Big trouble with worktop installation

GoldenArbs

Long post - apologies!

I purchased new kitchen worktops from a company, which included both the materials and the provision of a fitter in the price. I paid the company for this. Installation payment is to be made directly to the fitter.

Terms with the retailer are: "Following delivery of worktops the project passes entirely to the Independent Installer. The installation agreement and remedial’s are then between the installer & the client direct."

I think it's important to say that

1. No choice was given to me to pick a fitter, they were assigned to my job by the retailer.
2. Whether the retailers terms mention it or not, they have arranged for this work to take place and continue to schedule the fitter's jobs.
3. No information about the fitter was passed over to me once payment for the materials had been paid for apart from his firstname and mobile number.
4. The original install date, along with some subsequent dates, have been communicated to me by the retailer.


The timeline of issues -

The fitter was due to fit the worktops on October 28th. This was cancelled due to ill health. The retailer was in touch with this news, not the fitter. No new fitter was arranged by the retailer. The best they could do was re-arrange the same fitter for November 6th.

November 6th: The fitter doesnt check for level cabinet and attempts to install worktops. Joins in the worktops are deemed to have failed. And a sufficient amount of substrate wasn't installed. Another party (a kitchen installer) agrees that the workmanship is not satisfactory. Nevertheless, I paid the worktop fitter 50% as he was scheduled to return the following week to fix problems.

Next week - worktop fitter cancelled and rescheduled for the following Wednesday (20/11/24)

Fitter cancels Wednesday and reschedules for Thursday

Fitter cancels Thursday and reschedules for Friday. Bear in mind that a separate  kitchen fitter/plumber/electrician/tiler are all being affected by the failed scheduling by the worktop fitter.

Friday 22nd - Fitter arrives, pulls out worktops to fix his poor workmanship and refuses to install cabinet on the unlevel cabinet. I am in agreement that the cabinets are NOT level. I get my kitchen fitter to rush over to the premise and he levels the cabinets by 10:30am. All in agreement that the cabinets are now level and suitable for the worktops. Worktop fitter says its too late to now fit worktops and leaves premises, rescheduling for Saturday the 30th

Saturday 30th - Fitter DOES NOT ARRIVE FOR JOB. My phone calls, texts, voice mails go unanswered, until 13:30, when he sends a text saying that the job had been postponed and apologises for not letting me know.


My questions -

1. Can the retailer who arranged for this incompetent fitter to work with my expensive worktops really completely wash their hands of this job? Surely they should bear some responsibility here? They arranged for this man to do the job. However, payment of install goes straight to the fitter.

2. My worktops are in pieces - the fitter will argue that they can all be joined together to look like they're 1 continuous piece, but the quality of his previous work begs to differ. Who is responsible for that damage and paying for new worktops? Sidenote, the manufacturer of the worktops (IDS) have recently gone into administration.

3. I'll phone CAB this coming week for advice, but I don't think I'm over reacting when I say that this job has fallen well short of what I'd expect as a customer, right?


I've actually left a few other points out of this long post, but stuck to the important facts. Does anyone have advice on the above? Thanks!

Emmia

Firstly, its bear... Not bare (unless you're naked?)

How have you paid for this? I'd go back to the showroom to talk to them. Who fitted the cabinets? Or are you just getting a new worktop on existing cabinets?

tacpot12

1) You agreed to the terms and conditions that sais they weren't responsible after the work commenced.

2) You have the right to have the worktops fitted to a professional standard. The fitter would be liable for replacing the worktops with new if they damage the worktops to the point where they can't be fitted correctly. The fact that the worktop manufacturer has gone into adminsistration is not the fitters nor your fault, but it is likely to mean that if new worktops are needed, they can't come from the same manufacturer - unless you get lucky and the fitter can find enough of the worktop to replace what needs replacing. The practical solution, that a court would expect you to adopt, is to select new worktops from a new supplier that are no more expensive than the ones you bought. 

If the fitter has damaged, say, two peices of worktop to the point that they can't be fitted, and the kitchen needs three peices (so one of them isn't damaged, but needs to be replaced to match new items bought from a new manufacturer); there is a question as to whether the fitter should be penalised for the manufacturer going out of business. Again a court might side with the homeowner, or it might side with the fitter. Therefore, the best answer is compromise. You both pay 50% of the cost of new items that are needed only to match the replaced worktops. (Any undamaged worktops might even have some value, e.g. to someone else in the same situation).  

3) Yes, it sounds like the job has fallen short of what you would expect from a professional. A professional would not have cancelled so often, would have checked the cabinets for level before they started installed, and would have installed sufficient substrate (I would say that it is an implied specification of such work that thmanufacturer'srs instructions are followed and it is down to the designer to ensure that they can be). However, you have not met your side of the deal by calling him in when the cabinets weren't level. 10:30am seems early to leave site, but he should not have even been called to site until it was ready for him to do his work. He should have checked the cabinets and walked off site when they cabinets were found to be not level, and not returned until they were level.

This lack of professionalism is not entirely offset by you calling him in before the cabinets were level, but he handled the fact you did so badly.

If you have home insurance, check to see if you have legal expenses insurance. If you do, you can call the Legal Helpline proivded by your insurer for advise on resolving this issue. 

GoldenArbs

Emmia said:

Firstly, its bear... Not bare (unless you're naked?)

How have you paid for this? I'd go back to the showroom to talk to them. Who fitted the cabinets? Or are you just getting a new worktop on existing cabinets?

