Wallpaper now being accepted as part of faulty batch

[Bananawalnuts]

We had our bedroom decorated. Quite expensive wallpaper and paid professionals to do it. Vacated room and made sure it was laid before new carpet went down, new bed delivered etc etc.

Marks started to come through almost immediately and company have now accepted liability; the rolls we had were from a faulty batch.

They have offered us a refund on the original cost of the wallpaper and free replacement.

I don't think that this is enough and I'd like some legal advise please, if I may.

We've got to pay to have the current paper stripped and new paper re hung.

We've got the risk that the current carpet and furniture may be spoiled/damaged while that work is being done. Granted this shouldn't happen but .....

We have the inconvenience of having to move out of the bedroom while it's done and the hassle of organising all of the above.

Any thoughts / advice gratefully received.

How much money would compensate you for imagining furniture being damaged by paper, and the horrors of moving a bed to another side of the room temporarily? 😱

I think if the free replacement is hung rather than rolls then it would be sufficient.

don’t be a gouger!

I have been in your position, don’t make this more hassle than it needs to be for the person dealing with it. Don’t go to a solicitor.

You will not get compensation for the risk that the carpet and furniture may be spoiled whilst the new paper is hung. If they are actually damaged, you can seek compensation from the decorators.

You will not get compensation for the inconvenience of moving out of the bedroom or the hassle of organising it.

You are required to minimise your losses. It is not clear that you are entitled to recover the cost of stripping the wallpaper and hanging the new paper. If the decorators supplied the faulty wallpaper, you may have a case. If, however, you bought it from someone else, it is unlikely that you can force the wallpaper manufacturer to cover these costs.

Thanks for the posts. I don't know what a gouger is 😊😊

I'm genuinely not trying to make money out of this (I wish to goodness it had not happened) but I don't see why we should suffer financially for a fault that the wallpaper manufacturer have accepted is theirs.

It's not quite a simple as moving a bed from one side of the room to the other.

We've got the cost of taking down the new blind and re hanging it.

Also the costs of removing the 3.4 m headboard and re fixing it.

I'm with you Horsefaced, in that if they offered to attend and do the work, all of the work involved, we'd be happy.

prh47bridge, it make sense what you say about not getting compensation for risk.
We bought the wallpaper from 'the leading online retailer of designer wallpaper, fabric, rugs and made to measure furnishings' and the paper is from a large reputable design and wholesale company. They have accepted that the batches were faulty. Our decorator can not have known this was the case before he hung the paper. I bought the wallpaper in good faith assuming it to not be faulty.

Why would the wallpaper manufacturer not be responsible for costs incurred due to their faulty product?

TIA

All of these things that you are saying there's a cost for (stripping and rehanging wallpaper, refixing blind and headboard) are things I would happily do myself.
Even if you get a professional back in, it's a day's work at most. I wouldn't expect the wallpaper company to pay because you've chosen to outsource your DIY.

Why would the wallpaper manufacturer not be responsible for costs incurred due to their faulty product?

They are responsible for any damage caused by their product, but getting a decorator to do the work is your choice. It is not a cost incurred due to their product. It is a cost you are voluntarily incurring. You may be able to persuade them to contribute to that cost but, unless there is something about their wallpaper that means it has to be hung by a professional decorator, the courts won't hold them liable for that cost.

Your idea of suffering is very strange.

It comes down to whether the additional losses are foreseeable consequences of their error.

I think the cost of getting professional decorators in to hang the new wallpaper is definitely within this. Expensive wallpaper, likely customers are not going to be hanging it themselves.

The blind - I can’t think of a type of blind I couldn’t remove myself? The special headboard would not be foreseeable. I wouldn’t push these.

I’d be arguing for the cost of re hanging but not the other stuff.

unless there is something about their wallpaper that means it has to be hung by a professional decorator, the courts won't hold them liable for that cost.

Are you a lawyer prh47bridge? As this is nonsense.

Prh47bridge is a lawyer, and extremely well regarded here.

The question is, as you say in your previous post, whether this is a reasonably foreseeable cost. I know plenty of people who hang expensive wallpaper themselves. I therefore question whether using a decorator to hang the wallpaper is a reasonably foreseeable cost.

Ok 🤷‍♀️ well it would be up to the judge to decide whether use of a professional decorator was reasonably foreseeable (might depend on how DIY-savvy a judge you got…) Glad we agree on the test anyway!