Retailer Not collecting Faulty Bulky Item

Alderbank

scouseneil said:

The shop have written saying they will collect by a date three weeks ago. 

That's useful.

Reply saying, 'Thank you for collecting your items on (date three weeks ago).'

Then bin them.

bris

scouseneil said:

So it does seem I'm stuck with them. This seems crazy, so a retailer can litterly leave the indefinatly and them try to claim the value. 

No You're an involuntary Baillie, means you take care of the goods, but you can give them a final date, a reasonable timeframe to come collect the goods.

So write a letter and send it to them  (or email is enough these days if its sent to their known email address) giving them 14 days to collect the goods or you will sell them on Ebay, at auction and send them the sale proceeds minus fees.

This is enough to keep you legal and dispose of the goods. The auction format gives them their value no matter what they cost or how much it differs from their selling price.

In the letter or email tell them your intentions to do this. Keep records of what you do to follow the law as its proof if they try to take you to the small claims court, this evidence would see the case thrown out as you followed the letter of the law.

tightauldgit

TELLIT01 said:

Does the OP really have to try to sell items which the vendor has failed to collect?  Can't they demand they be collected within x days, or say they will be passed on to charity?  What is the OP supposed to do if they advertise them for sale at 'a reasonable price' but there are no takers?  Do they have to continue to store them?

I think you would have to show you made reasonable efforts to get the value for them but that's going to depend on circumstances. And since 'reasonable price' is subjective anyway then I imagine if for example you listed them on Ebay at £1 and someone picked them up for £1.50 then you can say that's the market price for them as that's what they achieved at auction. 

What you can't just do is give them away to your neighbours or dump them in the bin. 

Manxman_in_exile

Ectophile said:

TELLIT01 said:

Does the OP really have to try to sell items which the vendor has failed to collect?  Can't they demand they be collected within x days, or say they will be passed on to charity?  What is the OP supposed to do if they advertise them for sale at 'a reasonable price' but there are no takers?  Do they have to continue to store them?

Yes, the OP does really have to sell the goods for a fair market price.  The goods belong to the retailer, so OP isn't allowed to give them away. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1977/32  Torts (Interference with Goods) Act 1977.

Does the law say that they have to be sold for a "fair market price"?

diggingdude

Interesting thought would be can you claim for storage costs out of the sale price along with fair payment for photographing, listing and selling etc. I would 

Alderbank

Manxman_in_exile said:

Ectophile said:

TELLIT01 said:

Does the OP really have to try to sell items which the vendor has failed to collect?  Can't they demand they be collected within x days, or say they will be passed on to charity?  What is the OP supposed to do if they advertise them for sale at 'a reasonable price' but there are no takers?  Do they have to continue to store them?

Yes, the OP does really have to sell the goods for a fair market price.  The goods belong to the retailer, so OP isn't allowed to give them away. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1977/32  Torts (Interference with Goods) Act 1977.

Does the law say that they have to be sold for a "fair market price"?

The actual wording is:

A bailee exercising his powers under subsection 3 (selling the goods) shall be liable to account to the bailor for the proceeds of sale, less any costs of sale, and the account shall be taken on the footing that the bailee should have adopted the best method of sale reasonably available in the circumstances

Subtlety different but I think the law is correct.
There could be endless wrangling about the actual price achieved in any sale. The test for the court however is not the price as such but whether the bailee used the best method, which is much easier to test. If he put an abandoned car in Auto Trader for example that would probably be seen as the best method whatever the price actually achieved.

tightauldgit

diggingdude said:

Interesting thought would be can you claim for storage costs out of the sale price along with fair payment for photographing, listing and selling etc. I would 

If you actually incurred storage costs then probably yes, but I doubt you could charge for storage if they're just sitting in your garage. 

TELLIT01

All the above is assuming the OP has space to store the unwanted items.  Armchairs, or any other item of furniture, can be very bulky and it's entirely possible there wouldn't be space to store them without causing considerable inconvenience.