Betta Living/Shawbrook issue given Betta Living in administration

Sneekes

Here's my situation:

Last month we agreed with Betta Living to buy a kitchen. We paid a deposit, and agreed to pay the remainder via a finance company of Betta Living's choosing (Shawbrook Bank).
No good or services have yet been received, we hadn't even set a date for installation.
On Friday Betta Living "temporarily ceased to trade", they anticipate appointing administrators this week.
Today I became aware that Wren Kitchens are matching Betta Living quotes, but more importantly for me, will honour deposits paid to Betta Living of up to 10% of total cost.

My understanding is that even if Betta Living somehow recover - I can simply cancel that contract, losing my deposit, which Wren will have covered anyway.
My concern is how Shawbrook play into this. Can I simply cancel my contract with them referencing the situation with Betta Living? Their T&Cs state "We will advance the Amount of credit once the supplier of the goods and services has delivered the goods and services to you." If we cancel the contract with Betta Living, or if Betta Living never trade again, the goods will never be delivered and so Shawbrook will never invoke our direct debit, would the arrangement will simply 'time-out'?

I'm intending to phone Shawbrook tomorrow, but am visiting Wren this afternoon.

mwarby

Can't really advise on the Betta thing, probably best to consult shawbrook as you mention

The Wren deal, while nice to have doesn't sound all that great to me, although a lot depends on thier normal pricing and quality. Essentially its a (up to)10% off sale, I expect many can get similar deals normally by shopping around and haggling

matt.hitchcock

Hi Sneekes,

My wife and I are in the exact same position unfortunately, and we're pretty devastated as you can imagine.

We had paid the deposit via bank transfer, and the remaining balance was set up under a credit agreement with Shawbrook Bank, yet we had not yet even finalised the layout or final appliances of the kitchen, let alone have an install date.

I made a call to the Shawbrook Bank offices this morning who after a number of re-directions to the correct department, put me through to someone in their complaints team that are looking after the issue.

They advised me that they only lend the money to Betta Living once the kitchen is fitted, therefore our agreement is not considered live, and we aren't liable for the balance. In fact, they even said they are looking to 'cover any customers that had already paid a deposit and ensure no-one will be out of pocket'. I'll take that with a pinch of salt for now, as we don't even know yet who the administrators are. They said they will be in touch once they know who has been appointed, but said that someone may try and take over the business as a going concern. Watch this space on that I guess.

In any case, I’d advise anyone concerned to call Shawbrook straight away, I’ve also logged an e-mail to compliance@shawbrook.co.uk detailing everything (I had a non deliverable e-mail on the consumer.complaints@shawbrook.co.uk address they gave me).

I’m also going to call my bank to double check that no direct debit instructions were set up.

Interesting to see Wren are super keen to get in on the action “In order to maintain the public’s trust in the UK kitchen market, Wren have taken the decision to honour any quote provided by Betta Living”. I’ve never been to Wren or seen the quality of their kitchens, but I’m reluctant to jump straight into another agreement without knowing the outcome of the Betta Living deal, despite being desperate to have a new kitchen before Christmas! Maybe I could be tempted by John Lewis who you would have thought will be around for the foreseeable future?

Also, we paid well over 10% deposit (Betta Livings terms) so I’m not sure where I’d stand with the difference if I went to Wren?

Re the Credit agreement, do you know if our cash deposit is covered as some of the total balance of the whole job was to be paid via credit (with Shawbrook).

Thanks,
Matt

4DIY

As I understand it the same law that covers your right to a refund from a credit card when things go wrong has been extended to all credit agreements (Section 75A of the Consumer Credit directive). So the finance company should be liable for refunding your deposit.

There is information on the financial ombudsman's website regardng Section 75A

There's no real altruism in Wren's offer, they would offer that anyway if you walked into their showoom, as would the kicthen company I work for. But what most wont tell you is the information above, they want you to get that 10% back through them so you feel obliged to go there and not miss out. Unfortunately we're rather used to picking up the pieces when a competitor goes out of business and don't think it's fair hiding information from them,

Alan White

Valley

OMG, we had our Betta Living kitchen installed last week, looks like we dodged a bullet

Kills the 15 year warranty though

matt.hitchcock

Thanks Alan - useful info on the Section 75A - I'll check that out and see where we stand.

Looks like Valley had a stroke of luck there!

peted13

We ordered a kitchen and paid £1000 deposit on Friday, cannot get hold of anyone at betta living Natwest cannot help, I haven't got a clue what to do next apart from panic!

4DIY

peted13,

If its a NatWest Visa debit card you paid on I believe they participate in Visa's chargeback scheme. Most people at Natwest won't know that.

Theres an article on MSE about Natwest cards changing to allow chargeback

Alan

Freer

Hi all, I had no idea that betta living went to administration until I saw this post! I am waiting in as I am due my kitchen delivery today, its being fitted tomorrow. I cant get any answers from anyone, no one has contacted me to tell me anything, they confirmed the delivery on friday at 1pm.
Will they still honour this? My kitchen is gutted and I have kids, and am really distraught, I'm a single parent and took a week off to get this sorted. Does anyone know if the orders may be honoured, what do I do, we have no working kitchen, what do I do?

peted13

Hi Alan


Unfortunately we did a direct bank transfer with the order reference, I feel like we have been hung out to dry

matt.hitchcock

I would defiantly call Shawbrook straight away for re-assurance in the first instance. If you paid the deposit on Friday you're still within the 14 day cooling off period but I'm not sure that's still valid as Berta Living have now applied for administration.

How did you pay the deposit?