Liability when giving away pc monitors

beckyw_2

I work for a charity and we have upgraded our computers. We were planning to give away our old monitors to our members (other voluntary organisations). However, a member of staff has queried this because of liability (e.g. if monitor catches fire). Is there anything I can get them to sign when collecting the monitor to exclude us from liability?

Cheers

Becky

Savvy_Sue

And the other thing is that if you have had Portable Appliance Tests (PATs) carried out in the last 12 months, and the monitors are stickered accordingly, you can add that fact to your disclaimer.

Astaroth

You can get people to sign to a liability waiver form however these do not excuse you from any liability - eg if you knew one of them was a bit dodgy and gave it away and it caused injury/ damage then you may still be found liable for it.

Alternatively you may be able to find some form of electrician that can test it and provide indemnity against faults but firstly, this is going to cost you money which probably isnt something a charity wants and secondly I dont know of any companies that offer this... I dont know what warrenties come with a PATs test but prehaps Sue can clarify.

Skint1

You can give them away through freecycle.

http://uk.freecycle.org/

tomstickland

Our company keep coming up with excuses as to why they can't give away old computers. Health and safety blah blah liability blah blah.

Savvy_Sue

Astaroth wrote:

I dont know what warrenties come with a PATs test but prehaps Sue can clarify.

I don't know about warranties ... it's a test to ensure that the appliance was safe at the time of inspection. In some places you'd need to test your equipment very frequently, and there's no set period within which it has to be tested, but generally companies without safety critical equipment reckon that an annual test meets the need. I wasn't at work when it was done last year: it seems to be not much more than checking that the plug is fitted correctly and there's no electricity 'leaking' anywhere. I can't find an 'official' page about it, but if you google PAT tests you'll find more information.

I was just thinking that a disclaimer could say something like "Although the monitor is believed to be safe and a PAT was carried out on x date, no guarantee can be given as to its safety or condition. An independent safety examination should be made." That way at least the recipient knows that the appliance has been PATed within a certain period ...

phill79

tomstickland wrote:

Our company keep coming up with excuses as to why they can't give away old computers. Health and safety blah blah liability blah blah.

Those computers will contain very sensitive/personal information which they do not want to be given away. The company would have to destroy the hard drive or scrub the data before they were to give them away (time consuming). Plus I doubt they want the hassle of people coming back to them saying it doesn't work!!!

Skint1

There are plenty of companies willing to take them off you. Like this one....

http://www.frponline.org.uk/