Trading Standards have produced a leaflet regarding the sale of second-hand electrical items for businesses and private sales. It clearly states that even when selling on ebay or at a car boot sale, the seller has a legal responsibility to make sure that the item is safe and correctly labelled. The liability lies firmly with the seller and prosecution can lead to a huge fine or, in extreme cases, a custodial sentence.

No it isn't safe to simply give away electrical items as you can still be held liable if the item is dangerous.

If you KNOWINGLY sell or give away an item without informing the person you are giving it to that it may be dangerous then you can have problems.

Freecycle operates without difficulty!

The law (and your liability) depends on the country you are in

Say someone starts off with the idea of selling something electrical (for example a lawnmower or suchlike) - not new at all but assuming it's working. Then the person thinks - if he sells it and the other party has an accident due to the buyer now claiming that, eg the lawnmower was dangerous and caused injury. The seller actually gave the lawnmower away for free for the interested party -now for free anyway So the would be buyer (now the recipient of the free electrical item) decides to sue the original owner/seller. Suppose they had for example done this online and the would be seller keeps a note of the emails saying the buyer would be delighted to receive the goods.The seller insists before giving it away that he would give the recipient the item only on the condition that the the recipient gets the item checked out for safety. This is all 'in writing' (emails only) - nothing would be signed of course as they only recourse the would be seller would have is the would be buyer's response to his e-mails. Surely the seller person isn't putting himself at risk at a later date with the would be buyer contacting a lawyer, stating that he'd been given faulty goods? No commercial companies involved - just one person wanting rid of something that he thinks works - not wanting to bin it but instead, put it to good use for someone who would use it. Can anyone advise - is it safe for the original owner to just give something away to a stranger? Or if the stranger turns out to be a trouble maker weirdo nasty type - what can the seller do? Is it better just to phone the Clenny (Disposal or Cleansing Department) to collect it and dump it at one of their dumps/landfill areas? Is the giver/seller now in trouble and liable to legal action?