Hargreaves Interiors Administration: How to Claim Your Deposit Back

Hargreaves Interiors Ltd went into administration on 28 April 2026, leaving an estimated 2,400 customers without the furniture they had ordered. Deposits paid ranged from £500 for single-item purchases to £4,000 for full room fits. The company, which operated 12 showrooms across the Midlands and South of England, ceased trading on the same day the administrators were appointed.

If you placed an order with Hargreaves Interiors and paid any part of the deposit or full balance on a credit card, you have a good basis for a Section 75 claim against your credit card provider.

Why Section 75 applies here

Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 makes your credit card provider jointly liable with a retailer if the retailer fails to deliver what you paid for. Administration is treated as a breach of contract: the company can no longer fulfil its orders, so the contract has failed.

You do not need to wait for the administration process to conclude. You do not need to register as a creditor with the administrators (though you should, as a precaution, to preserve any claim you might have against the estate). Your Section 75 claim is against your card provider, not against Hargreaves Interiors itself.

For your claim to qualify:

You must have paid at least £1 of the purchase on a personal credit card (not a debit card, not a business card).
The total purchase price must be between £100 and £30,000. Given typical Hargreaves Interiors order values, most customers will meet this threshold.
The claim must be made within six years of the payment date in England and Wales, or five years in Scotland.

What evidence to gather

Before writing to your credit card provider, collect the following:

Proof of purchase:

Your Hargreaves Interiors order confirmation email.
Your credit card statement showing the payment(s).
Any receipt or invoice issued by the company.

Proof of non-delivery:

Confirmation from the administrators that orders will not be fulfilled. The administrators, [TODO: insert administrator firm name when confirmed], have a website at [TODO: insert URL] with updates.
Any communication from Hargreaves Interiors cancelling or deferring your order.
If you received no communication, document when your delivery date passed without fulfilment.

Proof of your loss:

The total amount paid and the amount outstanding. If you paid in full, your loss is the full amount. If you paid a deposit and the balance was not yet due, your loss is the deposit.

Evidence of contact attempts:

Any emails or letters to Hargreaves Interiors that went unanswered.
Records of phone calls, including dates, times, and what you were told.

How to make your claim

Write to your credit card provider’s Section 75 disputes team. Do not rely on a phone call; the claim must be in writing to create a paper trail. Our claim pack includes a template letter for administration cases, a checklist of evidence to attach, and guidance on what language to use and what to avoid.

Address your letter or secure message to “Section 75 / Consumer Credit Act dispute” rather than general customer services. Include:

The order date and amount.
The payment date and amount charged to the card.
The date Hargreaves Interiors went into administration (28 April 2026).
A clear statement that the retailer is in breach of contract due to non-delivery.
The amount you are claiming.
A list of the supporting documents you are enclosing.

Expected timeline

Most credit card providers must respond to a Section 75 complaint within eight weeks under FCA rules. Many straightforward cases resolve in four to six weeks. If the bank accepts your claim, the refund is typically credited to your card account within a few days of the decision.

If the bank rejects your claim, or does not respond within eight weeks, you can escalate free of charge to the Financial Ombudsman Service. See our FOS escalation guide for how to do this and what to expect.

What if the bank says your claim is out of time?

This is unlikely for recent Hargreaves Interiors orders, but if your bank suggests your claim is time-barred, check the dates carefully. The six-year limitation period runs from when the cause of action arose: for an order that was never delivered, that is the date the goods were due to arrive, not the payment date. If your delivery date was recent, you are comfortably within the limit.

Registering with the administrators

Separately from your Section 75 claim, you should register as a creditor with the Hargreaves Interiors administrators. If any assets are realised during the administration, unsecured creditors may receive a distribution, though this is often a small fraction of the total owed and can take years. Your Section 75 claim against your card provider is a much faster and more certain route to recovery, but registering with the administrators preserves your position.

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