Damages from broken fridge freezer

jamie1986_2

Hi

I purchased a fridge freezer from AO and after a couple of days it stopped working. 

They took away the fridge freezer and have refunded me the money paid. However there was food that was wasted as I didn’t have another fridge to put it in. I contacted AO about this but they referred me to the manufacturer (Fridgemaster) who have not responded to my emails.

I would be grateful if someone could let me know if I should be pursuing AO for the damages or Fridgemaster.

If there is any legislation or some form of guidance that would help then I would appreciate if such details could be provided. 

Thanks in advance 

km1500

they are not liable for consequential.loss but you can claim on your house (contents) insurance

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Hello OP

The manufacturer won't have any liability for this unless it was a warranty claim which offers to cover such losses.

Your contract is governed by the Consumer Rights Act (CRA) which means the trader has obligations to sort out the problem with the goods, etc, etc

The CRA specifically states that it doesn't prevent the consumer from seeking other remedies, either in place of or in addition to those in the CRA, and notes seeking damages as an example.

For any claim you generally have to mitigate your losses which means making them less severe and relying on the claims process for as little as possible. Also claims for small amounts may be dismissed by the small claims process.

How much food (in £) are we talking and was there any way to store it with a friend, family, etc or indeed eat some of it. 

You can send a letter before action (templates on Google) to AO stating your losses as a result of their breach of contract (i.e the goods not conforming to the contract) with a deadline and they may pay. If they didn't you'd have to decide whether the amount is enough and worth the headache as well as the chances of success as to whether you'd wish to actually go down the small claims route.  

At least that's my understanding of it all  

jamie1986_2

Hi thank you both for your replies.

It was at least £100 worth of food. By the time I had noticed the freezer goods had pretty much defrosted. 

When AO delivered my fridge they took away my old fridge and it would have been too late to transfer the goods to a neighbour or family/friend. 

I do have some receipts so I will go back to AO and try again. 

Thanks again for your advice.

DullGreyGuy

km1500 said:

they are not liable for consequential.loss but you can claim on your house (contents) insurance

Interested in what you think the CRA 2015 means by this clause then:

(11)Those other remedies include any of the following that is open to the consumer in the circumstances—

(a)claiming damages;

Certainly JL paid out for our ruined food, though initially claimed that food was explicitly excluded from the act and said it was meant to be if the freezer had caught fire and damaged neighbouring units or such.

Alfrescodave

jamie1986_2 said:

It was at least £100 worth of food. By the time I had noticed the freezer goods had pretty much defrosted.  

I do have some receipts so I will go back to AO and try again. 

Thanks again for your advice.

Photos of the spoiled food are better than trying to link the food to receipts as some of the food could have been eaten 

Alderbank

Alfrescodave said:

jamie1986_2 said:

It was at least £100 worth of food. By the time I had noticed the freezer goods had pretty much defrosted.  

I do have some receipts so I will go back to AO and try again. 

Thanks again for your advice.

Photos of the spoiled food are better than trying to link the food to receipts as some of the food could have been eaten 

What does a photo of a defrosted bag of peas look like?

powerful_Rogue

jamie1986_2 said:

Hi thank you both for your replies.

It was at least £100 worth of food. By the time I had noticed the freezer goods had pretty much defrosted. 

When AO delivered my fridge they took away my old fridge and it would have been too late to transfer the goods to a neighbour or family/friend. 

I do have some receipts so I will go back to AO and try again. 

Thanks again for your advice.

As above, receipts won't prove anything, pictures are what you need.

unholyangel

km1500 said:

they are not liable for consequential.loss but you can claim on your house (contents) insurance

What makes you think this is consequential loss? 

Under remoteness, losses are direct, indirect (consequential) and anything that isn't direct or indirect is deemed too remote. 

A direct loss is a loss that occurs in the natural course of the breach, that it would be obvious to the world at large that such a type of loss could occur from such a breach. 
An indirect/consequential loss is one that doesn't arise in the natural and ordinary course, but from special circumstances. Such as ordering something and requiring it by a certain date for an event (birthday, holiday etc). These can still be recovered, but only if it was in contemplation of the parties when the contract was agreed (so basically, if you told them when ordering you needed it by x date because you were going on holiday). 

I would say spoiled food is a direct loss, not a consequential one. 

Also a mistake some solicitors have made when drafting b2b terms, they excluded consequential loss and assumed all damages were indirect then courts found they were direct so the exclusion clause didn't actually cover what they thought it did.