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Contract and Commercial Law Act 2017

Sale of goods - Remedies for breach of contract - Remedies of buyer

193: Damages for non-delivery

You could also call this:

“You can ask for money if a seller doesn't give you things you bought”

If a seller wrongly refuses or fails to deliver goods to you as the buyer, you have the right to ask for money to make up for this. This money is called damages. The amount of damages you can get is based on the loss that would normally happen because the seller didn’t keep their promise.

If there’s a place where you can buy the same goods, the amount of damages is usually the difference between the price you agreed to pay and the current price of the goods. This current price is checked at the time when the goods should have been given to you. If no delivery time was set, then it’s checked when the seller refused to give you the goods.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM6844412.

Topics:
Business > Fair trading Money and consumer rights > Consumer protection
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192: Damages for non-acceptance, or

"Payment for losses when a buyer doesn't accept what you're selling"

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194: Specific performance, or

"Courts can make sellers give you exactly what you bought"

Part 3 Sale of goods
Remedies for breach of contract: Remedies of buyer

193Damages for non-delivery

  1. The buyer has, against the seller, a right to claim damages for non-delivery if the seller wrongfully neglects or refuses to deliver the goods to the buyer.

  2. The measure of damages is the estimated loss directly and naturally resulting, in the ordinary course of events, from the seller’s breach of contract.

  3. If there is an available market for the goods, the usual measure of damages is (unless the circumstances otherwise require) the difference between the contract price and the market or current price—

  4. at the time or times when the goods ought to have been delivered; or
    1. if no time was fixed for delivery of the goods, at the time of the refusal to deliver them.

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