OT a know but just wondered what views are on the legal position of selling electrical goods at car boot sales. I've been to a few and there's always a table lamp or two or old hi-fi there. Usually even the mains leads are in very poor condition - never mind the insides. I'm not planning on selling any btw :-)
The legal side is...they have not the time nor the manpower to go out on a daily basis and approach stall holders and prosecute for selling dodgy electrical gear.
The order of the day is...don't buy it if you think it looks dodgy?
I've been to a local outdoor market with stallholders selling electrical gear,thing is it was pissing down this day and anything and everything was getting wet.
Nuff said.
It's no different than if it was brand new (except for CE conformance I believe)... It needs to be safe, i.e. not something that's going to fail a PAT test. Some old items even if in brand new condition may no longer conform, e.g. electric heaters with wide enough gaps in the grill to poke a finger through and touch the live element or silica glass tube. It needs to conform to current legislation, i.e. needs a BS1363 13A plug fitted with insulated pins, or a European plug with a 13A fused adaptor, or a UK shaver plug, if the item would normally be plugged in to be used. Flex mustn't be too long for the conductor size, and must be double insulated.
Most second hand/charity shops either won't sell electrical items at all, or have someone trained to PAT test them prior to putting up for sale (or a friendly electrician who does it for charity for them).
There's a shop I used to visit which specialised in 1920's lighting. They took the approach of selling the items for decorative purposes only and ensured they weren't usable electrically. It would have been easy to make them usable, but then you took the responsibility, not the shop. You almost certainly wouldn't get away with that for things which are purely functional such as HiFis.
The world definitely needs more people like you wondering over such things.
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From a private seller at a car boot?
From a trader(*) yes electrical stuff has to be "safe" but I'm not so sure about that from a private seller. A lot of the SOGA does not apply to private sales.
(*)Trader is the very loose sense of some one obtaining goods that they intend to sell. Making a profit over the transactions is not relevant.
And less people like you trying to censor other's thoughts - little Nazi net-police prick. One day you may see beyond the end of your nose
- but I doubt it. If you can stop looking in the mirror long enough, give us a few of the MEGA things "you" have wondered about recently - come on impress us.
Even for a private sale from one individual to another? If so that one's crept by me as I'm sure it wasn't the case ten years ago. Caveat emptor when you're genuinely buying from Joe Bloggs selling off his old stuff.
Pete
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