Who honours a warranty, the seller or the manufacturer?

hoggypne75

As part of buying a new build property you can purchase additional items - such as your choice of kitchen in this case. The builder only offers a 2 year warranty on the property, however the kitchen has a 5 year manufacturer's warranty. 
Does the builder have to honour the 5 year warranty as they sold the product or can they wash their hands of the issue once their 2 year warranty expires?

molerat

The builder, as the seller, will offer a 2 year warranty in addition to your consumer rights.  The manufacturer can offer their own warranty but the seller is under no obligation to have anything to do with that.  In fact the manufacturer warranty may not apply in your particular case, it may only be available to items purchased through retail channels.

Alderbank

It might not be as simple as that.

There have been test cases where a consumer has bought e.g. a boxed vacuum cleaner from a reseller on eBay. The box was printed something like '5 years manufacturer's guarantee' on the outside. The small print saying the guarantee only applied to authorised dealers was inside the box. The courts have held that where the precise terms were not available to the purchaser at the time of purchase that the printing on the box was a valid and enforceable contract term.

If the builder offers you the option of a kitchen which they tell you comes with a manufacturer's 5 year warranty without showing you all the small print then that might form an enforceable contract term.
I say 'might' because property purchase is specifically excluded from consumer rights legislation. So is the purchase of that kitchen part of the property sale or is it a separate contract?
If it is bundled in the purchase price, so included in mortgage and stamp duty, it would probably be considered part of the property purchase. 

born_again

If you are lucky there will be a pack with all the warranty cards & instructions allowing you to personally register the warranty.

Okell

hoggypne75 said:

As part of buying a new build property you can purchase additional items...

As this was part of  a house purchase you might be better off posting here: House buying, renting & selling — MoneySavingExpert Forum