Curry’s fridge nightmare need urgent help

Emmia

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Thanks @Okell and @Alderbank  

Okell said:

Now having read what I think about the 6 years bit, I'm sure you can guess what I think about your 10 year warranty question - but I accept I'd probably be wrong...   

Alderbank said:

For your warranty, a breach of contract would occur at the point where you attempt to claim and the other party renages. From that date you have a limited time to sue for the breach. In English law that time is usually 3, 6 or 12 years depending on the type of contract.

So if a something had a warranty running passed 6 years and you had paid on credit you could possibly enforce the terms of the warranty upon the credit provider if the manufacturer wasn't honouring the terms (or no longer existed*) even if 6 years had passed from delivery. 

*(in the instance of no longer trading possibly limited to the 6 years from the date the company went under)

Okell said:

With regards to the 6 years I think I'm just parroting what seems to be the consensus view on this board that a consumer can't sue after 6 years have passed from date of delivery.  I'm not 100% convinced myself that that is what s5 of the Limitation Act 1980 means:  "An action founded on simple contract shall not be brought after the expiration of six years from the date on which the cause of action accrued."  [My bold for emphasis]

In particular I'm not sure what "... the date on which the cause of action accrued" means.

Prior to frequenting this board I'd always understood that in the case of latent defects the limitation period began to run from when the claimant became aware - or should have become aware - of the defect.  Now that makes perfect sense because the whole point of a latent defect is that it is hidden and not obvious.

I don't understand why (1) if a consumer buys an item suffering from a latent or inherent manufacturing defect that is not reasonably discoverable at the date of purchase, and (2) that item fails 3 years later because of that latent or inherent defect, (3) the limitation period runs from the date of purchase and not from three years later which is the first time the defect manifested itself.

I had a quick Google before asking and don't really understand a lot of it (good job the consumer regs are written in everyday language!) but "became aware - or should have become aware" is what seems to come up the most.

Like yourself, I say 6 years as that is what has always been said here for the last 14 years and I know no different, I do agree that if you buy a fridge with a compressor that isn't durable how are you supposed to know this at the point delivery (but don't want to take OP's thread too far off topic). 

With the OP, I do think if the manufacturer is offering a 10 year warranty on the compressor there is a good case to say that part should have a 10 year lifespan and either way a £247 offer is very tight on a £1600 fridge after 5.5 years. It does surprise me some seem happy with expensive appliances breaking down so quickly and so little being offer as a reduced refund. 

T&Cs on the Samsung website seem to only refer to the 5 year warranty, can't seem to find T&Cs specifically for the compressor 10/20 year warranty, would be interesting to see, if anything, what they offer when they can't repair/replace the compressor. 

This is from the Samsung site on fridges

Alderbank

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

With the OP, I do think if the manufacturer is offering a 10 year warranty on the compressor there is a good case to say that part should have a 10 year lifespan... 

I agree with much of what you say but with respect I can't agree to this at all.

I'll give two reasons:
Warranties are marketing devices designed to encourage sales by instilling confidence. They are nice round numbers and usually devised by advertising agents rather than engineers. They are not a function of product longevity. There are lots of 'lifetime' warranties around. When companies like Apple and Samsung have had technical problems with phones they have beefed up guarantees to maintain sales. That doesn't mean the technical issue is fixed,  it's to give prospective buyers confidence.

More fundamentally, both the wording and the legal intent of (most) warranties is not to claim that the specific item you have bought will last for a definite number of years. No one can say that in the real world. The warranty is that when the bunch of parts you bought breaks down they will provide spares or an engineer or replacements or whatever it takes for you to have a functional washing machine or driveable car or a compressor that keeps your fridge cold for a fixed number of years. 

Alderbank

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

So if a something had a warranty running passed 6 years and you had paid on credit you could possibly enforce the terms of the warranty upon the credit provider if the manufacturer wasn't honouring the terms (or no longer existed*) even if 6 years had passed from delivery. 

*(in the instance of no longer trading possibly limited to the 6 years from the date the company went under)

The period of a warranty is a term of the contract, whatever the parties agree. So long as both parties carry out their agreed terms of the contract there is no breach.Say you have a 25 year warranty on your windows and you seek to enforce the terms of the warranty after 24 years and the glazing company complies, there is no breach of contract. If they refuse to comply there is a breach of contract that day. That breach is your Cause of Action. You have 6 years from that date to bring a claim in the courts for breach of contract.

I think that if the company cease to trade after say 10 years but you have a finance contract under the CCA 1974 there is no contract breach because the finance house has joint and several liability. A contract breach would only arise if before the warranty expires you sought to enforce the terms of the warranty and the finance house refuse to comply. From that date you would have 6 years to take the finance company to court for breach of contract.