Does a company in administration have to let consumer know.

joycey_2018

Hi,
I recently made a purchase from a company who are advertising a 'spring sale'.
I have received the goods and so far so good, the item has a three year warranty and I registered this with the company. 
However 2 days after receiving the goods I was talking to a friend who informed me that the company i had purchased from was in administration.

There is no indication that the company is in administration on their website, the sale is marketed as a spring clearout,  had i known this before, i may not have proceeded with the purchase as the warranty will be null and void if the company disappears.
I did email the company and they have said that they are in administration due to supply chain issues but are hoping this does not lead to a complete closure of the business, with regard to the warranty apparently this would still be honoured by their sub supplier but i have no idea how that would work.

My question is does a company in administration have to inform the consumer of the fact that they are in administration, is there some law or part of the consumer act that requires the company to be transparent in this situation?
should there be a clear message or indication on the website or at checkout that inform the consumer that the sale is due to administrator sell off and not hide behind 'spring sale gimmick'?

Thanks
Adam

[Deleted User]

No. 

The sale also doesn't need to be a gimmick related to the administration. Debenhams ran a solid two decades of permanent sales before finally giving up.

if the warranty is managed by a third party, then that's all good. 

joycey_2018

Thanks for the quick reply.

kind regards

Ergates

joycey_2018 said:

with regard to the warranty apparently this would still be honoured by their sub supplier but i have no idea how that would work.

Presumably, the company you bought the goods from didn't actually manufacture them - the warranty normally lies with the manufacturer rather than the retailer.

nyermen

I guess the related question might be slightly different though - ie there is no indication when ordering, but presumably that you'll have far fewer consumer rights (return / reject / etc) as the company is in administration?

Obviously the manufacturers (etc?) warranty should still stand as discussed above.

user1977

nyermen said:

I guess the related question might be slightly different though - ie there is no indication when ordering, but presumably that you'll have far fewer consumer rights (return / reject / etc) as the company is in administration?

Or rather, you have the same rights, just less chance of actually getting any cash out of them. In general, you take the risk of how creditworthy a retailer is, whether or not they're actually bankrupt.

Sandtree

nyermen said:

I guess the related question might be slightly different though - ie there is no indication when ordering, but presumably that you'll have far fewer consumer rights (return / reject / etc) as the company is in administration?

Obviously the manufacturers (etc?) warranty should still stand as discussed above.

Rights are the same but if the administrators cannot turn the business around and it fails or is broken up for assets then your are at the bottom of the pecking order when it comes to dividing up the monies left in the bank.

Manufacturer warranties will normally still stand but given these are above and beyond your statutory rights it does come down to the T&Cs... certainly a small number of manufacturer warranties require you to deal with your original dealer in which case their failure kills off that too.

Clearly sometimes a business is turned around and comes out of administration and survives for many more years but it ultimately is a risk and partially why it can become a self fulfilling prophecy as some customers will avoid buying making it harder to turn the business around.