Warranties on blinds, curtains and shutters in NSW, and what to do when one fails
Three protections stack on every blind in your house: the manufacturer's product warranty, typically 3 to 5 years on roller fabric, 5 to 10 years on sunscreen and componentry and 10 to 25 years on shutter frames; the installer's workmanship warranty, commonly 12 months to 5 years; and the Australian Consumer Law guarantees, which have no fixed expiry and cannot be cut down by anything printed on a warranty card. So if a blockout roller delaminates in year four you still have a claim even when the card says three. Start in writing with the installer, allow 14 days, then escalate to NSW Fair Trading.
Almost nobody reads a blind warranty until something goes wrong, and by then the useful question is not what the card says but who is responsible, how long you have, and what to send them. This page sets that out for Albury and for Wodonga just across the Murray, because the two sides of the border sit under different state frameworks even though the same Australian Consumer Law applies to both. Nothing here is legal advice; it is what an installer knows from making claims on behalf of customers.
Who covers what, and for how long
Warranty periods vary between manufacturers, so treat these as the common range rather than a promise. The one row that never expires is the last one.
| What went wrong | Who covers it | How long | What it does not cover | What you need to claim |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fabric fault: delamination, coating flaking, seams letting go, pinholing | Manufacturer, claimed through us | 3 to 5 years on blockout and light filter, 5 to 10 years on coated sunscreen | Gradual even fade, damage from the wrong cleaning product, pets, cuts | Order number, install date, daylight photos, the room and its aspect |
| Component fault: clutch slipping, chain, spring, brackets, bottom rail | Manufacturer, claimed through us | About 5 years is typical | Impact damage, forcing a jammed blind, over-extension, corrosive cleaning | Which window, what it does, whether it started suddenly or gradually |
| Motor or control fault: no response, lost limits, noisy motor | Motor manufacturer, claimed through us | About 5 years on the motor, 12 months on rechargeable batteries, 2 years on remotes | Flat batteries, wifi and hub problems, water ingress, third-party automation | Motor serial number, whether it hums or clicks, a screenshot of the app |
| Shutter panel, frame, hinges or paint finish | Manufacturer, claimed through us | 10 to 25 years on PVC and basswood frames | Moisture damage in a wet area, timber movement within the maker's tolerance, sun fade | Photos plus a measurement of any bow, and the room's humidity story |
| Installation fault: not level, bracket pulled out, wrong mount, fitting light gaps | Us, the installer | Our workmanship warranty, commonly 12 months to 5 years | Someone else adjusting or re-drilling it, hidden wall damage we could not see | A call as soon as you notice, and a photo of the bracket |
| Wrong size, wrong fabric or wrong colour supplied | Us. This is a remake, not a warranty claim | Until it is right | A change of mind after you signed the order confirmation | The signed order confirmation showing what was ordered |
| Anything that fails sooner than it reasonably should | Australian Consumer Law guarantees, enforced against the supplier | No fixed expiry. Reasonable depends on the price and the product | Misuse, normal wear, damage you caused, a fault you were told about before buying | Proof of purchase. Nothing else is strictly required |
Escalation, in order, with realistic timeframes
| Step | Who | Timeframe | What happens |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Report it | You to the installer | Same or next business day acknowledgement | Describe the fault, attach photos, say which room. Most small faults are solved at this step. |
| 2. Written defect notice | You to the installer, by email | Allow 14 days for a substantive reply | One numbered item per fault, the remedy you want, and a reasonable deadline for a response. |
| 3. Site inspection | Installer, sometimes with the manufacturer's representative | Usually 10 to 20 business days | Someone decides whether it is a product fault, a workmanship fault or fair wear. |
| 4. Repair, replace or remake | Manufacturer and installer | Allow the original lead time again: 2 to 3 weeks for rollers, 6 to 10 weeks for shutters | A repair on site is usually days. A remake is a fresh manufacture run. |
| 5. State consumer regulator | NSW Fair Trading, or Consumer Affairs Victoria for a Wodonga property | Free. Allow several weeks for the trader to respond | They write to the trader and conciliate. They do not adjudicate or order a payment. |
| 6. Tribunal | NCAT in NSW, VCAT in Victoria | Modest filing fee, hearing usually a couple of months out | NCAT's consumer claims jurisdiction covers consumer disputes up to $40,000. Bring the paperwork. |
| 7. Manufacturer direct | You to the maker | As per the product warranty | Only needed if the installer has ceased trading. This is why the order confirmation with the fabric name matters. |
Typical timeframes for domestic window furnishing claims in the Albury and Wodonga area. Warranty periods differ by manufacturer and are confirmed on your own warranty certificate.
