Windows and doors

[parafinn]

Hi there, I have attached a copy of an e-mail I sent to our developers. We are a complex of 15 houses and we are a thousand feet up, the last 2 winters have been pretty severe, we have asked the authorities about changing the windows but have had no positive response from them. We feel that the rule about not changing your windows and doors is a little nonsensical, is there any way of getting round this?

E-Mail

As you well know, we are now into our 7th year of waiting for our title deeds, that is a problem, but we hope that it gets sorted out in the near future, but one of the problems we have had since day one is the windows and doors in the houses. The last 2 Winters have been extremely cold, and the windows and doors are just not good enough to keep out the cold. We have enquired about changing them into double glazing, UPVC or Aluminium, but have been told that we cannot change them as the plans say we have wooden so they have to stay wooden. I know once we get our title deeds we can change them, but is there any way we can get permission to do this.

There are a few elderly folk on our site, and they are suffering badly during the winters, also, with the government trying to be environmentally friendly, refusing us permission is going completely against this, we use more AC in the summer, and more central heating in the Winter.

Please let me know if you can help on this subject, also, could you let us know how the application for title deeds is doing.

[Nigel Howarth]

Hi parafinn and welcome to the forum,

I'm afraid that if the building permit/plans say wooden windows, there is not much you can do apart from visiting the planning office and asking them (I'm not sure from your question whether you wrote to them or spoke with them).

Have you considered fitting double-glazed units into the wooden frames or secondary double glazing?

Wooden frames will keep the cold out better than wooden ones - unless the aluminium frames are fitted with a thermal break.

Regards,