Long Delayed Radiators - Can I Claim?

Zhanmusi

Hello, here's my story.

I bought a new house. I have a plumber who is going to replumb the house under the floors and in the walls. Until he has done, I cannot fit a wooden floor into the house. I am unable to live in the house until this work is done. I therefore am not living in my house but am renting a room for £500 a month while also paying my mortgage.

I ordered a number of column radiators through an agent who arrange supplies from a manufacturer. They are the same design but come in 2 types: stock and custom. Stock radiators can be received in 1 week; custom radiators take 4 weeks. I ordered 1 custom radiator and the rest were stock.

I was asked at this point if I wanted all the radiators to arrive together in 4 weeks or should I have the radiators from stock arrive as-soon-as-possible. They knew clearly at this point that I wasn't going to fit the radiators immediately because I initially asked to have them all delivered together. I then changed my mind and chose as-soon-as-possible because I wanted to allow time for problems & also ensure as many of the radiators were in my possession as soon as possible, given they cost £2500+ for the set.

All radiators apart from the custom radiator arrived together within a week and a half. 2 of the radiators were perfect. 3 of the radiators however had sections where they had obviously been joined together and the paint didn't cover the join.

I notified the agent immediately and they arranged for a replacement. They told me they'd never seen this problem before and that they wouldn't never supply radiators of that quality knowingly. To save me having to take time off work they arranged for the replacements to come with the custom radiator in 3 weeks time.

3 weeks later the custom radiator was delivered in perfect condition. I swapped the faulty radiators for the replacements. However, when I opened them after the driver had gone I realised they had the same fault as the 3 they were meant to replace.

I contacted the agent again who then went back to the manufacturer. The manufacturer then said that these stock sizes would always appear this way due to the way they were manufactured (they hadn't said this 3 weeks earlier). I then had to argue that they weren't in the condition I'd been led to expect and weren't good enough.

The manufacturer then attempted to manufacture replacements again but the photos they sent showed me that they weren't able to produce the quality desired.

So I was then offered to have the 3 radiators manufactured as custom radiators (there's no price difference) as they would then be perfect. I've accepted because I have to but this will take 4 weeks.

So now I'm having to lose out £500 for an extra month of renting a room. On a more personal note, I also have to miss Christmas in my new home as there's no way the plumbing and floor fitting will be completed in time.

While the employees are very nice and try to be helpful, and even the manufacturer went to some length to rectify the problem, I believe the agent is responsible for my loss because:

- They should have known the radiators wouldn't have been of perfect quality from stock but didn't. If they had known I would have ordered all as custom from the start and only have to wait the initial 4 weeks (no delays).

- They had a chance after week 1 to determine what the true problem was but they didn't. If they had told me then that it wasn't possible to provide the stock items perfectly I could have then requested the custom and there would have only been 1 week delay.

I should obviously complain but I'd be interested to know what is relevant in this case and what can I reasonably expect. Doubling the delivery time and having the stress of trying to sort out the issue twice has been a really poor experience.

Thanks for all and any thoughts in advance.

Zhanmusi

marliepanda

misread

Sounds like they got things going pretty quickly after you initially changed your mind, you use a lot of 'they will have known' 'they should have known' in your post which isn't relevant.

Is there a particular reason your house is uninhabitable with the initial three radiators? You mention the floor but what exactly is the flooring and hearing situation.

The rest of your loss is enjoyment and stress etc. Very hard to quantify.

AJXX

It does sound like they've acted responsibly to try and remedy the situation asap.

You may possibly get something in the way of a goodwill gesture but as far as a "claim" goes, I fail to see exactly what you're claiming for....

Have you made any attempt to mitigate losses? You state you're having to "loose" £500 renting a room as you claim you're "unable" to live in the house, however I see no reason you can't buy a cheap electric heater and move in (£50 heater vs £500 rent).

Keep_pedalling

Surely you could still have had all the pipe work and flooring done, and hung the radiators later?

bris

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

Surely you could still have had all the pipe work and flooring done, and hung the radiators later?

Of course any heating engineer or plumber would have the tails in place ready to hang the radiators. There is absolutely no reason for the flooring not to be done.


As well as that the radiators in situ could have been up and running heating the rooms they are in..

Zhanmusi

Thanks for the questions.

Firstly, I didn't change my mind about anything really. I was asked on the phone would I like all the radiators delivered together in 1 month, or some to be delivered the next week. I said next month, then 3 seconds later said, "actually, I'll have some next week". Nothing in my order has ever changed at all; the reason I mentioned this was to show that they knew I was going to wait for all radiators to arrive before completing the work.

