Returning sofas

Tango1947

Last year I bought two sofas that were defective in several ways. After repeatedly asking for a refund or replacement, I had to resort to small claims court. I won the case but then had to use the court bailiffs to recover my money. 

Now I have a full refund, but still have the sofas which I want to dispose of quickly so than I can buy new ones. 

I plan to write to the store and ask them to collect the sofas, but if they don't do this, how long would I need to keep them? Would it be reasonable to give them say two weeks to collect and advise them that I will then dispose of the sofas? 

I have been informed that the store is closing down on the 17th July so i am not expecting them to take the sofas back, so can I legally dispose of them?

Aylesbury_Duck

Seems silly not to write to them, given that it's only 9 days until they close.  You'll be covering yourself if you do get rid of them and they then want them back.  I wouldn't get rid of them immediately.  It's possible that it'll be several weeks before any new ones you order would be delivered, anyway.

Is it the whole business closing, or just the shop?

powerful_Rogue

You  can't just dispose of them of give them away. After writing to them, you have to sell them for a fair market price. (So no mates rates) The money you make from the sale, minus any costs you belongs to the company.

Tango1947

It's just a single shop business. Owner is retiring.

One of the problems with the sofas is that they don't carry appropriate fire safety labels, so legally, I cannot sell them, and if the owner takes them back, he cannot sell them.

He did of course break the law by selling them to me. But Trading Standards have had a word with him!

Alderbank

So you can't sell them or give them away.

In most cases @powerful_Rogue is correct, you would have to sell for the best price. However no legislation can require you to commit an illegal act and any contract which tried to do so is against public policy and therefore void.

Probably waste disposal is your only option .
But do you have a local men's group or other charity which repairs and restores secondhand goods? We have quite a few here is Scotland. If you do, they might be willing to collect it to rebuild or use for joinery and upholstery training 

tightauldgit

I think technically you need to make them available for collection for a reasonable amount of time so you should at least email the company and tell them the sofas can be collected if they make arrangements to do so. If you binned them then I think the company would in theory be able to recover their value from you but given what you've said the value would be nothing anyway.

In fact you probably could have asked the court to award you costs of disposal since i think most councils charge for collecting sofas these days. 

If I was me I'd probably give them 30 days to collect unless you're desperate to shift them. then dispose of them as you see fit. 

Alderbank

tightauldgit said:

I think technically you need to make them available for collection for a reasonable amount of time so you should at least email the company and tell them the sofas can be collected if they make arrangements to do so. If you binned them then I think the company would in theory be able to recover their value from you but given what you've said the value would be nothing anyway.

In fact you probably could have asked the court to award you costs of disposal since i think most councils charge for collecting sofas these days. 

If I was me I'd probably give them 30 days to collect unless you're desperate to shift them. then dispose of them as you see fit. 

You could have recovered the costs of return. Perhaps the retailer could have returned them to the manufacturer to be reupholstered.
If they were considered waste your carrier needs a waste transfer licence and will have to pay commercial disposal costs so will charge a higher price.

If you are a skinflint like me you could do what I did. I took mine apart (harder than I expected) and took them piece by piece to the nearby household tip waste recycling centre.

TELLIT01

I would go to the shop with a pre-printed form stating that the company gives you permission to dispose of the items.  Get it signed, dated and witnessed. Then you will be free to get rid once you have the new furniture.

tightauldgit

Alderbank said:

tightauldgit said:

I think technically you need to make them available for collection for a reasonable amount of time so you should at least email the company and tell them the sofas can be collected if they make arrangements to do so. If you binned them then I think the company would in theory be able to recover their value from you but given what you've said the value would be nothing anyway.

In fact you probably could have asked the court to award you costs of disposal since i think most councils charge for collecting sofas these days. 

If I was me I'd probably give them 30 days to collect unless you're desperate to shift them. then dispose of them as you see fit. 

You could have recovered the costs of return. Perhaps the retailer could have returned them to the manufacturer to be reupholstered.
If they were considered waste your carrier needs a waste transfer licence and will have to pay commercial disposal costs so will charge a higher price.

If you are a skinflint like me you could do what I did. I took mine apart (harder than I expected) and took them piece by piece to the nearby household tip waste recycling centre.

Possibly, but it seems like the retailer isn't really that keen to have them back and I imagine in this case the costs of disposal would be less for all involved. In any case it's probably something that should have been raised at the hearing - whether the retailer was going to pay to have the items returned or would prefer to pay for disposal or whatever as in this case the OP is probably going to be out of pocket. 

As a fellow skinflint I did consider whether you could break them down and bin them but I assumed its only me that would ever do such a thing. 

tightauldgit

TELLIT01 said:

I would go to the shop with a pre-printed form stating that the company gives you permission to dispose of the items.  Get it signed, dated and witnessed. Then you will be free to get rid once you have the new furniture.

You'd have to make sure you went there on a day when the owner was there and it wasn't staff working - only the owner or someone with their authority could or should sign such a letter. And of course even the owner would have no obligation to do so. Depending on how the court case went it might well be advisable to give the shop a wide berth and just communicate by email or letter.

Not clear if it's a Ltd or a sole trader but also worth bearing in mind that if a limited company stops trading and strikes itself off of the companies house register then any monies owed or other obligations to it would die with the company. 

Tango1947

A quick update......

I wrote to the store manager (recorded delivery) two weeks ago asking them to remove the sofas from my property or I would dispose of them. I gave them three weeks to respond, but as usual they did not reply. The three weeks is up next week and I need to get rid of the sofas as we have new ones coming.

Am I legally allowed to dispose of them now?