The three layers, in plain language
Layer one: the product warranty
This is the maker's promise, printed on a card and tied to a period. It is the fastest route to a fix because the manufacturer replaces the part and the installer fits it. It is also the narrowest, because every exclusion the maker wrote applies. On shutters in particular, read the moisture and fade exclusions before you assume a twenty-five year number means twenty-five years of everything. Our specification page explains which materials come with which realistic promise.
Layer two: the workmanship warranty
This is the installer's own promise about the fitting: level, square, correctly mounted, properly fixed into sound substrate, and the safety devices installed to the required standard. It is usually 12 months to 5 years. It matters more than people think, because a large share of what looks like a product fault is really a fitting fault. A blind that tracks off to one side is almost always a bracket a millimetre out of level, not a bad tube.
Layer three: the Australian Consumer Law guarantees
Under the Australian Consumer Law, every good and service sold to a consumer in Australia carries guarantees that a supplier cannot exclude, restrict or modify. The relevant ones here are that goods are of acceptable quality, that they are fit for the purpose you told the supplier about, that they match their description and sample, and that services are carried out with due care and skill. There is no expiry date on these guarantees. What applies instead is a reasonable period, judged on the price and nature of the product. That is why a $600 shutter panel is held to a much longer standard than a $120 roller blind, and why a written three year warranty does not cap you at three years.
The other thing worth knowing is the difference between a minor and a major failure. For a minor failure the supplier gets to choose the remedy, and they will usually repair. For a major failure, which means the product is substantially unfit for purpose, is unsafe, or is not what was described, you choose between a refund and a replacement, and you can also claim reasonably foreseeable consequential loss. A blockout blind that does not block out is a textbook major failure. A slightly noisy motor is not.
Something not working the way it should?
Send us the room, the fault and a photo. Most small faults on our own installations are sorted on the first visit.
The state frameworks, and where the dollar thresholds bite
New South Wales. The Home Building Act framework administered by NSW Fair Trading governs residential building work. It requires a written contract for residential building work over $5,000 including GST, and home building compensation cover for work over $20,000, with statutory warranty periods that run for six years on a major defect and two years otherwise. Supplying and installing internal window furnishings is generally treated as a supply of goods with installation rather than licensable residential building work, so for a straight blinds purchase the Australian Consumer Law is the framework that protects you. Where it changes is when the blinds sit inside a larger residential building contract, such as a new build in Thurgoona or a renovation in East Albury. Then they form part of the builder's contracted work and inherit those statutory warranty periods. If you are not sure which side of the line your job falls on, NSW Fair Trading will tell you for free, and it is worth the phone call before you sign anything substantial.
Victoria, for Wodonga and Baranduda properties. Victoria runs its own domestic building framework through the Victorian Building Authority, with a major domestic building contract required above $10,000 and domestic building insurance required for domestic building work above $16,000. As in New South Wales, internal window furnishings bought directly from a supplier are ordinarily a goods and installation supply rather than registered building work, so the Australian Consumer Law is again the operative protection, with Consumer Affairs Victoria as the regulator and VCAT as the tribunal. Confirm the current thresholds with the Victorian Building Authority if your blinds are part of a builder's contract.
The safety standard that applies everywhere. Corded internal window coverings are covered by a mandatory ACCC consumer product safety standard, which requires cords to be secured out of reach with tension devices or cleats fixed to the wall, along with warning labelling. That is not a warranty matter, it is a mandatory standard, and a non-compliant installation is a breach regardless of what any warranty says. If you have small children, our page on blind cord safety in Albury covers what has to be fitted.
Insurance to ask about, licence or not. Any tradesperson working in your home should carry public liability insurance, commonly $10 million to $20 million of cover. Ask for a certificate of currency before work starts. It costs you nothing to ask and it is the single clearest signal of a business that expects to still be here in five years.
What to keep, and what a defect notice should say
Keep these, for as long as the longest warranty on the job
- The quote and the signed order confirmation, showing every size, fabric name, colour code, mount type and control type.
- The tax invoice with the ABN and the install date. This is your proof of purchase for the consumer guarantees.
- The warranty certificates, including motor serial numbers if anything is motorised.
- The fabric care sheet. Cleaning a foam-backed blockout with a wet cloth is the most common self-inflicted fault we see, and the care sheet is what tells you not to.
