Bricks for extension and return

pinkerton_angel

Hi
just wondering if I have any consumer rights here?
I’m having an extension built and my builders have told me they can’t source the bricks I need to match my house, they have stopped making them. They found a stone that they had been told was a suitable alternative by the company, the colour didn’t match so they showed me another and I said the colour matched so good to go. They ordered them in and they were delivered to my house on 30th July (so 8 days ago). They started building with them and as soon as I saw them I told them
to stop as they were vastly different to the house. I don’t want to use them as it will look ridiculous. Builder has just told me that the supplier will only accept unopened packs (think they opened a few as the bricks are all different sizes) and that there will be a 35% restocking fee on these plus any delivery charges.
do I have any rights or do I just have to suck it up? 35% seems very high for unopened packs, what’s that even for? 
thanks 

QrizB

Your contract is with the builder, not with the brick supplier.

Is the builder using the bricks you agreed to, and they look different to what you expected once they're in place? Or are they using different bricks to the ones they showed you?

pinkerton_angel

Yes they’re using the bricks that were agreed but I was agreeing to the colour and they told me they’d be the same sizes etc as my current ones which they’re clearly not. Also, even though they’ve only done 2 rows they’ve managed to open 6 of the 10 packs which means I can’t return any of those. Honestly at my wits end with it all. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

A photo speaks a thousand words with these kinds of topics OP

Okell

Just down the road from me a former NHS property is being redeveloped and converted into luxury apartments.

Some of the redevelopment consists of extensions using the same colour bricks as the original Victorian building, but the new bricks are a smaller size.

Looks perfectly ok to me.  Certainly preferable to the bricks being a different colour.

When existing buildings have new "bits" added to them, it's always going to look odd for a while.

Whether or not you have a claim against your builder depends on what exactly the two of you agreed to when you said the bricks were ok.

eg was the sample you were shown the same size as the bricks on the existing building, or was it a different size?

If it was a different size, did you query the size?  If it was the same size, what did the builder say when you asked why the bricks he was using were a different size

pinkerton_angel

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

A photo speaks a thousand words with these kinds of topics OP

A photo of the difference?

MyRealNameToo

pinkerton_angel said:

Hi
just wondering if I have any consumer rights here?
I’m having an extension built and my builders have told me they can’t source the bricks I need to match my house, they have stopped making them. They found a stone that they had been told was a suitable alternative by the company, the colour didn’t match so they showed me another and I said the colour matched so good to go. They ordered them in and they were delivered to my house on 30th July (so 8 days ago). They started building with them and as soon as I saw them I told them
to stop as they were vastly different to the house. I don’t want to use them as it will look ridiculous. Builder has just told me that the supplier will only accept unopened packs (think they opened a few as the bricks are all different sizes) and that there will be a 35% restocking fee on these plus any delivery charges.
do I have any rights or do I just have to suck it up? 35% seems very high for unopened packs, what’s that even for? 
thanks 

Presumably the builders have ordered them and not you? As such there will be no consumer rights as they are a business and so it will come down to whatever the contract states. Businesses dont get the same level of protection from bad decisions as consumers as they are considered to be competent and in a position to negotiate/ get lawyers etc whereas Joe Public is considered needing protecting from themselves and big bad businesses. 

Id guess your contract with the builders just has a straight pass through of their expenses so not much that can be done unless you or they try to negotiate but to do that you really need to be offering to buy stuff from them else you are simply asking them to give money they are entitled to away and no one will agree to that. 

Even businesses are protected from goods not matching their descriptions, generally, so that is the only possible avenue to explore but its a bit desperate