Timing Belt issue

I drive a renault laguna, I got the timing belt changed on it last September with 61,000 miles on the clock. The timing belt broke last week and as far as I can gather from the mechanic has done some serious damage to the engine.
There is now 71,000 miles on the clock.
Can anyone advise me where I stand legally with the garage I got to do the work last year?

Was it a main dealer and do you have the invoice with breakdown. If not, I'm not sure where you stand.

It was a small garage. I still have the receipt and I've brought the car back to him as advised by the breakdown guy I had to call to tow the car.
The guy in the garage has sent the timing belt kit back to his supplier but he's giving me the impression that he's doing me a favour by doing this and it could be several weeks before he hears anything back. Meanwhile I have no car and no idea if either himself or his supplier are going to take any responsibility.
I called the national consumer agency and they seemed to think I'd have a case if I wanted to pursue this legally - this could be a long messy route though. Is anyone aware of any watchdog agencies I can ask about car specific issues just so I'm a little bit better armed about my rights in this case when I go back to talk to the garage owner.

You'll have to address the issue with the garage owner.

You both know what's happened, so ask him what exactly he proposes to do about it.

Be pleasant but firm.

Mr SS is telling me here that the OP needs to ask the garage manager of what his intentions are and is he going to repair. only 10k on the clock since the t belt was changed. Possibly a faulty part or it was fitted incorrectly. Mr ss suggesting that garage needs to repair without delay and garage needs to chase supplier, not the customer. if garage refuses, then OP should bring in a motor vehicle accessor to act on OPs behalf and he will advise accordingly. If it is found that the garage or the supplier of the parts are at fault, them he can claim the cost of the accessor back from the garage.

Is it the same type of assesor that you get if there has been an accident or where do you go to get one?
Garage owner is being very vague about what his intentions are so far. He's hoping his supplier is going to bale him out by admitting it's a faulty part - if he doesn't I get the impression he doesn't plan on taking any responsibility. Either way he's telling me it'll be well into the new year before he'll have an update for me. I'm getting the impression fixing my car is not too high on his priority list - it was parked outside his garage for a week before he took the part out of car.
Thanks for the replys everyone.

when you got the belt changed were the belt tensioners changed at the same time?

the mechanic should have put new tensioners at the same time as the new belt. Unless you agreed with him not to.

Belt tensioners were never mentioned so I'm not sure if they were changed. As far as I can gather from the mechanic it was part of the water pump that caused the problem. It came off it's pulley or something like that and then broke everything else. The water pump is part of the timing belt kit and was changed by him.

Slightly off topic here and hope the OP doesn't mind but my wife's Renault Megane stopped dead yesterday while she was driving and it was diagnosed as a timing belt problem. Is this a "big" problem and how much approx. might repair cost. Could there be more serious impact on the engine??

mickeyg said:

Slightly off topic here and hope the OP doesn't mind but my wife's Renault Megane stopped dead yesterday while she was driving and it was diagnosed as a timing belt problem. Is this a "big" problem and how much approx. might repair cost. Could there be more serious impact on the engine??

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Potentially, yes. Even if there isnt further damage, usually the water pump will need to be replaced at the same time. If your unlucky, there could be bent valves, damaged pistons or cylinder head could be destroyed.

I'm sure it depends on how much damage was done to the rest of the engine by the belt breaking. I've been quoted 2000 by the mechanic to fix mine. Two other mechanics who haven't seen the engine have told me it could work out cheaper in the long run to just replace the engine in case something is missed. Still haven't really sorted out who is paying for the damage to mine. The garage owner is hoping the water pump manufacturer is going to admit it's a faulty part, he's not prepared to discuss any other scenario's with me and he doesn't know when the water pump manufacturer is going to get back to him. I've given him an ultimatum of this weekend before I seek legal advise, he's had the car in his garage for 3 weeks now.