UK Landlord Forum / Life

I own a holiday chalet situated on a well-known company's site. Last year it was let through the company, but only for a few weeks. This year I have decided to let it myself, however the company are now querying the safety of my sofa. It has fire safety labels attached but they are stapled on and the manager says she needs the original owner to verify that they are genuine. I bought it on eBay and the seller has not responded to my request for information. Who is responsible for the safety of the furniture? I am happy that the sofa is safe, and in   any case I have had to agree to buy £2000000 of public liability insurance. Why is this necessary if the site is responsible for safety? I am upset as the query has only just been raised and I look likely now to miss Easter bookings. Many thanks in advance to anyone who can help me with this.

It's entirely possible that you both are. It's primarily your responsibility but if the site owner derives any form of income from your use of the site for furnished holiday lets, it's entirely possible that they'd be construed as having a duty of care under the 1988 Furniture Regulations. The level of your indemnity insurance doesn't really matter as this would be a criminal, rather than civil, case.

Thanks so much for getting back to me.