REPAIRS AND THE RIGHT TO REJECT

J H Ritchie Ltd v Lloyd Ltd [2007] UKHL 9; [2007] 1 WLR 670

In J H Ritchie Ltd v Lloyd Ltd [2007] UKHL 9;[2007] 1 WLR 670 the House of Lords held that a buyer of equipment had not lost the right to reject the goods merely because it had entered into an arrangement with the seller by which the seller agreed to inspect the goods and, if possible, repair them and the seller had in fact repaired them. When deciding whether such an agreement entails the loss of the right to reject the goods, it is necessary for the court in each case to examine the nature of the agreement which the parties have made in relation to the repair of the goods. On the facts of the present case it was held that the buyer was entitled to reject the goods, despite the fact that they had been repaired to factory gate standard. The reason for this was that the sellers had refused to provide the buyers with information relating to the nature of the defect and the repairs which had been carried out and this failure to provide information was held to be a breach by the seller which entitled the buyer to reject the equipment. However, this conclusion is not an inevitable one. In other cases a court may conclude that the effect of the agreement is to deprive the buyer of the right to reject the goods provided that the defect is repaired so that the goods conform to the requirements of the contract.