Very good article Jimmy.
I wonder about: “Either way, they are responsible for damage caused by the failure of their domestic equipment.”
As for dishwashers – I can report mine did flood once (well twice actually). It turned out to be a fault with the main pump. The manufacturer’s authorised repair person stated there was nothing I could have done to prevent it – it was just plain bad luck that it failed after less than 4 years. Unfortunately when installing the new pump, the authorised repairer didn’t attach a hose to the pump (inside the machine) quite correctly. The result was that eventually the hose slipped off and the dishwasher flooded a second time.
Is it the case that I would have been personally held responsible for the flooding, even if I reasonably could have done nothing (both times) to prevent it?
I’m not meaning to disagree with you. I’d genuinely like to know what is the actual legal situation where incidents like these happen and the owner of equipment that failed didn’t seem to do anything wrong and could not have reasonably been expected to have prevented it. Would the absence of negligence or malicious intent together with a reasonable duty of care mean I might not be personally responsible for the flooding caused by the equipment failure?
Of course, if everyone is insured (as they should be), the insurance companies would work it all out.