Do I have to pay for repairs on a washing machine I only bought two years ago? DEAN DUNHAM answers
My two year old washing machine has stopped working and the shopkeeper says I have to pay for a repair, which I disagree with.
I made a section 75 claim to my card provider but it was rejected as they say there was no breach of contract.
HW, via email.
Law: The Consumer Rights Act states that if goods are defective, the trader must provide free repair, replacement or refund unless the problem is caused by misuse or wear and tear
The Consumer Rights Act 2015 states that if goods are faulty, the trader must offer you a free repair, replacement or refund, unless the problem has been caused by your own misuse or general wear and tear.
This right under the Consumer Rights Act becomes part of your contract under what is called an implied term.
This is important, as I explain below. Because you purchased the washer more than six months ago, the burden of proof (i.e. who has to prove that the problem is a manufacturer’s fault and not abuse or wear and tear) is on you.
To do this, you can employ the services of a local engineer to give you an opinion on the cause of the problem, or you can find evidence online that the problem you have experienced is common to the make and model of the machine, e.g. of consumer chat rooms.
If you can prove that the problem is the fault of the manufacturer, this shows that there has been a breach of contract by the retailer – bearing in mind the implied term of the contract that you are entitled to free repair, replacement or refund if the washing the machine is defective, which they denied you.
So you need to go back to the card provider and explain that there has been a breach of contract and how it came about, as a result of the Consumer Rights Act.
If you get a ‘no’ from the card provider for the second time, your next step is to make a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (financial-ombudsman.org.uk).
Can I request camera surveillance to see who damaged my car?
My car was scraped when I parked in a movie theater parking lot while watching a movie. I want to know who did it, so I asked to see the CCTV footage, but the cinema manager is dragging his feet. What are my rights?
T.S., Canterbury
Under a law known as the Data Protection Act 2018, you have the right to request access to CCTV footage that contains your personal information (i.e. your image).
To obtain the footage, you must send an access request to the data subject, stating the date, time and location of the incident, so that the entity or person in possession or control of the CCTV in the cinema can access the relevant footage can identify you need.
Please note that you are entitled to a response to such a request within one month.
However, there are some exceptions to the requirement to release such images, particularly when the images include other identifiable individuals whose faces cannot be edited or blurred.
In addition, an image of a car and its license plate is also considered personal data if it can be combined with other information that allows the identification of the owner.
Naturally, in your situation you will look for the images to see specifically who damaged your vehicle. The cinema therefore has a valid reason to reject your request.
In these circumstances you could instead ask the cinema if you can simply watch the footage without obtaining a copy, but they may still say no.
If you hit this wall, your only other option is to report the matter to the police, as they can then request a copy of the footage as part of their investigation, giving the cinema a legitimate reason to release the footage .
If the police say they cannot help, you may want to remind them that it is a criminal offense, under section 170 of the Road Traffic Act, to leave the scene of an accident if you hit and damage a vehicle, and this is exactly what happened here. .
If there had been no reasonable grounds for the cinema to refuse your request, your next step would have been to escalate the matter to the Information Commissioner’s Office, but that is not the case in these circumstances.
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