(thanks for spelling pointers)

I have fully paid for the worktop slabs via bank transfer. I have paid the installer, via bank transfer 50% of the install fee as I thought half the job was done prior to him leaving on the 6th of November.

I've been in touch with the showroom. They remain in charge of booking the fitter on the job and know of the problems. They remain resolute that the contract is now 100% between customer and fitter.

Ikea subcontractor fitted new cabinets and failed to check the levels after flooring/electrician subcontractors had visit the premises to do work.

GoldenArbs

tacpot12 said:

However, you have not met your side of the deal by calling him in when the cabinets weren't level. 10:30am seems early to leave site, but he should not have even been called to site until it was ready for him to do his work. He should have checked the cabinets and walked off site when they cabinets were found to be not level, and not returned until they were level.

Thanks for the objective reply, its great to hear from someone completely removed from the situation.

Yes, I agree, and the fitter agrees, that he should have checked levels when he first arrived, and walked off site charging me for wasted time. And I really wish he had done so. Instead he attempted the fit and left the tops in place so that it was impossible for our separate kitchen fitter to check the levels of the cabinets in the meantime.

I've read through the worktop install manual from the manufacturer and quite a few guidelines have not been met by the fitter. He would argue that these are merely 'guidelines'.

Emmia

You paid by bank transfer which means you lack S.75 protection which you would have got if you'd paid by credit card.

You have potentially two issues 
1. Your IKEA cabinets have not been fitted correctly (what are you doing to get this rectified?)
2.Because your cabinets are fitted poorly, your worktop is now difficult to fit nicely - this is not really the worktop fitters fault.

GoldenArbs

Emmia said:

You paid by bank transfer which means you lack S.75 protection which you would have got if you'd paid by credit card.

You have potentially two issues 
1. Your IKEA cabinets have not been fitted correctly (what are you doing to get this rectified?)
2.Because your cabinets are fitted poorly, your worktop is now difficult to fit nicely - this is not really the worktop fitters fault.

1. Yes, agreed the cabinets were not level. But the fitter shouldn't have attempted to install the worktops. The cabinets have been level since 10:30am 22nd of November. From Nov 6th to November 22nd they were prevented from being levelled due to the fitter's attempt to fit worktops.

2. Similarly, its not the fitter's fault that the cabinets were unlevel on the 6th of November and the beginning of the day on the 22nd of November and worktop fitting should not have been attempted. I should have expected the fitter to reject fitting on unlevel surface and potentially pay for loss of day's earnings. 

Emmia

GoldenArbs said:

Emmia said:

You paid by bank transfer which means you lack S.75 protection which you would have got if you'd paid by credit card.

You have potentially two issues 
1. Your IKEA cabinets have not been fitted correctly (what are you doing to get this rectified?)
2.Because your cabinets are fitted poorly, your worktop is now difficult to fit nicely - this is not really the worktop fitters fault.

1. Yes, agreed the cabinets were not level. But the fitter shouldn't have attempted to install the worktops. The cabinets have been level since 10:30am 22nd of November. From Nov 6th to November 22nd they were prevented from being levelled due to the fitter's attempt to fit worktops.

2. Similarly, its not the fitter's fault that the cabinets were unlevel on the 6th of November and the beginning of the day on the 22nd of November and worktop fitting should not have been attempted. I should have expected the fitter to reject fitting on unlevel surface and potentially pay for loss of day's earnings. 

Sorry, who is paying who for loss of earnings? Are you paying the fitter, or the other way round?

Grumpy_chap

GoldenArbs said:

2. My worktops are in pieces - the fitter will argue that they can all be joined together to look like they're 1 continuous piece, but the quality of his previous work begs to differ. Who is responsible for that damage and paying for new worktops? Sidenote, the manufacturer of the worktops (IDS) have recently gone into administration.

The Fitter seems to have suffered a lot more time on this job - for various reasons - than would have been expected.  It seems as though the Fitter has taken this loss (time) and not sought to recover from yourself.

In the scheme of things, how much is the cost for complete new worktops?
Compared to the potential cost of the time should the Fitter be so inclined as to try to claim this from you?
It seems as though it is not entirely the Fitter's fault that the worktops have been cut-and-shut.

It might be pragmatic to suffer the cost of new worktops and keep the Fitter on side to do the actual work when the replacement worktops are available (and the cupboards properly prepared and level for the worktops to be fitted).

GoldenArbs

Emmia said:

Sorry, who is paying who for loss of earnings? Are you paying the fitter, or the other way round?

Proper protocol would have been for the fitter to reject the unlevel surface and under their discretion, charge a fee on top of the installation cost (due to time wasted). 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Emmia said:

2.Because your cabinets are fitted poorly, your worktop is now difficult to fit nicely - this is not really the worktop fitters fault.

I think OP is right in their reply, fitter should have checked beforehand and either asked for it to be corrected or walked away.

OP what info do you have about the fitter? Name? Address? 

Which company did you buy the worktops from? 

Consumer rights say one repeat performance followed by price reduction. 

They also say services must be carried out with due care and skill so where this isn’t the case you can claim damages (cost of correcting the work).

You said a second fitter agreed the work was subpar, will they put that in writing? (Burden of proof lies with yourself). 

Out of interest does anyone know if these companies arranging separate fitters are classed as an agent and have any responsibility for ensuring the fitter they arrange is half decent?