The issue that cost me £150.000 was the furniture fire safety regulations 1988
It is illegal to sell ANY upholstered furniture that has not been produced to meet the UK fire resistant requirements of the above law.
Through a 7 year battle we were hounded by trading standards for selling what they considered "Dangerous furniture" because it had been imported from Denmark.
I obviously do not agree with that point of view and rejected their demand that I stop selling all upholstered furniture.
The led to a legal case where they dragged me to court.
I claimed that the furniture is safe for it's intended purpose and that under European law I was within my rights to claim free movement of goods as laid down by the Casis de dijon ruling.
Anyway TS repetatedly issued suspension orders on my stock, even on the items that DID meet UK regs as in their words.
" we are not convince that you have used the correct materials"
So I complained to the court and had a summonds issued agains them to answer the release demand in court.
They claimed that no evidence was present and that no claim had been made to release the items. LIE
I had copies of all paperwork with me in Court so handed a spare copy to the solicitors for the council to which they took 30 min to look at and then said they wanted a 5 week adjournment to consider.
Enought to say that the court refused them this and put a court date for 7 days ahead to which the judge urged them to find a solution.
3hrs later they were at my door and signed the release papers.
In total we had no less that 6 suspension notices issued against us over a 18 month period.
A suspension notice means that all items are pictured and listed and you are not allowed to dispose of any of them unless for EXPORT.
They then took away 4 items and set them on fire. Came back 2 weeks later and wanted 3 more to do the same. My response was to clear the entire store of upholstered furniture and return it to denmark.
In total I faced 10 counts of consumer protection act offences with a total fine of £50000 and 3 yeras in jail.
The outcome was a £1000 fine as out argument of eu law was supported by the court and the evidence we put forward included printouts from sotherbys christies etc, along with a long list of companies that had NOT been touched at all by TS to show that the case was biast but more importantly that there was and still is a very valid market.
To this day I have had no support from any other individuals or companies in the UK or elsewhere and have footed the bill though my own finances and Support from my customers.
Sounds like its been an...
Sounds like its been an absolute nightmare.... Fairplay to you for standing up to idiotic beauocracy. So what is the state of play now? Are you still able to sell these items within the UK?.... Is anyone????
I'm sure its a silly question but where you reimbursed for the items that they tourched?
Was it settled in County court or high court? Has there ever been any legal presadent set?
The date range
is january 1st 1950 to current day
So all the iconic pices of design be it european, American or english are all ILLEGAL to sell.
That is unless you completely re-upholster the item in question or test its fire resistance!! I am not going to torch my Pappa bear and then try and sell it.
The precendece has been set through plenty of legal cases in the european court but the UK does not recognise any of these and claim their right to impose ANY level of test for the greater good of the consumer.
In all my 15 years of this business and my dads before me we have NEVER had any one come and complain because their sofa, chair etc spontaniously burst into flames!
If you are an idiot with fire you get burnt! MY clients are sensible and reasonable people who understand the dangers of unattended fire.
To sum this up I am going to quote Mike Spencer of the soft furnishings and upholstrers association.
"your furniture is dangerous BECAUSE it is secondhand"
The law is just there to try and safeguard agains imports and a level competitative market!!
The law still stands and ALL shops in the UK and supplying to the UK are criminals!!
you nailed it
Thanks for your kind words.
When the law was introduced it was done so at the request of a manchester fire officer, the minister for consumer protection and the head of vita foam. The largest manufacturer of furniture foams.
There was not a single representative from the antiques trade and it was not until I made such a pain of my self to the Department of trade & industry that I was given the information about the group spearheaded by Mike Spencer.
It took me 45 min to convince him that my point of view was in need of being heard.
The date was set as it was widely regarded that the foams produced during the 1950s were the dangerous type.
The really cheap foams were made using cyanide.
Once it burns it releases it as sulphur cyanide and we all know what that does to you if you breath it.
These days most of that furniture has long gone but that law still stands!
If you need any help, please contact us at – info@designaddict.com