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Question Title: Furniture and Furnishings Regulations
| Question: 265 |
| When dealing with landlords who insist on letting with furnishings apparently non compliant, is the Agent jointly liable if full details of the above law are given to the Landlord prior to the letting ? or should the Agent refuse to manage the property?
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| Answer: |
| As the law currently stands (and from the legal advice taken on the subject by various authorities) there appears to be no obvious means of escape for the agent in this situation. There are many agents currently in the position and for this reason, strong representations are still being made to the DTI from the main professional bodies that the law has been poorly drafted. In the meantime, agents themselves can only decide whether they are prepared to shoulder this liability or otherwise turn away existing clients. The law refers to the 'supply' of articles. In the course of carrying out the letting, it is the agent who generally carries out the physical act of supply (unless of course the agent is employed to find tenants, and not manage the property) and would therefore be held liable. The fact that the landlord was unhelpful may be considered in mitigation of the offence but it would generally be argued, that no person in business should knowingly offer non-compliant goods to the public, whether as a letting agent or a general retailer.
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References:
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Pages:
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Hyperlinks:
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Letting Update Journal |
Oct 1998 page 11 |
letting-update-journal.html
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Letting Handbook |
Chapter 8 |
letting-handbook-and-factsheets.html
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Letting Factsheet No 3 |
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factsheet-3
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For more information, discuss on the Forum
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