Legal advice re kitchen design

TrickyNicky

I am having a new kitchen fitted. The design looked great on paper but now it is being fitted there is an issue with it which I feel is totally unacceptable. We have 3 tall units with integrated fridge and freezer either side of a double oven and high level lift up cupboards above and low level deep drawers below. It seems the company only have set sizes of doors and drawer/door fronts and for the fridge and freezer units there is a 5cm gap between the top of the tall doors and the bottom edge of the upper lift up cupboards. Two packing pieces have been sent to fill these gaps (or the fridge and freezer will be visible). These packing pieces are attached to the top of the large doors to make them 5cm taller. Whoever could possibly think that this would be aesthetically acceptable. It looks a mess/cheap/bodged. We weren't made aware of the problem when ordering the kitchen and it doesn't show the packing pieces on the CAD design pictures. We have already bought the larder fridge, freezer and double oven and the joiner had everything fitted by I came home from work. I would never have accepted this design if I had known about the packing pieces. Is there anything I can do? The company say not - they would wouldn't they?

CKdesigner

Hi

Doesn't sound good.

Would you like to send me a private message and I'll reply with my email address for you to send me some pictures etc. Then hopefully I can give you some useful advice.

CK

ryder72

Doesnt sound right and I have an inkling of why this has been done. Post some photos for more comment.

MisterBaxter

In terms of your legal options which you asked about; this may be one of those situations where consumer law considers it to be a 'sale by description' where under normal circumstances you would have the right to refuse goods that weren't as described. I would argue that the CAD drawing constitutes the description and the goods therefore aren't as described. However from a practical point of view I'm not sure how this helps or would pan out as you are so far committed to the project and if the supplier can't supply what they designed/described then what remedy is there.

The get out for the designer would be that the appliances you bought did not match with those that they had designed around.

ryder72

Often visuals are specifically excluded from the contract as they are very generic in nature and only intended to be an illustration of the end product and not an accurate reproduction. If the contracts specifically states this then the legal grounds may be weak and it comes down to a negotiation with the supplier.

OP - have you taken this up with them?

thescouselander

I know when we bought our kitchen the supplier had a clause in the agreement that said we were responsible for checking the design. Consequently I had our fitter study the design and he picked up a number of issues - I doubt the supplier would have been much help if these issues were noticed after delivery.

TrickyNicky

Hi and thank you for your replies. Have been busy discussing options with my joiner and have come up with a plan. Because we are well into the project and have bought all appliances, we don't really have an option to fight this. We have no kitchen as it is dismantled and being rebuilt. We have to get on with it. I tried to attach a photo of the unit showing the gaps where the spacers were to be but am not very computer savvy. As we also needed a spacer above the double oven, we have decided to move all 3 spacers to the very top of the unit. We will then put a pelmet across to cover the gap. We can live with this and thank goodness for the joiner.


It seems the kitchen designer thought I understood what spacers were and that I was happy with it. I clearly thought he meant something else entirely. Without photos or an in store demo model with spacer in place, I don't think many people would comprehend that a designer could suggest something as naff but apparently they do! If you only ever have a new kitchen once in a lifetime you can't expect the customer to fully understand the complexities. Even the joiner would not have realised there were spacers from the plan and CAD drawing.


So thank you all for commenting. I do appreciate your thoughts and time taken.

phil24_7

Glad you've found a good joiner that has thought outside of the box and come up with a decent solution.

edgex

"We have 3 tall units with integrated fridge and freezer either side of a double oven"

is that right, youve got a fridge/freezer right next to an oven?

Thats a big no-no, as the heat from the oven in use affects the fridge/freezer

ryder72

edgex - Thats not true. Modern ovens and refrigeration is very well insulated so no heat leaks out from the sides. You can install them side by side without any problems whatsoever.