Installation law question

[hairybarsteward]

Hi there, I am looking for a bit of advice. My elderly parents bought a cooker for their new house and arranged for installation as well. The installer turned up, took a quick look around the kitchen door and immediately proclaimed that he couldn't fit the electric cooker due to there being a small quarter cupboard that had been put up above the space for the cooker.
Any advice would be much appreciated as I want to be sure he was telling the truth and my parents aren't being ripped off. They have been left all weekend without a cooker due to this and I am just a wee bit angry at the moment.

Cheers!

 

[EFLImpudence]

If you have an instruction manual for the cooker such things will likely be covered.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

This is not the first story I've read about people paying for installation and then they turn up and use any feeble/pathetic/invalid excuse they can think of to avoid doing it.

How far above the hob (or eye-level grill if there is one) is the cupboard?

 

[EFLImpudence]

Does anyone know if they refund the installation costs in these cases?

 

[JohnW2]

Does anyone know if they refund the installation costs in these cases?

PIcking one at random, from the Curry's website:

What you'll get as part of the installation:
lots of things, including ....
•Carry out a health and safety check to make sure that safety clearance space between your cooker and cabinets are met
Before we arrive please make sure:
•You are at home at the time we’ve agreed to visit
•Make sure we have clear access to the area you want your new cooker installed, and that it will fit into that area
•Make sure you have an electrical connection or gas supply within 1.5 meters of the installation area
We want to make sure you know what isn’t covered by our gas, electric and dual fuel cooker installation service so there are no surprises when we visit you at home:
includes ...
•We cannot connect your new cooker if the installation doesn’t pass health and safety guidelines.
We cannot refund this service if:
•You haven’t completed the necessary pre-visit preparations above.
•Additional work is required to complete the installation that we don’t cover above.

... from that, it's clear that they might refuse to install the cooker if there is not adequate space around it, but less clear as to whether one would get a refund. I suspect not, per the second of those 'no refund' categories ('additional work').

Kind Regards, John

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I guess it will depend largely on whether they were justified in refusing to install.

And IANAL, but I think a large part of that justification will (should) depend on how diligently they explained to the customer what the "safety clearance space between your cooker and cabinets" should be.

They are the experts, the customer is not. If there's been a cooker in place for some time and nothing has caught fire it is not reasonable to expect the customer to know that the space is unsuitable for a new cooker for which they have not seen the installation instructions.

 

[JohnW2]

I guess it will depend largely on whether they were justified in refusing to install. And IANAL, but I think a large part of that justification will (should) depend on how diligently they explained to the customer what the "safety clearance space between your cooker and cabinets" should be.

That makes sense. I think we can guess that not only do they usually not explain that 'diligently' but probably often don't explain it at all! If that's the case then, morally if not also legally, they presumably should refund the installation charge if they discover that they can't instal. Indeed, one wonders if they would also be obliged to take the appliance away and refund the customer for that as well.

Kind Regards, John

 

[ericmark]

Looked at my cooker a Belling FSE 60i instructions to see what is required. Clearly these may change manufacturer to manufacturer but at least should be a guidance.

Clearances
This cooker may be fitted flush to base units. However, for models with side opening doors, we recommend a side clearance of 60mm between the cooker and any side wall to allow the door to be opened fully. The cooker should not be placed on a base.
No shelf or overhang or cooker hood shall be closer than a minimum of 650mm, but check with cooker hood manufacturer's recommendations.
The cooker must have a side clearance above hob level of 90mm up to a height of 400mm.

My instructions came with the cooker and were not available on line so until it arrived it would have been impossible to know what clearances were required. I do like the phrase "but check with cooker hood manufacturer's recommendations".

The best is in real terms even if the units above the cooker were just big enough to slide a pan under them it is highly unlikely it would cause any danger as the cooker does not produce any heat. Only the pans get hot not the cooker. So with my cooker even if the cooker hood was just 400mm above the cooker it would be unlikely to cause a problem.

However with non induction hobs there would clearly be a problem if the units were too close. And with gas hobs there is a very real danger. I worked for just 2 weeks fitting cookers and it was quite common for the gas guy to refuse to fit a gas cooker but it would seem very rare with electric even those likely rules are the same as some common sense was used.