Tolerance of colour difference in brand new kitchen - my rights

scootar

Hi, we have a new build house and the kitchen doors do match the trim/edging. It is not even close and most people assume it is a design feature. The builder referred to the company and they've had 3 people out and have now said it is within tolerance and you may not get a perfect match. I understand that, but this is a different colour. I can share photos later if it is helpful. They have offered to replace doors at cost price and to do the edge parts for free. They say this is a widely fitted kitchen and ours is the only complaint - which to me indicates the fault. I have seen two other kitchens the same colour and the colours do match, unlike ours.

I am thinking about small claims court.

Does anyone know what the rules/rights are about this?

Thanks!

DullGreyGuy

The consumer rights act doesn't apply to the purchase of homes unfortunately and so rather than statutory rights you are dependent of the terms of the contract you signed, it should contain the specifications for the quality. Your claim will be that they have failed to reach the contracted standards which may be hard to prove or highly subjective. 

Per the discussion on blinds the other day, our perception of colour is highly influenced by a number of different matters (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checker_shadow_illusion as an example). Presumably you've looked at it in different lights/angles etc and it still looks different?

Was the kitchen the same as the one in the show house? Do you have images of it? Have you asked around with your neighbours to see if they have the same finish and/or same problem?

scootar

Yes, same as show home. They don't have the same difference. And the one over from us has it and it matches. It does vary in different lights but it is always there and goes from quite bad to totally different. It does vary a bit from board to board, but that might be shadow and light influence as you say. How would I check the contract terms? Things like NHBC don't cover this issue. Thanks for the reply!

DullGreyGuy

Defects in the first 2 years are the builders problem anyway. 

You should have copies of the contracts you signed? You could ask your solicitor if you didnt retain copies.

scootar

Yes, and they are saying them won't do anything - it is within 2 years - so do I then go to NHBC or small claims? The builder is middle person to the kitchen company.

scootar

this is what they said. Builder emailing me "Their [kitchen company] responses are as follows:

 

Item 1

The boards for this kitchen range are ‘Egger’ manufactured and are used throughout the furniture making industry. Virtually all kitchen manufacturers will have or will source from ‘Egger’. They recommend edgings to use for doors, on units and side to panels. We use their recommended edging. The edging is the same colour but is slightly smoother than the door material which we think in this case makes it look slightly different. That said we have sold large volumes of ‘Perfect Matt Indigo’ but have received no other complaints about edging / door / clad panel mismatch. If we try swapping the same colour replacement panels as we before did then it will result in the same look.

 

Having stated this we did try to swapping the clad panels a while ago. Our installer fitted one wall panel – the one on the right / end of the hood run. This replacement panel if anything had a very slightly darker edging to the fit was aborted. Panels supplied for this attempted swap will have come from a different batch than the original kitchen.

 

When I visited I took a newly manufactured clad panel with the indigo edging. The frontal and edge of this newly made sample was an extremely good match to the original kitchen and clad panels. The sample that I had is what we used constantly and widespread throughout the UK, without issue.

 

Item 2

‘Perfect Matt Indigo’ does show marks more readily than many other colours and finishes. Being dark it is very similar to black. I said that a non-abrasive soft cloth with warm water is the best way to clean. The customer asked what I would recommend as an alternative that doesn’t show marks and is easy (or easier) to keep clean. I said that wood looks tend to hide marks (Referring to ‘marks’ – not necessarily just damages and scratches).

 

Item 3

I should have taken a photo, however this was placed on the snag list when they first moved in so I can only assume that you will have record of this.

 

Item 4

I will contact the quartz manufacturer’s / installers and will ask for them to visit to see if anything can be done to improve.

 

 

I have spoken further with David on his report and can advise that they do not feel that the unit fronts are defective, but appear to be of different shades due to the use of different materials used and therefore different finishes on the end panels and the unit frontals.   Morrish Homes would of course agree to changing the unit which has paint residue marks on in the utility room, but as the other units are not defective, no further units or end panels will be replaced.

 

David advised that he discussed options with you and should you decide you would like to change your frontals for a wood look frontal from either the H1 or H2 range, they would be happy to do this at trade rate and supplying the unit clad panels free of charge for you.  Please do let us know if this is something you would like to do and I can of course put you in touch.  Morrish Homes would of course pay for the cost of the damaged frontal in the utility room should you wish to go this route."

visidigi

Ask them to take a door off the show home and take it to yours to align next to it to see if its a lighting issue of in fact variance.

Did you choose this kitchen or did it come prefitted?

TBH we had a new build, kitchen from Symphony - it was utterly awful. Within three years matching panels and edges all changed colours (white kitchen, edging turned yellow) and we ended up ripping it out and replacing it because the space use design was awful. Big builders kitchens generally seem poor from what we saw.

user1977

scootar said:

Yes, and they are saying them won't do anything - it is within 2 years - so do I then go to NHBC or small claims? The builder is middle person to the kitchen company.

What does the contract say about the specification? How have you arrived at the figure you'd be claiming for?

DullGreyGuy

Egger are a big well known manufacturer, like most big well known manufacturers though they sell different grades of product. They generally are supplying the Melamine Faced Chipboard and then another firm turns them into kitchens which equally can be done well or on the cheap. 

Without knowing what the different items are their responses are not that useful to this discussion. 

The builder isnt the middle man, they're the person that sold you the house. Like most sellers of goods they buy supplies from other companies, very few companies are fully vertically integrated that they go from growing/mining their raw materials all the way to selling to the end consumer. Their suppliers are their problem, your contract/rights are with the seller not their suppliers

TELLIT01

The fact that the OP is apparently the only person to complain doesn't mean there is a fault with their door edging.  Other people with the same doors may simply not see it as an issue.

Grumpy_chap

scootar said:

They have offered to replace doors at cost price and to do the edge parts for free. 

scootar said:

Yes, and they are saying them won't do anything 

It does not sound like they are saying they won't do anything.

Photos would help but, if I understand correctly, the kitchen has doors and edge trim that are intended to be the same colour and same tone.
Your perception is that the doors are "same colour tone A" but the edge trims are the "same colour tone B".
This could be down to lighting effects.
This could be down to different finish, so both the "same colour tone A" but one part matt and one part gloss.

If the builder is willing to replace the edge trims for free, could they replace the edges to match the existing doors, rather than the replaced edge trims being changed to match a different door selection?