uncollected orders policy (legal)

[kev@frames]

whats your policy for disposing of uncollected items?
what is your policy based on (eg. fatg guidelines, trading standards advice, legislation etc).

and a hypothetical-ish situation for you: (based on one uncollected order we have at the moment)

the customer has declined to leave a contact address, (citing "privacy") so you are unable to contact them. The framing job is £125 owing, but the value of the item frames is hard to put a figure on.

My opinion is that if the customer has witheld the means to contact them (by not giving an address) then we will have done "everything reasonable" to get in touch with them, and so can now dispose of the item.

[Merlin]

Hi Kev.

From the Trading Standards website. You must issue by hand or recorded letter your intentions to dispose of uncollected goods. In your case your cannot. Therefore they say:

If you have taken reasonable steps to trace the owner of the goods in order to issue the notices, but have been unable to do so, you are entitled to proceed as if the notices had been served .

Where goods remain uncollected at the notified date of sale, you may sell them by whatever manner is appropriate in the circumstances.
The owner of the goods is entitled to receive the proceeds of the sale but you are entitled to withhold any money owing in respect of the goods, or their sale. The owner of the goods cannot claim the proceeds of the sale after six years

The requirements are contained in Section 12 and 13 of the Torts (Interference with Goods) Act 1977. If you don’t follow the requirements the owner of the goods could sue you for damages


Difficult one

[kev@frames]

yes thats the principle we work on. "all reasonable efforts" to contact the customer.
we are now 90 days before its "uncollected" and a further 90 before its "abandoned". At which point we decide whether to sell the item to recover the amount owed on framing, or remove the item from the frame, sell it as an RMF and take a loss if necessary. If the item seems worth keeping (eg. family photos, certificates etc) it'll go into "that folder" out the back in case the customer ever appears and wants it back.

we used to "public Auction" everything (ebay) to avoid arguments that we had not tried to get the "best possible price" in the event that a customer pitched up later and wanted their "cut".

Some people charge storage, but i believe this is only appropriate if they have been notified by signed for letter.

Collecting orders- this is one area where if the customer can't be arsed, then Im beginning to wonder why I should be arsed storing it for them for six years.....
The law works two ways, they still owe me for the framing for six years too And, although I cant enforce the debt legally, an interesting point is that you can still keep asking for it even after the 6 years.

[Not your average framer]

I've only had one customer never collect their work. I told them that I was keeping their deposit and their work and that they still owed me the balance payable upon collection.

I never got the balance paid, but my order for states "balance payable upon collection" and I believe that statement settles the question. No payment - no goods. For me life's too short to get over bothered about such agro, I've got the goods and the deposit. If they won't pay, my legal responsibility ends there.

I believe it is wise to ensure that all deposits taken are adequate to cover all materials used and also some part of your labour costs too!