Faulty Product – Can I Claim Compensation?

Have you been injured as a result or a faulty product or has your house been damaged from a faulty product?  If this is true then you have a legal and civil right to claim compensation against the manufacturer of the product. 

Faulty products can be very serious, lets say you’ve bought your child a new doll of course you give it them and think nothing more of it as you would.  But then your child starts choking, the eye has fell out and your child has swallowed it thinking it’s a sweetie.  Eyes of dolls for children shouldn’t fall out of course they shouldn’t and so if they do the doll is faulty.  A child choking on anything is serious, children have small windpipes and therefore the eye will easily get lodged in the windpipe and cause the child to choke.

It’s the same as if a kettle, toaster; microwave explodes in your home or at work.  This accident could seriously burn or cause other injuries to you and others around you.  Not only could you get hurt but it could also cause damage to the kitchen or area where it’s used and stored. 

Claiming compensation for a faulty product may be daunting especially with large manufacturers but you shouldn’t be as The Consumer Protection Act 1987 protects consumers for incidents like this and helps bring a claim against the manufacturer for their faulty or defective product.  Not only this but the Sales of Goods Act may also be helpful as it states that all products sold need to be fit for purpose, of a satisfactory quality and appear and work as they are described.  So if your product is faulty or defective it isn’t a product that is in satisfactory quality and work as described.

Before you even begin to make a compensation claim contact the retailer where you bought the product and explain what’s happened, then contact trading standards who are able to offer you free advice.  When you begin to make the compensation claim, make sure you still have the product in question as this serves as your evidence, also read the small print on the box or in the instructions to check that it doesn’t state this is something that may go wrong with the product.  If it does state this you have very little chance of making a successful compensation claim.  When you make a claim make sure you pin point exactly what happened with the product and the defect or faulty part of the product.  This will help prove your claim that the product is faulty and caused you a personal injury or property damage.

If there were any witnesses of the accident whether it was a faulty product causing injury to yourself or causing property damage take names and addresses so they can be contacted later in the claim.  If you took any photographs of the faulty product, your injuries the property damage this can be used as evidence.  The more evidence you have the more likely your claim is to be successful.  A final piece of evidence to help you make your compensation claim is to have a medical record of your injuries.  You may have had to go to hospital with your injuries or just to the doctor whatever it may have been these medical records will be able to prove your injuries.

A point to remember, if the retailer or manufacturer offer you a replacement for the product that was faulty or defective that caused you injuries or your property some damage, the retailer or manufacturer will dismiss your compensation claim if you go ahead after you’ve accepted a replacement.