A floor is meant to last for years, so the call about a problem often comes long after the sale. The customer rings the showroom, the showroom points at the manufacturer's warranty, and the argument starts. In Australia, consumer law usually settles that argument, not the warranty card.
This guide explains who pays when a floor fails and which records to keep, in general terms, using the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) and guidance from the ACCC and Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV).
The short version. Consumer guarantees apply automatically when you sell to a consumer, and a contract term can't switch them off. A warranty is an extra promise on top. If a floor or install fails, the customer can usually claim from the business that sold it, and you then look to the manufacturer. Keep the quote, sample sign-off, batch numbers and photos for every job.
This is general information, not legal or financial advice.
What's the difference between a warranty and a consumer guarantee?
Consumer guarantees are basic rights in the ACL, which is Schedule 2 to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. They come with sales to consumers, and a contract term that tries to exclude or limit them is void. A warranty is a voluntary promise to repair, replace or put right something defective. The ACCC says warranties are extras: they can't cut back consumer guarantees, which can outlast them.
| Consumer guarantee | Manufacturer's warranty | Your own promise | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Comes from | The ACL, automatically | The manufacturer's choice | Your choice |
| Lasts | No set period; depends on the product | The period it states | The period you state |
| Claimed from | The business that sold it | The store, which usually passes it on | You |
What do consumer guarantees mean for a flooring showroom?
For goods, the main consumer guarantees are acceptable quality, matching the description and any sample, and suiting any purpose the customer made known. For services such as installation, they are due care and skill, a result that fits what the customer wanted, and supply within a reasonable time when none was agreed. Acceptable quality means what a reasonable customer, fully aware of the floor's condition including hidden defects, would accept, given factors such as its price, its label and what you and the manufacturer said about it.
Whether a consumer guarantee has been breached depends on the facts, including the cause. Here's how common problems map to them:
| If this happens | The consumer guarantee in play |
|---|---|
| The delivered colour or shading differs from the sample | Matching the sample and the description |
| A floor sold for a stated use, such as a wet area, doesn't suit it | Fit for the purpose the customer made known |
| A floor fails soon after it's laid | Acceptable quality, including free from defects and durable |
| The fit or finish of the install is poor | Due care and skill |
A joint guide from the ACCC and state regulators (2016) has a flooring example: if shading, piling or colouring in an installed woollen carpet differs substantially from the sample, the customer may be entitled to a remedy, even when the difference is natural to the carpet. Keep display samples current: our fit-out guide covers displays.
Don't assume a commercial job sits outside the ACL: a buyer counts as a consumer if the price doesn't exceed a threshold set in the regulations, or if the goods or services are of a kind ordinarily bought for personal, domestic or household use. A business buying goods to resell isn't a consumer of them.
What can a customer ask for when a floor fails?
The ACL splits failures into minor and major, and the split decides who chooses the remedy.
| The failure | Who chooses | The options |
|---|---|---|
| Minor, and it can be fixed | You | Repair, replace with the same type or refund, within a reasonable time |
| Major, or it can't be fixed | The customer | Reject the goods for a refund or replacement, or keep them and claim compensation for the lost value |
A failure is major if a reasonable customer wouldn't have bought the floor had they known, if it departs significantly from the description or sample, if it's unsafe, or if it can't easily be fixed in a reasonable time and is substantially unfit for normal use or unfit for a purpose the customer made known.
If you don't fix a minor failure in a reasonable time, the customer can have it fixed elsewhere and claim the reasonable cost, or reject the goods, and can claim other reasonably foreseeable loss. For an install, a major failure lets the customer cancel the service and recover the unused part of the price, or claim compensation.
Two details matter for floors:
- A credit note isn't a refund. If a customer rejects goods and chooses a refund, you can't meet that by letting them buy other goods from you.
- Laid floors are different. A customer can't reject goods attached to a property that can't be detached without damaging them, though for a major failure they can keep the floor and claim compensation for the lost value. How a floor is fixed down decides which side of that line it falls on, so take advice on big claims.
Who pays: the showroom or the manufacturer?
