Self employed & defective machine

Zxc

Many people are increasingly aware of the protection and rights offered to consumers with regard to faulty goods bought in shops, online, abroad, etc. Until recently, I wasn’t aware that it seems these consumer rights only apply to individual shoppers purchasing products for personal use.
Without going into too many specifics at the moment, I wonder if anyone can throw any light on to my particular situation.

I am self employed, working mainly on my own. It’s a small business and not in any way cash rich or making me a fortune. Things are always tight but last year, with the help of a loan, I bought a pre-owned machine from a trader in the UK for use in my business here. Pre-owned machines in my field are not uncommon. It cost in the region of €30,000.

Shortly after it arrived, the machine wouldn’t work to the expected level of such a machine. Engineers in the field tried several times to repair it without success. Engineers from the original manufacturers have examined it too but couldn’t repair it, or even confirm what exactly the fault is. I find it hard to believe the manufacturers cannot remedy a problem with their own machine. It is my opinion and the opinion of my own engineers that there is some inherent fault in this machine.

In the meantime, I have substantial repayments to make on the machine which isn’t able to do the job and I have to pay to hire a machine that will do the work. On top of that there’s the rising costs of having engineers look at the machine. Being already financially strapped by this, I am not really in a position to go down the legal route which might take a long time, be very expensive and being unsure of an outcome.

I feel at a loss to know what to do. If I have to suffer this financial and work loss I am afraid this problem will make me go under.

If any one has any helpful advice or was in a similar situation, I would appreciate hearing. Many thanks.

subway

**IANAL**

i work in a company that sells and supports both to business and consumers.
any item sold to a business, first off, is exempt from consumer protection laws as you are not a consumer.
if a business buys something they are legally bound by the sales contract.
our contract allows for returns within 7 days if an item is not as described and then outlines whatever warranty is provided with the item.

generally if an item is received and accepted (no complaints within 7days) then the item is deemed to have been working when received. if it develops a fault after that the warranty can be used to repair it. if no warranty then the service is charged based on call outs. the warranty has its own separate contract which explains that fixes will only be attempted and are not guaranteed to resolve an issue.

i know it might not be the info you are looking for but might give you an idea of where to start with your contracts.

**IANAL**

234

The obvious place to start is to check your contract of sale, was there a warranty? On a tangenital point some legislation such as the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act 1980 and the Sale of Goods Act 1893, which most people think of as consumer legislation, apply to businesses as well. If you are not prepared to go down the legal route then you probably don't have many options open. A business will probably have much more experience than the avredge consumer with situtations like this and threats that don't come from a solicitor probably won't carry much weight. The issue is also complicated by the fact that you bought from the UK- another reason why a solicitor would normally be involved.