7 faulty Kitchen Doors what are my rights

lm50

I moved into a brand new development of flats in August 2011. Over that time 7 of my 26 kitchen doors and draws have developed bubbles or splits in the lamanite and are now an eyesore. I contacted the manufacturer who tells me the kitchen has been discontinued and cannot help me. Ive contacted the landlord to ask if I can claim on the building insurance or have recourse against the Manufacturer but this is outside of their remit. I had a kitchen specialist in and they cannot match the style of doors exactly and they could only provide a similar colour. A new kitchen would be very expensive and 26 new draws and draws expensive and unsatisfactory because of the colour issue.

As I did not have a direct contract with the kitchen manufacturer to supply the kitchen I assume this limits my options.

The builder who would have had a contract with the kitchen manufacturer gives a warranty for two years to fix what has gone wrong which has been exceeded by a couple of years.

What are my options. I would be interested in your thoughts
thank you. Linda

cyclonebri1

Do you have householder protection insurance?, if not you should have and if not I may not be able to help.

To explain, section of insurance helps protect if you screw up.

IE, if there is a valid case or claim they will act for you, if there isn't then they they should stand your legal costs

david1951

Do you have any evidence that the bubbles or splits occurred within the warranty period?

Is this a problem with the paint covering the doors/drawers or is it the actual layers of wood splitting?

lm50

Hi, thanks for your response but no I do not have protection insurance. Not sure why you think I screwed up. The doors were not like this when I moved in. Admittedly they have been this bad for about 18 months I guess and it did not happen all at once. You would expect a kitchen to last for 10 or 20 years at least that is what the kitchen guy I had in said. You responded so thank you.

lm50

No unfortunately i do not have any evidence that the faults occured during the warranty period. The doors are covered in a shiny laminate, they are not painted and I cannot see any wood.

Furts

My guess is you have vinyl wrapped doors and drawer fronts. If treated with great respect they will last. Basically no drips onto them, no abrasive cleaning, no washing products and so on. But they are now five years old so are clearly ready for replacement. Whilst a kitchen can last 20 years , nobody pretends a vinyl wrapped door will last any time at all. They are cheap as chips and poor quality.

If they are vinyl wrapped then the answer is to replace them. I do not see you having any legal recourse to anybody over this.

lm50

ok thanks for your response they are not vinyl and cheap but are in fact supposedly high end doors. I came up with the word laminate as I do not hnow how else to describe. I will now close this post as I clearly do not know what I am talking about. Thanks anyway

cyclonebri1

lm50 wrote: »

Hi, thanks for your response but no I do not have protection insurance. Not sure why you think I screwed up. The doors were not like this when I moved in. Admittedly they have been this bad for about 18 months I guess and it did not happen all at once. You would expect a kitchen to last for 10 or 20 years at least that is what the kitchen guy I had in said. You responded so thank you.

Did I say you screwed up???, I said IF you screw up, we all do sometime

Waterlily24

A similar thing happened to us years ago. I think it was a Texas kitchen. Texas went bust but the doors(different doors) were replaced by Homebase free of charge. Fitted by them as well even though my hubby fitted the original kitchen himself. Not sure about the guarantee as it was obviously with Texas. Think the guarantee was a long one though.


They replaced all the doors even though only a few were damaged. We had to fight for it though.


How long was your guarantee?

ryder72

This is almost certainly a vinyl wrap door. And unless your flat is in a high end development in central london, its not going to be a high end kitchen. Its a cheap run of the mill kitchen that developers buy only on price.