For a consumer guarantee failure, the customer can claim from you. The ACCC says businesses must not tell customers to go to the manufacturer, except where repairs or spare parts aren't available a reasonable time after purchase. CAV adds that a store generally can't insist the customer deals with the manufacturer, even when a manufacturer's warranty applies, and that arranging the return is usually the store's job.
Then you look to the manufacturer. The ACL makes it liable to reimburse you where the failure is one of acceptable quality, of fitness for a purpose the customer made known to the manufacturer, or of a description applied by or for the manufacturer. You have three years to take action, counted from the day you first paid or otherwise settled the claim, or the day the customer started proceedings, whichever is earlier. "Manufacturer" includes the brand owner and, where the maker has no place of business in Australia, the importer.
In a franchise, ask who handles manufacturer claims. Our franchise page doesn't publish how we handle warranty claims, so ask us on your discovery call and read the Disclosure Document you'll receive before you sign. Questions to ask a flooring franchisor covers installers and callbacks too.
What should a flooring warranty say?
A promise to repair, replace or rectify something defective, or to recompense the customer, is a warranty against defects, whether in a contract, brochure or label. The joint guide gives a tiler's written promise to fix loose tiles as an example. Regulation 90 of the Competition and Consumer Regulations 2010 says the document must be transparent and must:
- State concisely what you'll do and what the customer must do to claim.
- Include a prescribed statement about consumer guarantees, in the exact words the regulation sets. Copy it; don't paraphrase.
- Show your details prominently: name, business address, phone number and email address if you have one.
- Set the claim terms: how long a defect has to appear, where to send a claim and who bears the expense.
- Say the warranty's benefits are in addition to the customer's other rights and remedies.
Giving a non-compliant warranty document breaches section 102 of the ACL, and a pecuniary penalty can be imposed. If you or your brochure say how long a floor will last or what it can handle, the customer can hold you to that.
What can you say on signs and about sale stock?
CAV says signs such as no refunds, no refunds on sale items and credit notes only are generally against the law, because they suggest a customer can never get a remedy.
Seconds and clearance goods still carry consumer guarantees, except for faults you told the customer about before the sale. Put the fault in writing with the goods: the Act counts a transparent written notice displayed with them.
How should you handle a claim, and which records should you keep?
A routine helps, because claims can arrive years after the install:
- Listen and write it down. Note what the customer reports, the date and who took the call.
- Pull the job file. The quote and order, the sample sign-off, what the customer said the floor was for and any warranty document.
- Inspect promptly. Photograph the problem, and record batch numbers, subfloor and moisture readings and the installer's notes.
- Decide major or minor, and offer the remedy. For a minor failure you choose how to fix it. For a major one, the customer chooses.
- Claim from the manufacturer. Send the evidence they ask for, and diarise the three-year deadline.
- Confirm in writing. Record what was agreed and done, and keep it with the job file.
Our franchise page says our CRM and job management system keeps every customer, quote and install in one place, and that our procedures run from quoting a job to handling a complaint. See a week in a flooring showroom for the rest of the job and how to open a flooring store in Victoria for insurance and installers. Check whether your area is open or browse the open territories.
Questions
Is a manufacturer's warranty the same as a consumer guarantee?
No. A warranty is a voluntary promise with its own terms and time limit. Consumer guarantees come automatically, can't be excluded by contract and can outlast a warranty.
Who does a customer claim from when a floor fails?
Usually the showroom that sold or installed it. The ACCC says businesses must not send customers to the manufacturer, except where repairs or spare parts aren't available.
Can a showroom refuse a claim because the warranty has run out?
Not automatically, because consumer guarantees can last longer than a warranty. But CAV says they don't cover fair wear and tear, abnormal use or faults pointed out before the sale.
Sources
- Competition and Consumer Act 2010, Schedule 2 (Australian Consumer Law)
- Competition and Consumer Regulations 2010
- ACCC: Warranties
- ACCC: Problem with a product or service you sold
- Consumer guarantees: a guide for businesses and legal practitioners (ACCC and state regulators, 2016)
- Consumer Affairs Victoria: Faulty product
- Consumer Affairs Victoria: Repairs and replacements under warranty
- Consumer Affairs Victoria: No refund signs
- National Floors franchise opportunity: systems, training and the Disclosure Document