§ 22. Notice of complaint: how quickly you must report a defect

This section is about how long and how the consumer can complain about a defect. The main rule is that rights are lost if the service provider is not told within a reasonable time. The deadline (frist) runs from when the consumer discovered the defect, or should have discovered it. So it is not enough to wait and see.

In addition, there is an outer limit. For work on items, it is two years from when the job (oppdrag) was completed. If the result is meant to last considerably longer, and for work on real property, the absolute deadline is five years. If the service provider has given a guarantee or in some other way taken responsibility for defects over a longer period, these deadlines do not apply to the extent the guarantee covers. Example: a consumer discovers a fault only many years after work was done on their home (bolig). The five-year deadline is then what decides the matter.

The service provider cannot use the fact that the consumer complained too late when the service provider has itself been grossly negligent (careless), or has acted dishonestly or in bad faith. This prevents a dishonest service provider from benefiting from the deadline having expired.

The deadlines for complaints (reklamasjonsfrist) are not the only time limit. The claim can also be lost under the Limitation Act, which has its own time limits. In that case, it is another law that governs the time.

This section sits in the middle of the rules on defects. What counts as a defect is set out in § 18 to § 20, and what the consumer can claim is set out in § 21. Specific claims are repair of the defect (retting) in § 24, price reduction (prisavslag) in § 25 and cancellation of the contract (heving) in § 26, while § 23 gives a right to withhold payment. The rules on claims against earlier links in the chain in § 27 refer to this section for notice of complaint.