Is failure to carry out service in reasonable time breach of contract?

Mouse99

We have a credit agreement with Wickes for kitchen materials and installation of said materials for approximately £3600. We paid a £600 deposit in Dec 2015 and have been paying monthly instalments of £250 since June 2016.

Separate from this credit agreement/contract, we needed to install french doors before work could commence. Wickes' fitter offered to do this work as a freelancer.

He was supposed to be starting work in July - he agreed to fit french doors but abandoned work when we mentioned building regulations. We did not hear anything from Wickes about work.

In error, and incredibly, we forgot about the contract to install the kitchen and out of panic, found builders who unfortunately, were a bunch of amateurs and cowboys. They badly fitted the worktops and appliances and all of it must be refitted.

When we remembered about wickes, they agreed to refit but some of the goods need replacing and they insist on us paying £650.

In view of the following extracts from Consumer Rights Act, are we entitled to either cancel the contract and get a full refund on the installation costs (£1782) or insist that they do the installation work at no charge to us? I am thinking that they are in breach of contract as they have not yet carried out work on an order made 13 months ago?

"Rules mean that all contracts for services must:

Unless a particular timescale for performing the service is set out or agreed, the service must be carried out in a reasonable time

If the service doesn't satisfy these criteria, you're entitled to the following remedies under Consumer Rights Act:

The trader should either redo the element of the service which is inadequate or perform the whole service again at no extra cost to you, within a reasonable time and without causing you signficant inconvenience

Or in circumstances where the repeat performance is impossible or can't be done in a reasonable time, you can claim a price reduction...this could be up to 100% of the cost

So perhaps we are liable for the kitchen materials and will have to buy a new worktop but are entitled to 100% refund on the installation part as not done in reasonable time??

Please advise...this has been very stressful to my relationship with partner.

pinkshoes

What is wrong with the replies on the other thread?

Sounds to me like your partner is at fault for most of the issues.

You agreed and paid for Wickes to fit this kitchen, then chose to use someone else to fit it.

You are not therefore entitled to a refund, but you can ask them to fit a kitchen!

They cannot charge you for the service if they are not going to carry it out.

I would put it in writing that you have paid for the service of fitting a kitchen, and now want them to fit it, and if they no longer wish to do this, they need to refund you.

You do need to repay for any materials that have been damaged by the dodgy builder.

bris

If some of the goods need replacing then they are entitled to charge for these goods, I assume this is why they want £650.

Billy_Bullocks

It sounds like you breached the contract when you got a cowboy firm to fit the kitchen.

daytona0

But Wickes stated that you needed to install French Doors before work could commence? This was not completed, ergo Wickes was unable to start undertaking the work.

I think you should be focusing more on their instruction for you to install French Doors to be honest.... if that was crucial for the work which Wickes would have undertaken then I can't see how you have any sort of case.

Your fault for not checking building regulations/sorting out the French Doors and your fault for forgetting about the contract with Wickes.

steampowered

It sounds like the key question is why the work has not been carried out for 13 months.

Is this Wickes' fault or your fault? Did you for example contact Wickes to try and arrange for them to do the work?

If you didn't contact Wickes and ask them to get on with it, I don't think you can claim that the work wasn't done in a reasonable time since you didn't ask for it.

The solution offered by Wickes - i.e. they will arrange for the kitchen to be fitted, but you need to replace any goods which were damaged by the cowboys - sounds reasonable to me.