Kitchen badly designed, what are my rights?

Addick

Good Morning,

I purchased a new kitchen from a large retailer recently and used my own tradesmen to install rather than use the in-house service.

At the final stage we've discovered that the design does not work, the worktop is not suitable to house the cooking appliances shown in the design, I've since been told by a designer in the same shop that the kitchen should not have been designed and sold in this manner.

The problem I now have is that 90% of the kitchen has been fitted. The sink plumbed in, I've lost 1.5 days work of the fitter as we aren't in a position to go any further until this is rectified.

One solution will be to replace the worktop, this will require the old one to be removed (possible damage caused to units?) and a new one to be installed. This will leave me hugely out of pocket as I will need to pay for much more of the fitters time, another plumber to refit the sink and adjust for the new height etc.

I'm wondering what rights I have here as the customer, am I in the position to request compensation / additional costs to be covered?

Grateful for any thoughts.

hollydays

Who designed the layout? Did you purchas the worktop from the original retailer?
You are saying the retailer has told you they have wrongly designed it then?

Doozergirl

If it's a large retailer, I'd have a look at the Ts & Cs, but I doubt they'll take responsibility if they weren't also fitting. The onus then passes to you.

Why couldn't the problem be spotted before fitting? It's a bit unusual to have the sink already plumbed in and then realise a problem.

economic

first a few questions:

- why didnt your traseman tell you earlier that the design wouldnt work? who did the design?

- what worktop is it and how is it fixed onto the units? removign the worktop probably will damage the floor units.

hollydays

How did you pay?

Doozergirl

Removing the worktop is unlikely to damage units.

Addick

thanks for the replies, I paid in full using a debit card.

We had the sink plumbed in as that part of the kitchen was completed and needed to have the water running.

The kitchen was designed by the retailer and fully supplied.

As to why the fitter didn't notice, I couldn't tell you, they were only following the design drawings supplied by the supplier.

They've already admitted the mistake was made, I'm just not sure how I should proceed.

Thanks

Furts

Addick wrote: »

thanks for the replies, I paid in full using a debit card.

We had the sink plumbed in as that part of the kitchen was completed and needed to have the water running.

The kitchen was designed by the retailer and fully supplied.

As to why the fitter didn't notice, I couldn't tell you, they were only following the design drawings supplied by the supplier.

They've already admitted the mistake was made, I'm just not sure how I should proceed.

Thanks

Your scenario is an everyday reality with the building industry. Any working drawings will have a clause attached saying something like "contractor to check all dimensions and report any discrepancies back to the designer". This puts the onus on you to check everything that matters. I suspect your retailer will have similar caveats.

If the retailer came to do an on site measured survey you could argue a point. However, in general, you opted not to use the fitting service provided, you agreed to be the project manager and you have to take responsibility for what happened.

I accept this may not be the legal view, but it is an every day pragmatic view.

economic

even though legally the retailer may not be the ones you have a claim, it still seems poor of them to design something that doesnt work. who are they so in future people who read this know the risks?

maybe you have a claim against the builder. he really should have checked before.

Doozergirl

economic wrote: »

even though legally the retailer may not be the ones you have a claim, it still seems poor of them to design something that doesnt work. who are they so in future people who read this know the risks?

maybe you have a claim against the builder. he really should have checked before.

We can all discover that something doesn't quite fit in the way that we want it to. Especially where the designer is not on site. I've seen things that I've designed be carried out differently by my own husband. And you'd think he'd be in tune with my expectations!

My opinion sits with Furts'. In this case, the OP acts as project manager.

It's fine to want to save money. The money that you potentially save is the cost of project management, which you take on yourself instead of someone else factoring in any cost of things going wrong between design and build.

It might be that some pressure on the retailer might provide a new worktop as a matter of goodwill.

But employing a guy to fit a kitchen that someone else has designed and that you have sat over and then trying to claim from him for bad design is a bit harsh!

I would hope that the fitter would spot it earlier, but eliminating a vital role in a project can and often does have a financial consequence. It often still pays off to take on that role, even when things do go wrong.

economic

Doozergirl wrote: »

We can all discover that something doesn't quite fit in the way that we want it to.

My opinion sits with Furts'. In this case, the OP acts as project manager.

It's fine to want to save money. The money that you potentially save is the cost of project management, which you take on yourself instead of someone else factoring in any cost of things going wrong between design and build.

It might be that some pressure on the retailer might provide a new worktop as a matter of goodwill.

But employing a guy to fit a kitchen that someone else has designed and that you have sat over and then trying to claim from him for bad design is a bit harsh!

I would hope that the fitter would spot it earlier, but eliminating a vital role in a project can and often does have a financial consequence. It often still pays off to take on that role, even when things do go wrong.

i got my kitchen done recently and the kitchen supplier designed it. they came round and did the measurements and designed the kitchen so that everything would work. i then found a builder through recomendation who fit it all and it works fine. the builder would have told me straight away if something would not fit before continuing on.

i feel its the builders fault (as presumably you told him about the design and how it should obviously all work). why was the worktop fitted??

the supplier can be blamed also and i suggest naming and shaming them. however ultimate responsiblity lies with builder.