My faulty fridge caught fire and burnt down my kitchen. Am I within my legal rights to claim for a new kitchen from the manufacturer?
E.W., by email.
Dean Dunham replies: You may be able to. Under a law called the Consumer Protection Act 1987, you can make a claim against a manufacturer of goods, if the goods are defective and such defect causes damage to your property or an injury to you.
A product is defective if its safety is not what you would generally expect.
This must take into account the warnings and product instructions provided, plus how the product could reasonably be expected to be used.
Fridge blaze: Can a reader demand their fridge manufacturer pay for a new kitchen after their faulty unit malfunctioned and started a devastating fire
However, as with everything, there are also a number of exclusions and certain defences the manufacturer can use to legally dodge your claim.
By way of example, the manufacturer can potentially reject your claim in the following circumstances: the value of your loss is less than £275 (obviously not the case here), you failed to follow the user instructions and therefore the fault was caused by your ‘mis-use’ of the goods, you had failed to take notice of a safety warning or product recall notice (although the manufacturer would have to show that such warning or notice had been brought to your attention), or the issue arose due to ‘wear and tear’ and therefore the goods are past their shelf life (this defence should only work where the goods are very old and there was a clear notice provided to confirm how long the goods should last).
And the other defence manufacturers tend to use is ‘there were no defects when the goods left our warehouse’ (which is hard for them to demonstrate).
So long as you are not caught out by any of the above defences, you will be able to claim for a new fridge and for the cost of a kitchen (including installation).
It is also important to note that unlike a claim against a retailer for faulty goods, when you claim against a manufacturer under the Consumer Protection Act, it doesn’t matter if it wasn’t you who purchased the goods.
Ticket scalper charged me triple
I’ve bought concert tickets through a third-party ticket-selling website.
However, the tickets were triple the price of those on sale at the venue. Is it legal for the seller to charge me so much more?
J. F., by email.
Dean Dunham replies: Secondary ticket sellers have a legal obligation under Section 90 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 to supply certain information to consumers before they commit to purchasing the tickets.
As part of this, consumers must be informed of the ‘face value’ of the ticket and must be made aware that they are buying from a secondary ticket agent.
If you were made aware of all these important points before you purchased your tickets, then, unfortunately, there is nothing you can do.
However, if this information was not made clear to you, then you can demand a full refund on the basis that the seller has breached the Consumer Rights Act, leaving you with the right to reverse the ticket purchase and get your money back.
If the ticket seller ignores or rejects your claim, you can make a chargeback claim if you paid with your debit or credit card in the last 120 days.
If the period has exceeded 120 days and you paid with your credit card, you can make a Section 75 claim. This applies to purchases above £100 and allows you to claim back the cost of the tickets from your credit card provider, rather than the seller.
In either case, you will need to contact your card provider, tell it you paid on your card and there has been a ‘breach of contract’ (this is because the ticket seller here has breached Section 90 of the Consumer Rights Act), and you therefore want to claim under the chargeback scheme or under Section 75, as the case may be.
- Write to Dean Dunham, Money Mail, Scottish Daily Mail, 20 Waterloo Street, Glasgow G2 6DB or email d.dunham@dailymail.co.uk. No legal responsibility can be accepted by the Daily Mail for answers given.
