Q: I bought a water heater with a five-year commercial guarantee. After three weeks, it turned out to be defective and was replaced with a new one. I would like to know if I am entitled to a five-year guarantee on the new water heater or do I get the remaining two years of the original guarantee? The seller is saying I am only entitled to two years. I would like to confirm if this is correct.

A: When a product is replaced while the commercial guarantee is still valid, the latter does not start from scratch but the original warranty continues. However, the duration of a commercial guarantee shall be automatically extended for a period equal to the time during which the guarantor had the goods or part of the goods in his possession in order to execute the commercial guarantee. This means that if the seller did not replace the water heater immediately but took a number of days or weeks to do so, this period of time should be added to the original guarantee.