Cleaning company broke old oven - who is at fault?

[belkins]

Hello, just looking for a few opinions as I'm not sure where we stand....

We had a cleaning company in to do a deep clean of the whole house which included the oven. Our kitchen is old (30yrs ish) and the cleaner has broken the front panel off the oven. He tried to mend it with sealant but that hasn't worked and his response was 'it happens quite often with such old ovens'.

I'm 3wks away from giving birth so my emotions are a little erratic. I've found out I can probably get a replacement for around £200 but obviously there is also the cost of fitting it to include. The oven DOES still work, the front panel just flaps around now so, in my mind, will eventually just 'flap off'.

Should I be blaming the cleaner and asking him to contribute, or just accept that it IS an old oven and therefore was bound to happen at some point?

TIA!

It is a 30 year old oven. I think you would be unreasonable to expect the cleaning company to be held liable

£200 is better off going towards a new oven rather than paying for a new part for an old oven which will probably pack up altogether in the not too distant future.

I’d suck it up as one of those things and just replace the whole thing.

I think if it happens often then he should have told you this and got you to clarify that you were still willing for him to go ahead with the oven clean. Not everyone has the money to replace something that is broken when it could have been avoided.

Your oven is 30 years old and still works?????

He should have insurance to cover it. It doesn't matter if it's new or old if was working until he broke it.

Well he broke it. I’ve never heard of anyone breaking anything off of an oven. Maybe it happens to him when he cheats pmd kcebs regularly because he isn’t careful enough?

I would be fuming OP 😡 I don’t think you should just write this off as one of those things. If you used someone with insurance then they need to claim on it and compensate you. You can then possibly put the money towards a new oven if you choose.

Just get a new oven.

How much is the part to fix the old oven? I would be asking the cleaning company to fix it or pay the cost of the part.

Surely he is liable?

The age of it is irrelevant really. He came into your home to do a job and broke and item in the process. His insurance should cover it. It makes no difference if the item is 3 months or 30 years. He broke it.

He should have warned you of the risks. I'd be asking for details of his insurance.

And I'd be massively annoyed he tried to fix it wirh a bit of sealant

Is this the layer of toughened glass at the front of the oven but there is still another layer on the "hot" side so the door can still be shut? In which case you don't even need to replace it urgently. Our old oven did this (front panel entirely shattered irreparably) and we didn't bother replacing it as we were planning to get a new kitchen soon. In the end it was 4 years till we got the new kitchen and we were fine with an oven with no front panel all that time.

If you did hold your cleaner responsible it would only be reasonable for like-for-like replacement ie the cost of getting a dodgy 30yo oven of dubious reliability, not a brand new one. As you can get dodgy 30yo ovens of dubious reliability for "free if you collect-in-person" on Gumtree, the like for like replacement value is zero.