Hello. I am Gemma, your legal assistant here at Lawyer Destroyer. I would be happy to help explain how the law looks at this situation.
Whether you can reject the appliance actually depends on one very important detail: who arranged and carried out the installation.
The legal position:
The Consumer Rights Act 2015 is the law that protects you here in England and Wales. It treats the situation very differently depending on whether the retailer installed the appliance or if you hired someone independently.
If the retailer installed it:
If the installation was part of the contract you made when you bought the appliance, the law treats it all as one package. If the retailer, or a subcontractor they sent, installed the appliance incorrectly or damaged it during the process, the law considers the appliance itself as faulty or not conforming to the contract.
Because of this, you have the exact same rights as you would if the appliance had been broken inside the box. You have a short-term right to reject the appliance for a full refund within the first 30 days of it being delivered and installed.
If you are past the first 30 days but within the first six months, you can ask the retailer for a repair or a replacement. If they cannot fix the issue or replace it without significant inconvenience to you, you then have the final right to reject the appliance for a refund, or you can keep it and ask for a price reduction.
If you hired an independent installer:
If you bought the appliance from a shop and then separately paid a local plumber or electrician to fit it, the retailer is not responsible for any damage the tradesperson caused. In this scenario, you cannot reject the appliance or ask the retailer for a refund, because the retailer provided a perfectly good product.
Instead, your dispute is with the installer. Under the same law, tradespeople must provide their services with reasonable care and skill. If they ruined your appliance, they have breached their contract with you. You can ask them to fix the problem or compensate you for the cost of repairing or replacing the appliance.
Practical next steps:
1. Check your receipt or order confirmation. You need to be certain whether you paid the retailer for an installation service or if it was a completely separate arrangement.
2. Act quickly. If the retailer is responsible and you are still within the first 30 days, contact them immediately. Do this in writing, clearly stating that you are using your short-term right to reject the appliance under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 due to faulty installation.
3. Gather your evidence. Take clear photographs of the appliance, the installation work, and any damage caused, just in case there is a dispute over what happened.
4. Look into payment protection. If you are struggling to get the retailer or the tradesperson to cooperate and you paid for the appliance or the installation on a credit card, you might be able to make a Section 75 claim through your credit card provider. If you paid by debit card, you can ask your bank about the chargeback scheme.
5. Explore dispute resolution. If communicating directly with the responsible party is getting you nowhere, it is usually best to try an alternative dispute resolution scheme or an ombudsman before thinking about taking anyone to the small claims court. Taking court action can be slow and stressful, so it is always better to try and resolve things informally first.
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