Curtains lost by Dry cleaners

Bea787

Hi. Would appreciate any advice. Sent a bespoke pair of huge curtains for dry cleaning. They lost them! I got a quote to replace like for like and it will cost me £1550. I completed the claim form and received compensation of £387. I refused it and argued and they have gone up to £600 max. I’m liaising with the TSA (textile services association) who set the pay out guidelines but I think the offer is in line with their guidelines. Curtains were over ten years old but perfectly adequate. Their argument is that based on the age they were likely to be out of their lifespan and not worth much. It doesn’t change that the quote for me to replace them is £1550! I do not see why I should be almost a grand out of pocket for something that is entirely their fault. Any advice please?

Any terminology or rights I can use in my argument and complaint form in particular would be appreciated. Thank you

Aretnap

Unfortunately the cleaner's liability would be restricted to the actual value of the curtains that they've lost - which basically means the second hand value. If they paid out the full value of a new replacement then that would be "betterment" - you'd effectively have profited from the mishap as instead of a 10 year old pair of curtains, you'd have a brand new pair.

Obviously with a bespoke pair of curtains an exact second hand replacement might not actually be available but the general principle remains the same. The liability is for the price they'd fetch if they were on the open market; there's just a fair amount of room for argument about what that price might be.

It's certainly frustrating if you end up having to replace them new, but viewed dispassionately that doesn't necessarily represent an actual loss to you if the curtains were approaching the end of their expected lifespan. If you'd have to have replaced them in about, say, 5 years anyway then a third of their value would seem reasonably fair.

Alternatively have a read of your home insurance policy documents and see if this is something that would be covered. If so, it's likely that your home insurer would settle on a new for old basis, ie you'd get the full cost of a new replacement set. My own policy has an exclusion covering "loss or damage arising from the process of cleaning... or washing" whihc would prevent the claim, but the terms of yours may be different.