Double glazing firm Everest falls into administration – your installation and warranty rights explained

Everest, also known as 'Everest 2020', fell into administration on 24 April 2024, with business advisory firm ReSolve appointed to oversee the process. ReSolve has been unable to find a buyer for the business as a whole, so the majority of Everest's staff have been made redundant (though certain assets will be sold to rival firm Anglian Home Improvements).

This is the second time the Everest brand has fallen into administration – a previous version of the business was saved by a rescue deal in June 2020 and renamed Everest 2020.

For more on your general administration rights, you can also read our Company administration guide. If you're affected by redundancies – Everest says hundreds of employees will lose their jobs – you can see our Redundancy help guide.

You can no longer place new orders with Everest

As a result of the latest administration, Everest's website has closed and the business is not taking any new orders. Everest did not have any physical stores.

Got an existing order with Everest? This should still be fulfilled

Over 1,500 Everest customers have unfulfilled orders, according to ReSolve. But the administrators have entered into a sub-contractor deal with Anglian to fulfil existing customers' orders. Here are the key need-to-knows – note that ReSolve was unable to answer many of our specific questions, while Anglian hasn't responded to our multiple requests for clarification:

• You'll be contacted by Anglian in "the coming days and weeks" to confirm the details of your order and to arrange for the work to be carried out. Anglian has said it'll prioritise those who are already partway through the installation process, and then contact people who have booked an installation.

  It's unclear if Anglian will fulfil ALL outstanding Everest orders – including those for doors and conservatories, alongside windows – we only know that orders will be fulfilled "where possible". If you don't hear anything within a few weeks or you have an urgent query, contact Anglian via email or phone 0800 876 6810.

  If your installation can't be completed as planned and you've been left out of pocket because you'd already paid Everest for some or all of the work, you can try to get your money back by registering with ReSolve as an unsecured creditor or filing a Section 75 or chargeback claim. See below for how to try to get your money back.

• It's too late to cancel your installation. Everest previously allowed households to cancel installations within seven days for a full refund. However, as the company is now insolvent, you can no longer cancel your order for a full refund.

  If you don't want Anglian to carry out the work, your only option is to let it know and to try to get your money back by registering with ReSolve as an unsecured creditor or by filing a Section 75 or chargeback claim. See below for how to try to get your money back.

• You'll pay the original amount that you agreed to with Everest. Anglian has said it will honour the terms of the contract, including the price, that had been previously agreed. However, it's unclear if you'll be offered exactly the same products. 

  In the meantime, remember to be scam aware: Anglian says it will not ask you to make any payments before your installation. If you're unsure if communications are legitimate, email ReSolve.

We don't know whether Anglian will offer warranties for former Everest customers whose orders it fulfils. If Anglian is completing your installation, make sure you discuss your warranty options with it.

It's also unclear if Anglian will provide so-called 'FENSA certificates' (the Fenestration Self-Assessment Scheme, a body that monitors building regulation compliance for replacement windows and doors) on work carried out on behalf of former Everest customers. So again, check with Anglian if it's completing your installation. 

If your Everest goods are faulty, you still have some rights – but your options are limited

One of the biggest problems former customers of Everest and its successor Everest 2020 are likely to face is what happens if their goods are faulty. Any warranties – including Everest's "20-year guarantee" on its windows and doors – are now virtually worthless. But you may still have some options...

Step one: know your consumer rights

All goods must follow what we call the 'SAD FART' rules. In other words, they must be: Satisfactory quality, As Described, Fit for purpose, And last a Reasonable length of Time.

If your goods fail to meet any of these criteria, you're entitled to a full refund within the first 30 days. After that, you should be offered a repair or replacement – then, if those don't work, a partial or full refund.

Note: If it's been more than six months since you got the goods, it'll be on you to prove that they were faulty (or prone to developing a fault) when you bought them. In practice this could involve, for example, getting a report from an expert to show there was a design or manufacturing defect with the product(s).

Step two: enforcing your rights

This is where it gets tricky.

The first issue is that you only have a legal right to make a consumer rights claim within the first six years of a purchase (five in Scotland). This won't matter for customers of Everest 2020 because – as the name suggests – this version of the company only started trading in 2020, so you're still within the cut-off.

But if your goods came from its predecessor Everest and more than six years have passed since you bought them, you're likely to struggle (though it's still worth a try).

The next issue is that you normally have to deal with the retailer to enforce your rights – which is impossible in this case given that both Everest and Everest 2020 are no longer around.

So you have three options:

• If you paid on a credit card – even if it was just the deposit – you can enforce your consumer rights against your card provider. Under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act, if you pay for something costing more than £100 but less than £30,000 using a credit card, the card firm's equally liable if something goes wrong. In other words, you have the SAME rights covering faulty purchases as you do with the retailer.

  In effect, your credit card provider has to step into the role of Everest or Everest 2020, and it becomes responsible for helping you with a repair, replacement or refund.

  This applies even if you only paid a deposit on the credit card and settled the rest of the balance in another way.

  You can typically file a Section 75 claim within six years of purchase – contact your card provider and it should guide you through the process. See our Section 75 guide for more.

  Paid on a debit card? You have some protection under the chargeback rules – but it's much more limited. For example, you normally only have 120 days from the date of purchase to make a claim, and you're only covered up to the amount you put on the debit card, not the full cost of the goods.

• Not covered on plastic? Check if you can lodge an insurance claim. If your products were installed by Everest 2020 before it went into administration on 25 April 2024, you should have been issued with an 'insurance backed guarantee' (IBG), according to FENSA.

  An IBG is a type of insurance that offers cover if the company that issued the guarantee stops trading. If a problem arises that would’ve been resolved by the guarantee, you can then submit a claim to the IBG provider, which in the case of Everest 2020 is a firm called Installsure. For more info, including help making a claim, see Installsure's FAQs.

  Note: The above only covers goods supplied by Everest 2020. It’s possible the old Everest also provided this type of cover, but info on this is scarce. Check any paperwork you got at the time of the installation to see if you might have an IBG policy.

• As a last resort, you can try getting a repair, replacement or refund by filing as an "unsecured creditor" with Everest 2020's administrator. This means you'll go on the administrator's list of people it owes money or services to. However, you’ll be at the back of the queue, so there's no guarantee you'll get anywhere. If you were an Everest 2020 customer, you can register as a creditor by contacting ReSolve – there's currently no deadline for this, though it's best to do it sooner rather than later just in case.

  For the old Everest, it's now unfortunately too late to register an unsecured creditor claim as the administration process has concluded.