If furnished accommodation is provided, it is essential to understand the need to provide safe furniture and furnishings, particularly concerning fire safety.

The Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988

Since 1 January 1997, persons who hire out furniture in the course of a business (and this includes furniture provided with rented accommodation) are required to comply with the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988. These regulations set safety standards for fire and flame-retarding requirements for upholstered furniture manufactured after 1950 and where the tenancy commenced after March 1993. The rules relate to:

furniture meeting a cigarette resistance test
cover fabric, whether for use in permanent or loose covers, meeting a match resistance test and
filling materials for all furniture meeting ignitability tests.

Tenancies that commenced before 1993 are exempt, but all additional or replacement furniture added after 1993 must comply with fire resistance requirements. A new tenant after 1993 means that all relevant furniture must comply.

The regulations require that:

All new furniture (except mattresses, bed bases, pillows, scatter cushions, seat pads and loose and stretch furniture covers) must carry a display label at the point of sale. This is the retailer’s responsibility.

All new furniture (except mattresses and bed bases) and loose and stretch covers are required, on the first supply, to carry a permanent label providing information about their fire-retardant properties. Such a label will indicate compliance, although lack of one in second-hand furniture would not necessarily imply non-compliance as the label might have been removed.

Generally, if second-hand furniture has not been bought from a reputable dealer and is not labelled, it may indicate that it will fail to meet the regulations. To evidence compliance and a checking system, it is worth including the labelling as part of the inventory.

The regulations apply to any of the following that contains upholstery:

furniture
beds, headboards of beds, mattresses
sofas, sofa beds, futons and other convertibles
scatter cushions and seat pads
pillows and
loose and stretch covers for furniture.
The regulations do not apply to:
sleeping bags
bedclothes (including duvets)
loose covers for mattresses
pillowcases
curtains
carpets.

The regulations relate only to items provided by the landlord and do not apply to articles provided by the occupier for which the landlord is not responsible.

The regulations can also apply to garden furniture ‘suitable for use indoors’.

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