Ikea kitchen compensation claim

mandylou1968

Can anyone give me some advice please.

Bit of a long story, but I'll try and keep it short.

We bought a kitchen from Ikea March 2016. We chose to pay for the kitchen to be installed by Ikea. After a few months of the kitchen being fitted we noticed a crack on the back side of the wall (the wall where the kitchen had been fitted) The crack got wider and wider, around 10cm wide, and then a crack appeared on another wall. The cracks run the full length of the walls. After contacting Ikea, and having a surveyor to look at both walls, it has now been decided that the kitchen fitters did not leave enough room for the oak worktops to expand, hence the cracked walls. The walls are an eyesore, everyone that walks into my house comments on how awful they look. The surveyor has submitted his report to Ikea to recommend the kitchen is taken back out, part of both walls have to come down, rebuilt, plastered, and painted. BTW the walls are brick not plasterboard. IKEAs attitude throughout this whole saga has been awful, unhelpful, and one Ikea representative was down right rude.

I would be grateful if anyone has any advice as to wheather we could claim compensation.

Many thanks
A very unhappy Ikea customer.

Auntie-Dolly

Got any pictures?

Nearlyold

Your description of the cracks is a little unclear, to clarify - are these cracks horizontal or vertical? A 10cm wide crack is enormous, its more than the height of a brick so I'm guessing that's some sort of typo or perhaps you mean a 10cm wide chunk of plaster has fallen off or maybe a narrow crack 10cm long, otherwise its difficult to imagine the worktop expanding by that amount?

mandylou1968

HI,
Many thanks for the replies. Hope this photo gives you some idea what I was trying to describe.

Thanks

Auntie-Dolly

Crikey! I think I'd be more worried it was subsidence. Is it a new extension?

ThumbRemote

You can claim compensation for any loss you have suffered. In this case Ikea will need to fix every problem they've caused - so repair all the damage.

Unfortunately you're not entitled to anything for the inconvenience this causes you.

As an aside, who provided the surveyor? If it was Ikea, I'd probably be tempted to get an independent report of my own.

Do you have legal cover on your home insurance? May be worth giving them a call if so.

mandylou1968

That's what we thought at first. But after having a structural surveyor to take a look it's most certainly the work tops that have caused the damage. It's not an extension, their the regular internal walls.

mandylou1968

Hi, the surveyor is an independent company, BUT employed by Ikea.
I'll check my insurance too. Thanks

societys_child

Auntie-Dolly wrote: »

Crikey! I think I'd be more worried it was subsidence.

Subsidence? :rotfl: Stop it . . .

mandylou1968

Subsidence? Stop it . . ./QUOTE]

I don't get the joke? :huh:

JJ_Egan

mandylou1968 wrote: »

Subsidence? Stop it . . ./QUOTE]

I don't get the joke? :huh:

One subsides as in falling down .
One gets subsidence as in a payment of money . Usually to bring a pension up to a minimum level or as payment like luncheon vouchers .