..but I don’t think I should have to pay for a repair
Guarantees are, “in addition to”, and do not affect our statutory rights. In fact there’s no law that says we even have to get a guarantee although no one would be crazy enough to try it. The guarantee we get with our washing machine is built into the price. It is not really free, and is quite separate from our consumer rights, which state that a washing machine must be “of merchantable quality”, and “fit for the purpose it was made for”. It’s also expected to last a “reasonable” length of time and be free from inherent faults.
If a major fault develops even after the guarantee has expired, you may still be entitled to claim the washing machine wasn’t of merchantable quality and therefore claim a partial refund or damages for up to 6 years (Sale of Goods Act gives us 6 years to claim for faulty appliances) though you are highly likely to have to fight for this compensation and may need to go to the small claims court.
If the washing machine has an inherent fault
We can claim compensation if a washing machine can be shown to have an inherent fault. This is usually the cost of the repair. An inherent fault is a fault that was present when you bought it. Most faults will be apparent within the first 12 months. So they’ll normally be dealt with under the manufacturer’s guarantee. But there can be inherent faults that are not apparent until much later. An error in design or manufacturing can mean a faulty part was fitted into the washing machine that takes a long time to fail. If it fails unreasonably soon and is serious it might be a breach of the consumer goods act. The fault may not become apparent immediately, but it was there at the time of sale. So the product might not have been of satisfactory standard or might be shown to have had an inherent fault.
That’s alright in theory but..
Words such as “reasonable” and “merchantable quality” are open to subjective interpretation. What is reasonable to one person may not be accepted as reasonable to another. So the courts often have to decide. If any fault occurs outside the guarantee you will normally find the manufacturer and retailer refuse to repair it free of charge. The initial guarantee has expired. As far as they are concerned it’s sad, but tough.
Despite their attitude you could argue that a new washing machine was not fit for its purpose, or it has not lasted a reasonable of time. This will be easier if it was expensive. You might find evidence that hundreds or even thousands of people have had the exact same fault, and that it is a design fault. You may need to take the retailer to the small claims court (or at least threaten to) to get them to compensate you. Many have been successful, but relatively few are prepared for such a confrontation.
Consumer Rights Act (formally the Sale of Goods Act)
UK consumer law allows up to 6 years from purchase (5 in Scotland) to take legal action against a seller. So it’s possible to claim if your washing machine was inherently faulty, or simply not of good enough quality if it suffers a major fault even at 5 or 6 years old – especially one that renders it scrap. Whether you would win or not is rarely certain. It depends on all the circumstances. If your washing machine cost only £200 and you’ve washed every day for 3 years for a family of 4 or 5 it may be judged that it has lasted a reasonable time. On the other hand if you paid £700 for a quality brand and only washed for 2 people it might be judged that it has not lasted a reasonable time.
Fair wear and tear clause
You should be cautious about jumping to legal action unless you are sure of your case. You may need to be prepared to fight your case. Don’t assume that you can take the seller to court over any breakdowns within the first 5 or 6 years. A washing machine (like any other goods purchased) cannot be expected never to break down. Even a break down after a year or two of washing may be considered reasonable depending on the fault and the amount of laundry the machine has been washing.
You have to show that the washing machine had an inherent fault present on the day of purchase to successfully claim under the consumer legislation. Or that it was not of reasonable quality (maybe because of repeated breakdowns).
Related to sale of goods act
- Out of guarantee even by a long time doesn’t always mean you should pay
- Sale of Goods Act gives us 6 years to claim for faulty appliances
- Is manufacturer or retailer responsible for faulty appliances?
- A sideways look – is the sale of goods act too hard on retailers?
All information is is given in good faith and without liability. With consumer issues, always double check advice using the free Government & consumer group’s literature as well.
Martin modsdell says
October 3, 2017 at 9:08 amHi
I bought a whirlpool tumble dryer as whirlpool/ Indesit recalled my old one due to a faulty filter . When I registered it , the sales agent encouraged me to take out additional insurance and said that they had a special deal and that all my whirlpool/ Indesit was covered for £36 for three years, which although reluctant as I had a one year manufactures guarantee on the tumble dryer.
When I had a problem with my washing machine I phoned for an engineer to repair it , the first one failed to diagnose it as the test said it didn’t have a problem and said if the problem persists to order the part he stated, I Immediately phoned for another visit as the problem persisted , the engineer arrived and immediately diagnosed and repaired it .
Now whirlpool are trying to charge me for the first visit as they say I am not covered under my insurance policy , they said that as a goodwill gesture they would not charge me for the second visit , I believe I am covered by the insurance as that’s why I took it out .
Am I covered under the supply of goods or services act or the Custer consumer act 2015. What can I do as they are threatening legal action.
Andy Trigg (Whitegoodshelp) says
October 3, 2017 at 1:00 pmHello Martin. From the way you describe it yes they should not be charging you. It’s a difficult area when an engineer finds no fault but if the symptoms were definitely the same then it’s a cheek for them to try and charge you when the first engineer didn’t fix it. When an engineer finds no fault they cannot say with certainty that there is no fault. That is ludicrous. I have a specific article on this very issue here – Repair company want to charge if engineer can’t find fault
Debbie Pinchon says
October 8, 2017 at 6:59 pmHi, I bought an integrated washer/drier and integrated dishwasher in March 2013. I have been advised that the processors have gone on both and I have had to rep,ace both this year. I cannot see that four years use with just two people using the machines is good enough.