I was also advised by my plumber to have everything done at once rather than piecemeal. He has to cut open the walls and pull up the floor upstairs in order to do the job.

The plumbing can't be completed until all radiators arrive because they need to be measured accurately to come out of the walls; the company say themselves not to prepare this based on measurements in the catalogue but to wait until the radiators are assembled on site.

Also, my boiler doesn't heat water without radiators being in place, so there would be no hot water in the house. I guess if some were put into place and not others then it would work but didn't go down this route because of the plumber's advice.

I would have had 2 radiators at the start, although I have 3 now. I was wary of installing them because I wanted to make sure that the whole set would be of good quality first but now it doesn't matter I guess because the custom radiator can't be returned anyway.

Also, another reason the house is uninhabitable is a lack of furniture. I'm ordering good furniture which I wouldn't want in the house while the work with opening up the floor, cutting the walls open, and fitting the floor is going on. They would be in the way of the workmen and would most certainly get damaged. I am arranging to have the furniture delivered new the week the floor is completed. There are 3 of us moving in too so buying a small temporary bed wouldn't be enough.

Lastly, a 'claim' is wrongly worded. What I'm really asking is would anyone else think this is worth complaining about and if so, how would you approach it? In the end, I've had 2 poor deliveries and a delay of 1 month.

No one's really mentioned the poor service so should I take that as a sign it's quite ordinary for this sort of work and it's generally accepted?

Thanks for any further advice and opinions.

P.S. Thanks for being critical of the plumbing situation; it doesn't come across as friendly but it does help me understand what the arguments would be in this situation. This is my first house and I'm just going completely on my plumber's advice for this; I don't really have the knowledge to know how it should have proceeded.

marliepanda

So you expected someone to know from you saying once, and changing your mind three seconds later? They'll have been ticking abox on a delivery fork, not thinking about your renovation plans. They 'clearly' knew nothing of the sort.

Honestly they're rectifying it. Without knowing exactly how 'bad' the standard radiators look (and if they were that bad and custom ones were the same price, why would anyone buy the standard? Suggests they're not actually that bad?)

Again your choice not to fit some radiators seems to be down to your plumber. I can't see why it couldn't have been all done ready to just put the radiators in at the last step.

You can't hold them accountable for delays which were mostly caused by you choosing to listen to your plumber.

Zhanmusi

I had spoken to the lady who took my order for about 3 weeks in multiple emails and over the phone so she was aware of the situation. I just brought up that point so that it was indisputable but I'm sure I'll have emails to back it up if I check through them.

The radiators are 'bad' enough that everyone agreed they should be replaced the first time I mentioned it. And nobody would order the standard radiators if they knew they would not be perfect; one of the points I made is that this wasn't known when I ordered them. If I'd been told then I would have made the correct decision and no delay would have occurred.

And yes, they are rectifying it; but they missed a chance to rectify it causing a month delay when it could have been one week.

And even if the plumbing was all ready and I only needed the plumber to come back at the end and cut the walls open again to fit the final radiators, they've still caused a month delay. Edit: and after the walls are cut open, they've got to be plastered and painted over again; I thought it best to wait until all this was done before laying a wooden floor which could get marked / have paint on it.

I'm guessing that you agree that this is acceptable service then? Should I just forget all about it? I have nothing to complain about?

marliepanda

Well what do you want to get out of it? A discount on your order?

What have you asked them for?

Your initial post seemed to imply you wanted £509 for your rent paying, as well as money for not being in your house by Christmas.

Zhanmusi

No, I don't expect to have £500 returned to me; I was just relating the issues that it's caused me. I haven't asked them for anything. I came here just to ask for advice as to whether people thought it worth complaining and what people would generally agree would be a good approach.

Would a discount be reasonable? There's nothing else they could really offer. But if so, how much? Would you ask for an amount or just complain and hope for the best?

marliepanda

I would complain outlining the definite issues (inferior product and subsequent delays) and see what they come back with. If youre not happy you can always negotiate up.

I wouldnt mention the 'the knew this, they knew that' because they may not. They will have many clients. Indeed you saying 'I'll have them all at once, oh actually no, give me what youve got next week' could make them 'think' you had changed your mind about how you were going to fit them. Go with the things that definitely happened and that you have proof of, aka product problems and delays.