The loop Find
Is second-hand office furniture a good buy in Sydney?
The City of Sydney's office furniture advice begins with the second-hand market, and the consumer guarantees follow the goods when a business sells them. What changes is who is selling: a shop, a private seller, or an auctioneer.
General information from the City of Sydney, the ACCC and the NSW Government. It is not legal advice.
What the City's office furniture advice says first
The City of Sydney's guidance to businesses starts its office furniture advice here: fitting out with furniture that is already in use often means better quality for less money.
From there it names furniture donation and reuse services. Charities and other organisations take office furniture back for reuse or resale; some take donations only, and others charge for collection. The City says the list is a starting point only, because it does not endorse any supplier or organisation on it.
The scale the advice works at is the City's own: commercial and industrial sectors generate around 85 per cent of Sydney's waste, and only 50 per cent of that waste is recycled. Its suggestion is to start with reuse, on its own page of furniture donation and reuse services.
When a business sells it, the guarantees follow
Second-hand goods bought from a business are not a law-free zone. The NSW Government's consumer page lists second-hand products bought from businesses among the purchases the consumer guarantees cover, with the age and condition of the goods taken into account. Most goods and services bought from a business carry the guarantees automatically.
The central one is acceptable quality. The Australian Consumer Law describes goods of acceptable quality as fit for all the purposes goods of that kind are commonly supplied for, acceptable in appearance and finish, free from defects, safe, and durable. The ACCC says there are no set rules for this, or for how long a product should last, and the Act lists the matters weighed: the nature of the goods, the price, any statements on packaging or labels, what the supplier or manufacturer said about them, and the circumstances of the supply. A worn desk sold cheaply is measured against that, not against a new one.
Three more guarantees matter to a second-hand purchase. There is title: the buyer gets full ownership of the product, nobody will try to reclaim or repossess it, and the previous owner does not owe money on it. There is undisturbed possession, guaranteed where the supply is not a supply of limited title. And where a business supplies the goods in trade or commerce, the acceptable quality guarantee applies unless the sale happens at auction.
Where the guarantees stop
The guarantees have edges, and a second-hand buy is where they are easiest to reach. They do not apply if the buyer misused the product in a way that caused the problem, knew of or was told about the faults before buying, bought a one-off item from a private seller such as a garage sale or fete, or planned to on-sell or change the product to re-supply it as a business.
The last of those runs into the business buyer's own test: a product bought for re-supply, or to be used up or transformed in production, is not covered by the guarantees even when it would otherwise pass them. An office that buys desks to use them is in a different position from a business that buys them to sell on, and the Buy stop takes that test apart.
One purchase, three kinds of seller
| Who is selling | The consumer guarantees | What still stands |
|---|---|---|
| A business | They apply, including to second-hand goods, with age and condition weighed in the quality test. | A remedy suited to the problem, whether it is major or minor. |
| A private seller | Most do not apply to a one-off sale between two people where the seller is not running a business. | Title, undisturbed possession, and no hidden debts or charges. |
| A traditional auction | Most do not apply where the auction is run by an agent of the person selling the goods. | The same three; the Act does not put the acceptable quality guarantee on a sale by auction. |
For a business paying for an office's furniture, one more test stands in front of the whole table: the purchase has to meet the consumer test at all. That is the next stop.
What a seller cannot write out
What a seller says cannot shrink most of this. The basic rights covered by the consumer guarantees cannot be taken away by anything a business says or does, and it is unlawful for a business to mislead consumers about them. The law itself makes one exception, in section 64A. For goods of a kind not ordinarily bought for personal, domestic or household use or consumption, a contract term is not void merely because it limits the supplier's liability for failing a guarantee to replacing or repairing the goods, supplying equivalent goods, or paying the cost of any of these. That limit cannot reach the guarantees of title, undisturbed possession and no hidden debts or charges (sections 51, 52 and 53), and it falls away if the buyer shows it is not fair or reasonable for the supplier to rely on the term. The guide to buying for a business sets it out in full. Policies that deny the rights are illegal: the ACCC's example is a sign saying no refunds, or no refunds or exchanges on sale items.