Furniture Delivery near you

Section 28 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 sets the default timetable. Unless you and the trader have agreed otherwise, the trader must deliver the goods without undue delay and in any event not more than 30 days after the day on which the contract is entered into. If that is missed, you can specify a further period appropriate in the circumstances and require delivery before the end of it. You can treat the contract as at an end straight away if the trader has refused to deliver, or if delivery at the agreed time or within the agreed period was essential taking into account all the relevant circumstances, or if you told the trader before the contract was made that timely delivery was essential. Where the contract is ended, the trader must without undue delay reimburse all payments made under it.

Section 29 answers the question of who bears the risk of damage on the way. The goods remain at the trader's risk until they come into the physical possession of the consumer, or of a person identified by the consumer to take possession of them. So a sofa scuffed by the retailer's own delivery team, or by a carrier the retailer used, is the retailer's problem and not yours. The exception is important: where the consumer arranges their own carrier — one the trader did not offer — the goods pass to the consumer's risk on delivery to that carrier, though that does not affect any liability the carrier itself has to the consumer.

If the furniture arrives faulty rather than merely late, section 22 gives the short-term right to reject a time limit of 30 days, beginning with the first day after ownership has passed to you, the goods have been delivered, and, where the trader had to install the goods or do something else for you to use them, the trader has notified you that it is done. That period is paused while you are waiting for an agreed repair or replacement. Inspect at the point of delivery, note anything on the delivery paperwork before the crew leaves, and put the complaint in writing the same day.

The Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988 are the reason British sofas and armchairs carry a label sewn into the underside or the back cushion. The regulations set ignition requirements for the filling materials and covers of upholstered furniture supplied in the course of a business, together with display labelling at the point of sale and permanent labelling attached to the item, so that both a buyer and a later owner can see what the item is.

Two limits are worth knowing. Regulation 4 excludes the supply of goods manufactured before 1 January 1950, and the supply of materials where the supplier knows or has reasonable cause to believe they will be used for re-covering or re-upholstering furniture made before that date — which is why genuine antique upholstery sits outside the scheme. And regulation 14 brings second-hand furniture in: it applies to furniture previously supplied to someone who acquired it otherwise than for the purposes of a business of dealing in furniture, and requires that such furniture satisfies the requirements of regulations 5, 6 and 8(1) to (3), subject to the exceptions in those regulations.

For a buyer, the practical effect is simple. Private sales between individuals are not a supply in the course of a business, so a neighbour selling you a sofa is not caught; a trader, a second-hand shop or a house clearance business selling it is. If you are buying used upholstery from a business and there is no label, ask why, because a missing label means neither you nor they can demonstrate what the item is made of. It is also why charities and second-hand dealers refuse unlabelled upholstery, and why an unlabelled sofa can be difficult to pass on later.

The moment that decides most furniture disputes lasts about two minutes and happens on the doorstep. Unwrap enough to see the item before the crew leaves, look at the corners, the feet and the arms, and write any damage on the delivery note rather than accepting it clean and emailing later. A photograph of the item and of the packaging, taken where it was delivered, is worth more than a long description a week afterwards.

Failed deliveries are the second recurring problem, and they are nearly always a measuring failure rather than a driver failure. If an item will not go in, establish at the point of order whether the retailer offers a doorstep assessment or accepts a returns route for a non-fitting item, and be aware that a bespoke or made-to-order piece may be treated differently from stock. Where you hired your own two-person service, a failed delivery is usually still a chargeable visit, because the service was supplied.

Missing fixings and missing parts are the third, and they are the most easily avoided. Check the parts list against what is in the box before the crew leaves if the item is being left flat-packed, and before you dispose of any packaging, since fixings are routinely taped inside a panel or under a cushion. If assembly is included, make sure the assembler opens everything and assembles it while there rather than leaving boxes stacked in the room.

Buying from a retailer with delivery included puts the whole journey inside one contract. The 30-day default in section 28, the trader's risk until physical possession under section 29 and the short-term right to reject under section 22 all attach to the same party, and if the sofa arrives damaged you have one conversation rather than three. That is the real value of paying for the retailer's delivery rather than the cheapest carrier.

Buying second-hand and arranging your own transport is often dramatically cheaper and is a perfectly sensible thing to do — but it splits responsibility. The seller's obligations, if the seller is a private individual, are narrow. The carrier you hire is supplying a service to you, and any damage in transit is a question about that service rather than about the goods. And section 29's exception means that where you arrange a carrier the trader did not offer, risk in the goods passes to you when the carrier takes them.

There is also the labelling question. Buy used upholstery from a business and the fire safety regulations apply to that supply; buy it privately and they do not, so the label is on you to check. None of this is a reason to avoid second-hand furniture, which is usually better made than its price suggests. It is a reason to look under the cushion, to photograph the item before it is loaded, and to agree with the carrier in advance what happens if it does not fit through the door.

Two variables dominate: how many people the item needs, and what the route is at the receiving end. After that come distance and whether it can be combined with other work in the same direction, whether the delivery is to the kerb, the threshold or a room of choice, whether stairs or a lift are involved and how many floors, whether assembly and packaging removal are included, whether the item needs blanket wrapping or a made crate, and how tightly the delivery window has to be fixed. A next-day, two-hour window to a third-floor flat is a different product from a flexible weekday slot to a house with a drive.

LokalMatch puts you in front of the people who do it. Set out the item, where it is coming from, where it is going and your postcode, and delivery and two-person services covering your area respond to you. Homeowners pay nothing for the introduction; the pros pay for the requests they receive. LokalMatch carries nothing, sets no prices, and does not vet, rank or recommend any firm that gets in touch, so measuring the route, agreeing what happens if the item does not fit and checking the carrier's cover are yours to do.