how long must the laundry store unclaimed items? Find out the legal guidelines, importance of clear policies, and tips for managing unclaimed items effectively.
How Long Must the Laundry Store Unclaimed Items?
How long does the merchant’s obligation to retain last; how to legally resolve the problem of customers not collecting.
A fairly frequent practical question, which our readers also ask us, is this: how long should the laundry store the items not collected by customers?
What we will say also concerns similar activities , such as tailors, dry cleaners, shoemakers or craftsmen and technicians who repair electrical and electronic equipment. Even in these cases, customers leave their products but then, for various reasons, do not come back to pick them up.
This phenomenon creates problems for shopkeepers , especially when their warehouse is small and cannot contain many objects; all this, obviously, is added to the fact that the service performed – washing, cleaning, repairs, etc. – is not paid for by the customer who has effectively disappeared, but could, one day, show up and demand the return of the objects left in delivery, which remain his property.
Index
- The contract between the customer and the laundry
- The obligation to store items left in the laundry
- Clothes left in the dry cleaners: how long should they be kept?
- How to protect yourself from non-collection of items in stock?
- Stocks of unclaimed items: what to do?
The contract between the customer and the laundry
From a legal perspective, when a customer leaves his or her clothing or other fabrics (blankets, duvets, carpets, etc.) in a laundry to be washed or cleaned using appropriate methods, he or she is entering into a contract of work with the laundry , governed by articles 2222 et seq. of the Civil Code.
The object of the service that the trader undertakes to provide may be, depending on the garments and the type of fabric, washing , cleaning , stain removal , ironing, painting and anything else requested or necessary.
The obligation to store items left in the laundry
It is important to note that this work contract also includes an additional – but not secondary – obligation on the part of the entrepreneur, who in our case is the owner of the laundry: that of guarding the garments until collection . During this period, the responsibility for guarding the garments falls on the operator.
To this end, the rules on the contract for the deposit of movable goods apply , and in particular, the one which provides for diligence in custody (art. 1768 of the Civil Code) and the one which provides for the impossibility for the depositary to use the deposited goods without the consent of the depositor (art. 1770 of the Civil Code).
Furthermore, the storage of items left in the laundry :
- it is presumed to be free of charge, pursuant to Article 1767 of the Civil Code, unless otherwise agreed between the parties: therefore, a surcharge for conservation and custody must be established in advance in terms of amount and also in terms of application (for example, by providing for a figure related to the duration of the custody which has continued beyond a certain period);
- being ancillary and instrumental to the laundry service, additional compensationfor the custody provided is only due if it has been expressly agreed (as reiterated by the Court of Cassation with order no. 17918 of 2708/2020);
- in the event of loss or destructionof items left in storage, the laundry is contractually liable for non-fulfilment, or in any case is liable for damages in an extra-contractual manner pursuant to Article 2051 of the Civil Code, but if the storage is free of charge “liability for fault is assessed with less rigor” (Article 1768, paragraph 2 of the Civil Code).
Clothes left in the dry cleaners: how long should they be kept?
If the customer does not show up to collect the items left at the laundry, the obligation of custody of the operator remains , depending on the case:
- up to the date established in the contract and no later than, if a specific deadline for collectionhad been agreed at the time of delivery ;
- within the term established by current practices and collected at the local Chamber of Commerce(usually, 3 months, 6 months or a maximum of 1 year from the delivery date);
- in the absence of a specific provision, within the general term of 10 yearsprovided for by Article 1177 of the Civil Code for the fulfillment of the obligations to safeguard specific things until delivery: the obligation therefore remains until the expiry of the ordinary ten-year limitation period within which the right of the owner requesting restitution can be exercised.
How to protect yourself from non-collection of items in stock?
The ten-year term for the collection of items left in the laundry provided for by the Civil Code is frankly excessive and unsuitable to protect the rights of the trader; but it is an orderly, not peremptory, provision that intervenes to fill the gaps only when a specific term has not been provided.
It is therefore advisable to contractually provide for shorter collection terms , or, if they exist and are appropriate, to refer to those in force at a local level and summarised in the collections of uses and customs of the Chambers of Commerce .
It should be noted, however, that any contractual clause that imposes very short time periods on the customer for the collection of the items – for example, 15 or 30 days – must be expressly accepted and approved in writing by the customer, as it is considered unfair pursuant to Article 1341, paragraph 2, of the Civil Code.
Therefore, generic warning signs or conditions printed on the delivery receipt are not valid.
In commercial practice, it is a good idea to include such a clause in standard contracts drawn up with large clients (hotels, restaurants, etc.), for whom failure to collect the items would be extremely burdensome for the business owner.
Stocks of unclaimed items: what to do?
The owner of a laundry where there are items of clothing left uncollected by customers who entrusted them to him may legitimately dispose of them when the period established by law, custom or the signed contract has elapsed.
However, it is possible to anticipate the times by activating the legal procedure of default of the depositing customer: pursuant to Article 1771 of the Civil Code, “the depositary may request at any time that the depositor takes back the thing”. Furthermore, the same rule specifies that “even if a term has not been agreed, the judge may grant the depositor a suitable term to receive the thing”.
It is an action that, evidently, presupposes knowledge of the data and contact details of customers who have not spontaneously presented themselves at the laundry to pay the amount due and collect the items; but – especially if the customer does not respond to the initial formal request to collect the items that he has left lying in the laundry for a long time – it also involves the initiation of a long and expensive civil legal procedure, which requires the necessary assistance of a lawyer, and which should be activated only in extreme cases and of absolute necessity.