Merton Solicitors

Every consumer of services and goods has rights which are protected by the law.  Are you aware of your rights?  If you believe you have a claim or are currently having a dispute with a business who refuses to recognise your rights, you can be assured that our consumer law specialists are here to help.

What are my rights ?

In the field on consumer rights, there are three main pieces of legislation: the Sale of Goods Act, the Unfair Trading Act and the Consumer Credit Act.

Sale of Goods Act

The Sale of Goods Act requires good to be ’sold as described’ ‘fit for purpose’ and of ’satisfactory quality’.  Fit for purpose’ is a term that is not easily understandable by the words used alone.  As as well including all the reasonable everyday purposes of the good, it also includes purposes which the seller of the goods has claimed the goods have.  If, for example, a garage were to fit a certain exhaust to your car and claim it to be compatible when it is in fact not, then the exhaust will not be ‘fit for purpose’.

Claims are usually brought against the retailer which sold the goods rather than the manufacturer, unless of course the goods were bought directly from the manufacturer.   You can choose to reject goods which you believe do not fulfil your consumer rights, so long as this is done within a reasonable time.  Defects are not always readily identifiable and if there is a genuine defect with the product that does not relate to usage, a reasonable amount of time will run from when the defect is actually discovered.  If the defect is not fatal, you could opt to have it repaired.  Again, the ‘reasonable amount of time’ principle applies here.

The Consumer Credit Act

The Consumer Credit Act protects both consumers of goods and services.  If you receive a sub-standard level of service or a defective product, the credit card company is taken to be jointly liable with the original provider of the product or service.

There are conditions, however.  The value of the product must be between £100 and £30,000, although payments in instalments and deposits are covered by this Act.

The Unfair Trading Act 2008

This Act is designed to protect consumers from unfair/exploitive promotion and sales practices.  Sales or promotional practices that are misleading or purposefully omit key details about the a product are not allowed.  Misleading practices can be taken to include outright lies about the product, saying the product is something else that it is not and advertising non-existent products.

In general, aggressive sales practices are prohibited.  This is a wide term which could include continually harassing someone in a shop or at their own home or threatening a consumer in order to get them to sign a contract.

Not covered here?

If so, don’t worry.  Get in touch with our specialist consumer law solicitors in Merton to find out what we can do to help.

Here is additional consumer law advice.