- Photos of each room on the day of install, before anything has aged. A dated photo of how a blind looked when new settles most fade arguments in one email.
- The fabric offcut, if we left one with you. It is the fastest way to match a replacement in eight years.
Photograph the lot with your phone and email it to yourself with the address in the subject line. On shutters you may be relying on that paperwork twenty years later, and a paper folder in a shed in Lavington does not survive twenty Albury summers.
A defect notice that actually gets acted on
Keep it factual, numbered and unemotional. It should contain your name, the property address and the order or invoice number; the install date; then one numbered item per fault, each with the room, the date you first noticed it, a short description and a photo; then the remedy you are asking for, whether that is repair, replacement or refund; then a reasonable deadline, which means 14 days for a response rather than 14 days for the fix; and a line noting that you rely on the consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law. Send it by email so there is a timestamp, and keep the thread. No threats, no capital letters. A clear notice is answered; an angry one gets forwarded to somebody's manager and sits there.
Defect, fair wear, or damage: telling them apart
This is where most disagreements actually live, so here is the honest split as an installer sees it in this climate.
Defects, which you should claim.
- Blockout coating flaking, bubbling or separating from the face fabric at any age under about eight years.
- Uneven fade, or fade on a south-facing window where there is very little direct sun to blame.
- A clutch that slips or a spring that will not hold within the first few years of normal use.
- A motor that loses its limits repeatedly after being reset, or that will not pair after a battery change.
- A shutter panel bowed beyond the manufacturer's stated tolerance, or hinges rusting on a bathroom shutter.
- A bracket that pulls out of sound plasterboard or masonry, or a blind hanging visibly out of level.
- Light gaps caused by the fit rather than by the design, meaning the blind is narrower than the reveal it was measured for.
Fair wear, which is not a claim.
- Gradual even fade on a west or north window after eight years or more. In Albury that is a hard aspect and every fabric loses depth of colour eventually.
- Chain stretch after several thousand cycles on a blind that is used twice a day.
- Small seasonal movement in a basswood shutter panel between a dry January and a damp July. Timber does that, and every shutter warranty says so.
- Dust marking along the bottom of a sunscreen fabric, which is cleaning rather than a fault.
- Rechargeable motor batteries holding less charge after three or more years.
- Fold creases in a new curtain during the first few weeks while the fabric hangs out.
Damage, which is neither. Cats climbing a sunscreen, a toddler swinging on a chain, forcing a jammed blind instead of calling, and cleaning a foam-backed blockout with a wet or soapy cloth, which takes the coating off in streaks and cannot be undone. None of these are warranty matters, but most of them are repairable. A repair is typically $80 to $220 against $200 or more to replace the blind, and our repairs page covers what is worth fixing.
The honest note: most disputes are decided before the job starts
In practice, the arguments we see are almost never about the law. They are about a scope that was never written down. If the quote says roller blinds to 13 windows and a total, there is nothing to check against when something is not what you pictured. If it says the room, the exact fabric name and colour code, blockout or sunscreen, reveal fit or face fit, chain side, whether a pelmet is included, which windows are motorised and what the warranty period is on each item, then almost nothing can go wrong that cannot be resolved by reading it. Ask for that level of detail from anyone quoting you, including us. A supplier who will not write it down is telling you something.
Where we stand: we would rather come back and fix a $40 problem than win an argument about it. We will also tell you straight when something is fair wear rather than a fault, and quote the repair instead of quietly declining a claim. Two honest limits. We do not warrant fabric fade beyond the manufacturer's stated period, because nobody can promise a fabric against an Albury west wall forever. And we cannot make a warranty claim on blinds we did not supply, although we are happy to repair them as a paid job and will tell you first whether the maker is still trading and worth contacting yourself. If you are weighing up a repair against replacing the lot, our how long blinds last page has the realistic service lives for this climate, and the budget page sets out what a staged replacement costs.
Warranty questions we get asked
What warranty comes with blinds and shutters in Albury?
Does the Australian Consumer Law override a shorter written warranty?
Do blind installers need a builder's licence in New South Wales?
Is fading on a west-facing window a warranty claim?
How long should a warranty claim take to resolve?
What documents do I need to keep for a warranty claim?
Get a quote that spells out the warranty on every item
We itemise the fabric, the mount, the control and the warranty period per window, and you get it in writing within 2 business days.
Buy it once, with the warranty in writing
Free in-home measure across Albury, Lavington, Thurgoona and Wodonga. Itemised written quote within 2 business days.