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Contract and Commercial Law Act 2017

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

195: Remedy for breach of warranty

You could also call this:

“What you can do if a seller breaks a promise about the goods they sold you”

If a seller breaks a promise (warranty) about the goods they’re selling to you, or if you have to treat a broken condition as a broken promise, you can’t just give the goods back. But you do have some options.

You can ask the seller to lower the price or give you some money back because of the broken promise. You can also ask the seller for money to make up for any damage or loss you’ve had because of the broken promise.

When figuring out how much money you should get for a broken promise about the quality of the goods, you usually look at the difference between what the goods are worth now and what they would have been worth if the promise hadn’t been broken.

If you’ve already got the seller to lower the price or give you some money back, you can still ask for more money if the broken promise caused you more problems.

The amount of money you can ask for is based on what you lost because of the broken promise, as long as it’s something that would normally happen in that situation.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM6844414.

Topics:
Money and consumer rights > Consumer protection Business > Fair trading
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194: Specific performance, or

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

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"Getting money back when things go wrong in a deal"

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

195Remedy for breach of warranty

  1. This section applies if—

  2. there is a breach of warranty by the seller; or
    1. the buyer elects or is compelled to treat any breach of a condition on the part of the seller as a breach of warranty.

      1. The buyer is not, by reason only of the breach of warranty, entitled to reject the goods.

      2. However, the buyer—

      3. may rely on the breach of warranty to obtain against the seller a reduction in, or the satisfaction of, the price; or
        1. has, against the seller, a right to claim damages for the breach of warranty.

          1. The measure of damages for breach of warranty is the estimated loss directly and naturally resulting, in the ordinary course of events, from the breach of warranty.

          2. The loss for a breach of warranty of quality is (unless the circumstances otherwise require) usually the difference between the value of the goods at the time of delivery to the buyer and the value the goods would have had if the goods had complied with the warranty.

          3. The fact that the buyer has relied on the breach of warranty to obtain a reduction in, or the satisfaction of, the price does not prevent the buyer from claiming damages for the same breach of warranty if the buyer has suffered further damage.

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