§ 20. When is a defect assessed, and what about later faults?

The Craftsman Services Act (Håndverkertjenesteloven)·LOV-1989-06-16-63

Machine-translated from Norwegian. The Norwegian text is the one that applies. Read the original in Norwegian.Norsk English العربية Polski Українська

In brief

A defect (mangel) is assessed based on the time when the job (oppdrag) ends.
If the item (ting) is with the service provider (tjenesteyter), the job does not end until the consumer (forbruker) has taken it over.
Later faults count as a defect if there is a breach of contract (kontraktbrudd) or if a guarantee (garanti) or other liability applies.
The claims you can make when there is a defect are set out in § 21.

The text of the law (unofficial translation)

§ 20. The time for assessing defects

(1) Whether the service has a defect is assessed based on the circumstances at the time when the job must be considered ended. For services concerning items that have been handed over to or are otherwise with the service provider, the job is not considered ended until the item has been taken over by the consumer.

(2) If the service has been performed, but the job cannot be ended at the right time because of circumstances on the consumer's side, the time when the job should have been ended is used as the basis. However, this does not apply to the consequences of an accidental event that occurs while the item the service concerns is with the service provider, where the event is not caused by properties of the item itself.

(3) Faults that arise later are also considered a defect if

the fault is caused by breach of contract on the part of the service provider, or
the service provider, by a guarantee or in some other way, has undertaken to repair the fault or has other liability for the result of the service for a certain period, and the fault arises during this period.

Source: Lovdata — Håndverkertjenesteloven (the Craftsman Services Act) § 20

What does this mean?

This section says which point in time counts when assessing whether the service is defective. The starting point is the situation when the job must be regarded as ended. If the service provider has the item with them, for example for repair, the job is not ended until the consumer has collected it.

If the work is done, but the consumer, for reasons of their own, cannot receive the result on time, the date when the job should have been finished counts. In other words, the consumer cannot push the point in time forward. There is an exception for accidental events that affect the item while the service provider has it, and that are not caused by properties of the item itself. This rule does not apply to such events.

Faults that only appear later can also be a defect. This applies when the fault is caused by breach of contract by the service provider. It also applies when the service provider has given a guarantee, or in other ways has taken on responsibility for how the result holds up over a given period, and the fault appears within that period. Example: the service provider promises to stand behind the result for a period, and the fault appears within that period. The fault is then regarded as a defect even if the job ended long before.

This section is part of the rules on defects. § 17 says when there is a defect, and § 18 and § 19 extend the concept to information. If the consumer has a defect that meets the requirements here, the claims follow from § 21. The deadlines (frist) for giving notice are in § 22, and repair of the defect (retting) and price reduction (prisavslag) are in § 24 and § 25. § 35, on payment in the event of accidents, refers to this section.

Related sections

All sections of the Craftsman Services Act →

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