Faulty bathroom unit - advice needed!

Winfield

Hello!

My wife and I are looking for some advice regarding a bathroom vanity unit we bought last year from a national (Scottish) bathroom company.

We bought the unit in February last year, and had it installed the following month, so it has only been in use for around 1 year. In September last year (only 6 months after installation), one of the drawers had developed a problem whereby the laminate of one of the drawers had cracked spontaneously, revealing the MDF underneath. We contacted the seller, who, after inspecting the photos we sent, agreed to replace the drawer unit free of charge if we returned it (which we did).

Fast forward to last week (just over one year after purchase), and the same problem has occured not only to the second drawer, but the one which was replaced only 6 months ago.

I again contacted the seller and sent some photos as proof, and they've came back claiming that it's either a condensation issue or water ingress (but this has occurred *inside* the drawer, not on the front). They did say that as a form of goodwill, they'd replace the unit free of charge, but if the problem were to re-occur, no action would be taken (basically leaving us with a faulty bathroom suite). I notified them that it was only the drawers we'd need as the rest of the unit is fine, but have not yet heard back as to whether we need to return the faulty drawers (easily enough done) or the complete unit (a bit of a nightmare as it's bolted onto the wall and has been tiled around).

After having had a look at the company's terms and conditions, I noticed this:

"During the expected lifespan of your product your legal rights entitle you to the following:

- up to six years: if your goods do not last a reasonable length of time you may be entitled to some money back."

So, a year and a month is hardly a reasonable amount of time for a new bathroom suite to show signs of spontaneous damage, and we're not interested in getting money back, we just want the bathroom suite we paid good money for!

What rights do we have as consumers in this situation? My main worry would be that, if we accept the replacement and the same problem happens within a few months, we'd have a faulty bathroom suite and no comeback with the company we bought it from.

Many thanks in advance for your thoughts / advice!

Aylesbury_Duck

Condensation could well be the cause and it wouldn't be spontaneous. In fact, it's perhaps more likely inside the unit or drawers because there would be less airflow inside than out, and I assume the closed drawers don't form a hermetic seal.

I think the retailer is being fair. They can't go on replacing the unit every time it becomes damaged in an environment that's naturally warm and damp. Laminated MDF was never going to be a great solution for a bathroom unit and I suspect that was reflected in the price.