits | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Fitted by a FENSA Approved Installer, paper lost | FENSA's own records | Search by address and order a copy, £30 including VAT |
| Fitted by a member of another scheme | That scheme, such as CERTASS or NAPIT | Order a replacement from the scheme named on the paperwork |
| Approved by building control | The council or the approver that signed it off | Ask that body for a copy of the completion certificate |
| Never notified or certified | No record anywhere | Regularisation by the council, or an indemnity policy through the conveyancer |
| Fitted before April 2002 | No certificate expected | Keep any invoice or note that dates the work |
Whichever row fits, write the date, the firm and the scheme on the front of the folder once the copy arrives, so the next sale starts from a complete file instead of a search.
08 Questions readers ask
How much does a replacement FENSA certificate cost?
FENSA's order page lists £30.00 including VAT, whether you pay online by card or send a cheque, which also covers an administration charge. Guides written in 2025 often give £25 for online orders, so check the page on the day you order.
Does FENSA cover replacement doors as well as windows?
Yes. FENSA's scope is the replacement of external windows, doors, roof windows and roof lights in a home on its original footprint, so a replacement front or back door fitted by an approved installer has a record that can be reissued in the same way as a window.
Do I need a FENSA certificate to sell my house?
You need evidence that replacement windows and doors fitted since April 2002 comply with the Building Regulations. A FENSA certificate is the usual evidence, but a certificate from another authorised scheme or from building control proves the same thing; as one conveyancer told Homebuilding & Renovating, it is the evidence of compliance that a buyer needs, not the FENSA name itself.
FENSA
FENSA Ltd runs a government-authorised competent person scheme for replacement windows and doors, from 40 Rushworth Street, London SE1 0RB, telephone 020 7645 3700 as listed by GOV.UK. It assesses its Approved Installers, records the jobs they notify and reissues certificates from those records on request.