I have tried to contact Zanussi on Twitter but no response to either message.
Should the processors have last longer? Any thoughts would be very much appreciated, thank you.
Andy Trigg (Whitegoodshelp) says
October 9, 2017 at 2:43 pmHello Debbie. Both appliances failing with the same fault must be annoying. However they are almost 5 years old (4 years 7 months). It is much more difficult to get anything done when so far out of the warranty. Strictly speaking there is still time to claim under the sale of goods act. But you would need to show that the appliances had an inherent fault, or that they haven’t lasted a reasonable time. With the relatively cheap price of modern appliances these days the life expectation has dropped quite a lot. The average life expectancy of a modern washing machine has dropped to only 7 years. If the repairs are so expensive it makes the appliances not worth repairing then you could try to argue that they haven’t lasted a reasonable time. If they were a high quality brand like Miele and had cost £1000 each I think you would have a good case. But if they only cost £300 – £400 it’s not easy to show that around 5 years is totally unreasonable.
The sale of Goods act doesn’t say appliances shouldn’t break down. So a breakdown in 3 or 4 years won’t automatically be seen as breaching anything. It all depends on how much was paid for them, how they were used and what has gone wrong. I can say with confidence that the retailer (who is responsible under the sale of goods act) will never concede anything if a fault occurs so long out of guarantee. Neither would the manufacturer although they have no responsibility under the sale of goods act. The only way you could claim anything is if you could convince a small claims court judge that it hasn’t lasted a reasonable time or show that the PCBs have some design fault.
Laura says
November 9, 2017 at 3:22 pmHi.
I bought a Maytag washing machine from Costco (Cardiff) in May 2017 for £480.
I have used it roughly 4 times a week since then.
Fault F22 came up last week, which is a door locking fault. Door doesn’t feel like it it locked, though. Went through the self help options to try to rectify. Nevertheless, the machine refuses to work.
Contacted Costco, who in turn gave us Maytag’s phone number. Maytag wants £165 to come look at the machine. If they can’t fix it, we only get £110 of that back. Alternatively, they have offered us an extended warranty for a year ….for £20.90 A MONTH. Neither option sounds appealing to me.
Costco don’t want to help, as its 6 months out of warranty. We came straight out and asked for a goodwill gesture, based on the cost of the machine and because its barely out of warranty,
just wondering if this is just thought luck on us and we need to either suck it up try to sort it out ourselves or if we have a possible case to fight it.
Thanks in advance,
Andy Trigg (Whitegoodshelp) says
November 13, 2017 at 3:00 pmThose repair charges are ludicrous. That’s why manufacturers have mostly all started selling insurance and extended warranties. Unfortunately without knowing what has gone wrong it’s not possible to guess what rights you have. However you might argue that having to pay out £165 plus parts only 6 months out of guarantee is unacceptable. I think it is, but I guarantee the manufacturer and retailer will strongly deny that. You would have to take it up with a consumer help group to see if they think you have a case or not.
Laura McCabe says
November 16, 2017 at 9:56 amHi, Andy.
Thanks for replying.
Not knowing the actual fault is very frustrating.
My husband has a background in electronic engineering, but sadly not in white goods. He feels he may have a chance of testing the individual parts if he can find the schematic diagram for the machine.
He’s not finding one on the Internet.
I don’t know how much hope he will have getting the info from Maytag.
Andy Trigg (Whitegoodshelp) says
November 16, 2017 at 11:14 amHello Laura. Circuit diagrams are rarely available. In the past though a minority of manufacturers put one under the lid, or at least used to as described here Why no wiring diagrams repair manuals and circuit diagrams for appliances?. I would be surprised if any still do though.
For a very basic understanding of how an average door lock works read this How does a washing machine door interlock work?
Gordon Willett says
March 30, 2018 at 5:54 pmWe bought a kettle paid £35 after one year and three weeks the kettle stopped working this was duly replaced with a like for like new one the manufactures warranty is for 12 months as stated if the new kettle supplied fails do I have another twelve months warranty on this one even though I haven’t paid a penny for the replaced one. Or if that should happen is it a question of applying the sale of goods act if the second one fails
Andy Trigg (Whitegoodshelp) says
April 4, 2018 at 1:36 pmHello Gordon. What normally happens is if an appliance is replaced at any time during the guarantee period it doesn’t reset the guarantee. The original guarantee period remains the same. So if you get a replacement appliance one week before the end of the guarantee period then you still just have one week of the guarantee left. The replacement is instead of a repair. So for example if you had an appliance repaired a week before the guarantee expired you wouldn’t expect the guarantee to reset and would just assume that you still have one week left.
Having said that, as you said yourself, if something was to fail with this kettle you would probably need to rely on the consumer legislation. The sale of goods act has been replaced by the consumer rights act 2015.