My chicken curry ready meal had only four measly pieces of meat in it. Unfortunately I was starving so ate the lot as I’d just come off a long hospital shift but I kept the packaging.
I want to complain but don’t know if I should go to the supermarket where I bought it or to the Foods Standard Agency?
B.R, via email
If a ready meal does not contain an ingredient listed on the packaging, or the correct percentage of such ingredient, it will fall foul of the Consumer Rights Act
Dean Dunham replies: Consumers should always get ‘what it says on the tin’ and in this case, the packaging. Your starting point is to see what the outer packaging of the ready meal says in relation to the quantity of chicken included. It is a legal requirement for food products that have two or more ingredients (like a ready meal) to list the ingredients in order of weight, with the main ingredient listed first, according to the amounts that were used to make the food. In addition, where a particular ingredient appears in the name of the food (here ‘chicken’ curry) the packaging must cite the percentage of that particular ingredient.
If a ready meal does not contain an ingredient listed on the packaging, or the correct percentage of such ingredient, it will fall foul of the Consumer Rights Act, which says goods, including ready meals, must be ‘as described’.
In these circumstances, you will be entitled to go back to the retailer where you purchased the ready meal and demand a remedy. If you had not eaten the meal, you would have been entitled to a full refund.
Your case is more tricky as you have effectively eaten the evidence, meaning there is difficulty proving your point and rather than being entitled to a full refund, you will be entitled to a price reduction to reflect the lack of chicken in the meal.
Your complaint should initially be directed to the retailer and its response is likely to be to offer you a voucher or a replacement.
If not, ask the retailer to confirm that it has asked the manufacturer if there were any problems with the batch. You will find the batch number on the packaging so you need to hand this to the retailer. If your particular meal was lacking the correct amount of chicken, it is likely to have affected the whole batch.
Must I change my wood flooring back to carpet if I’m on ground floor?
The lease for my flat states it must have carpet laid so it doesn’t affect neighbours. I’m on the ground floor and I laid wood floors. I’m now being told by the managing agents to swap it back. Is there any way to get out of this?
S.LR., Manchester
Dean Dunham replies: Problems of noise nuisance are a familiar issue where the installation by a flat owner of timber or laminated flooring in a property causes a disturbance in other flats, especially in older or converted buildings.
To avoid such issues it is commonplace for leases to contain a specific clause that all floors in the flat should be covered with underlay and carpets, except in the kitchen and bathroom and such clauses are generally perfectly legal and therefore enforceable by the landlord.
If you now want to keep your wooden floors, the only option you have is to contact the landlord and ask for their agreement to your flooring and ultimately for a ‘licence to alter’, which is the legal document you will enter into to formally amend the lease.
If the landlord rejects your request, it will be advisable for you to comply with the managing agent’s request to swap the flooring back. Otherwise you are likely to find yourself on the end of an application for an order of specific performance in the County Court, requiring you put the carpet back in place or, in the worst case scenario, forfeiture for breach of the lease terms, meaning you could lose the lease.
- Write to Dean Dunham, Money Mail, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY or email [email protected]. No legal responsibility can be accepted by the Daily Mail for answers given.
