Delayed kitchen delivery

AndreBR

Hello, I would need your opinion on a matter. Back in October, we agreed on the purchase of a kitchen and we paid a hefty 30% deposit. We were promised (unfortunately not in writing) that the kitchen will be fitted within the first two weeks of December. 

We’ve been chasing them unsuccessfully for an update  last week, just to be told today that the kitchen will be delivered in the last week of January. We renovated the house and we moved out in the past few months but were planning to move back before Christmas. Now I have to choose between renting one more month or moving back to a kitchen-less house for a month (don’t even have a microwave) and ordering food all along. Both options imply more money to spend, money that we didn’t budget. Had they told us beforehand about the delay, we could have made some arrangements, maybe we have kept the old kitchen units.
Now the question is: can we now ask the seller for a discount to compensate us for the extra spending as above? 

gettingtheresometime

For the sake of my health (the thought of eating takeaways for a month does nothing for me) I think I'd consider something like this https://www.robertdyas.co.uk/tower-32l-mini-oven-with-hobs-black?gclid=EAIaIQobChMItOaN6e3O7QIVo4BQBh1t3gqwEAQYAyABEgLzJ_D_BwE for the short term along with a slow cooker.

what does the contract say about delivery times / delays? I would imagine that faced with the situation we're in atm delays are to be expected.

IvanOpinion

Hi AndreBR, we have been through this this year.  We went on holiday in March and our kitchen was due to be fitted while we were away.  They managed to rip out the old kitchen and then lockdown reared its head - so when we got back we had no kitchen and only half a utility room.  We had to buy a microwave (we had dumped our old one just before going on holiday) and an induction hob to get us through.  We were fortunate in that the fitters had managed to fit the sink into the utility room so at least we had water (unfortunately, the kitchen floor had been lifted for plumbing changes, so we had to walk across a couple of planks to get to the utility room - the good lady used to go out the front door and in the back door - she didn't like walking across the planks).

Because of various shut downs, it was the end of July before we got a basic kitchen installed and then it was August before we got the plumbing in and September before the power went back on.  We got the final screws put in place a few weeks ago, at the end of November. 

It wasn't what we wanted, it was irritating at times, but you sort of get a new routine going.  It will all be worth it in the end.