Cancel Anglian Home Improvements After 7 Days

fiscme

I signed up to Anglian Home Improvements (to my shame) and the 7 day cancellation has now expired. Having read SO many bad posts about them i want to cancel and go with someone else.

OK so i have paid my £50 deposit and i am prepared to lose it, i just want to know whether i can actually cancel now and get out of the contract? I surely cant be forced to use them can I?

As the surveyor hasn't yet been round to measure up properly (i keep putting him off), they haven't invested any time or effort on me.

Does anyone know the proper way to go about cancelling AHI completely so i am not tied into them in any way and free to get my windows done by someone else?

Thanks

fluffnutter

How was this sold? In your own home? What paperwork have you been given?

bris

It is a bit of a difficult one to answer on here. There are a few regular good posters on here who believe they can only claim for actual losses resulting in the cancellation, time spent on the paperwork, a couple of phone calls etc and the £50 would cover it.
This is unfortunatley not the case. Not all contracts are unfair and the company can claim loss of profit from a contract that is unfairly cancelled, the company must of coure prove all losses and not unfairly penalise you for canceling. They must mitigate their losses the best they can, in some cases selling the product that they would still have to someone else.

In this case though they would make the product to order so wouldn't have a product to sell, they would then have to deduct all the manufacturing costs from the contract and determint their net profit as the figure to hit you with, this is fair in consumer contract terms.

Have a look at the faq sticky at the top of the page, look at the deposit related one and read it, then click the oft link and within that you will get the true picture.
In particular look at 2.3.1, 4.5 and 5.7 and proper contract can fall victim to this.

For proper advice though you really need to seek the help of a solicitor who knows this field.

fluffnutter

All sound advice from bris above, but I'd still like one question answered: what paperwork do you have? It's part of the contract that you have paperwork explicitly stating your rights to cancel, period in which you can, etc.

If this isn't provided, I'm not sure that the contract is enforceable. Might be a moral issue (because you're clearly aware of your right to cancel within 7 days and it doesn't appear on the face of it that Anglian are doing anything wrong) but you *might* have some redress legally if you don't have this in writing.

At the end of the day, you agreed to X, you were aware of your notice period and you didn't change your mind until after this had expired. As matters stand you have no right to cancel (provided due process has been followed).

somethingcorporate

Here is the FAQ link: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=42873192&postcount=16

Bris is right, it is an incredibly messy and complex area. Most of the cases we see it appearing on this board (cancelled car sales, hotel rooms etc) then loss of profit is not an appropriate deduction since they retain the goods to resell and should do at the same price to mitigate any loss.

Given these are specifically made to order items then loss of profit maybe appropriate since they are a specific order down but only a solicitor could advise you appropriately. You never know, since they have done nothing but the initial visit they maybe happy with just retaining the £50, which would likely cover their easily provable upfront losses.

nomoneytoday

On the flip side, they did a great job for me, and covered items under warranty almost a decade later

fiscme

Thanks everyone for your information, especially Bris.
It was sold to me fair and square in my own home and i have their LENGTHY contract (but not with me at the moment). So ill read through it this evening.

"All sound advice from bris above, but I'd still like one question answered: what paperwork do you have? It's part of the contract that you have paperwork explicitly stating your rights to cancel, period in which you can, etc. "

The paperwork does give me time to cancel (7 days), but i am not sure what it says for cancelling after that. Seems crazy if they can get me for loss of profit considering they haven't made (or even measured out) the windows.

If i do have 'no right to cancel' what does that mean?
I have to have the windows installed?

somethingcorporate

No, just if you do cancel you maybe liable for costs + their profit.

fiscme

Ok, ill have a read through the terms tonight and see what they say.

Thanks again to everyone for advice so far

fluffnutter

fiscme wrote: »

Thanks everyone for your information, especially Bris.
It was sold to me fair and square in my own home and i have their LENGTHY contract (but not with me at the moment). So ill read through it this evening.

"All sound advice from bris above, but I'd still like one question answered: what paperwork do you have? It's part of the contract that you have paperwork explicitly stating your rights to cancel, period in which you can, etc. "

The paperwork does give me time to cancel (7 days), but i am not sure what it says for cancelling after that. Seems crazy if they can get me for loss of profit considering they haven't made (or even measured out) the windows.

If i do have 'no right to cancel' what does that mean?
I have to have the windows installed?

No, but you won't be able to exit without penalty. They can recoup costs from you and may even request you pay the entire sum.

zenmaster

If the surveyor has not been round to measure up it's highly unlikely that they have started manufacturing the units.

At least I'd hope not.