Furniture fire-safety checks for furnished lets: an inventory workflow

Before a furnished let begins, make a room-by-room list of the upholstered furniture supplied with the property. Check the permanent compliance label where one is required, retain a clear photograph and connect the item to its supplier or purchase record. If the label or evidence is missing, do not assume that age, appearance or a landlord's assurance proves compliance. Hold the item for expert review, remove it before occupation or replace it.

The Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988 set flammability requirements for domestic upholstered furniture supplied anywhere in the United Kingdom. London Borough of Bromley's current Trading Standards guidance says the rules include furniture supplied with holiday homes and residential furnished lettings, and therefore affect landlords, estate agents and letting agents who let that accommodation in the course of business. The workflow below is an evidence process; it is not a substitute for product-safety advice on a doubtful item.

Start with what the property actually supplies

Use the inventory visit to identify furniture made available for the tenant or guest's use. Record sofas, armchairs, sofa beds, cushions, upholstered headboards and other domestic upholstered items. Mattresses, divans and bed bases are also within the regime, although the tests and labelling that apply to particular products differ. Curtains, carpets and ordinary bedclothes are outside these furniture controls.

Do not treat “part-furnished” as a compliance category. If one upholstered chair remains, identify and decide that item. Equally, do not put the tenant's own furniture into the landlord's supplied-items record. The question is what the letting business provides with the accommodation, not everything visible during the visit.

The rules cover long and short stays. Lewisham Council's business guidance states that the product-safety requirements apply to long- and short-term lettings, including self-catering holiday accommodation. Mixed portfolios should therefore use the same item-level check for an assured tenancy, a serviced apartment and a holiday let, while keeping the separate housing and fire-safety duties for each property type.

Look for the permanent label, not a swing ticket

A change made in 2025 causes avoidable confusion. From 30 October 2025, manufacturers no longer have to attach the display label, often called the swing label, to new products. The durable permanent label remains. The Office for Product Safety and Standards guidance confirms that the amendment did not remove the permanent-label obligations in regulation 11 and Schedule 7.

For an upholstered item, photograph the permanent label in place and make sure the text can be read. The label may be incorporated into a care label. Bromley's guidance explains that a full or short form can be used and that the information may include the first UK supplier, a batch or identification number and a summary of the compliance measures. A missing swing ticket after October 2025 is not the problem; a required permanent label that cannot be found needs a decision.

Mattresses, divans and bed bases are treated differently for labelling. Bromley points to BS 7177 rather than the permanent label used for other finished upholstered furniture. Record the label that is present and obtain competent advice if the product or markings are unclear. An inventory clerk should capture evidence, not decide which laboratory test a product ought to have passed.

Keep an exception queue for missing or doubtful evidence

A photograph of a sofa is not proof that its materials passed the prescribed tests. The testing responsibility rests earlier in the supply chain, with the manufacturer or importer as the first UK supplier. A letting agency should not recreate those tests or write its own certificate. It should identify what it is prepared to accept before the item is supplied with the let.

Where a required label is absent or illegible, ask for the purchase record and product information. If those do not resolve the position, refer the item to a competent product- safety adviser or the relevant Trading Standards service. Lewisham advises businesses not to include an unlabelled item in a letting until expert advice has been obtained. Set a removal or replacement deadline before check-in and record who has authority to approve the cost.

Keep the status visible to the property team. “Landlord contacted” is not a closed outcome if the chair is still in the bedroom on move-in day. The useful statuses are evidence accepted, expert review open, removal confirmed and replacement checked.

Apply the same check to second-hand and replacement items

Second-hand furniture is not automatically exempt. OPSS says second-hand supply still requires a permanent label and points suppliers to regulation 14 of the amended 1988 Regulations. A landlord moving a used sofa from another property, or an agency buying one for a managed unit, should send it through the same evidence gate as a new purchase.

Do the check when furniture is added or replaced, not only at the first instruction. Link maintenance and inventory workflows so that a damaged chair cannot quietly be swapped for an unverified item. Re-upholstery and re-covering can also fall within the rules; retain the provider's details and the evidence for the completed work.

If an item is disposed of, close it in the record rather than deleting it. The old photograph, decision and disposal date explain why the current inventory differs from the previous one. Our controlled maintenance workflow shows how to keep approval and completion evidence around repair work.

Build a record another person can audit

The record should connect the property, the physical item and the supply evidence. Bromley's guidance says manufacturers, importers and retailers must retain records that support traceability, and anyone supplying covered furniture must provide their supplier's name and address to Trading Standards on request. A managing agent may occupy a different place in the supply chain from a retailer, but the property file should still preserve the evidence it relied on and the person who made the operational decision.

Make the item reference stable enough to survive a new inventory supplier. A description such as “grey two-seat sofa, living room, FUR-004” is more useful than “sofa”. Keep the source invoice where it exists, but do not let a receipt replace the label or other product evidence. Each answers a different question.

Separate furniture checks from the building's fire duties

These product rules do not replace smoke-alarm, carbon-monoxide, HMO or common-parts fire duties. A compliant sofa does not make a property compliant, and a valid building fire-risk assessment does not establish that a particular sofa meets the furniture regulations. Use the alarm rules guide for the separate English alarm workflow and the landlord compliance checklist to place the furniture record alongside other tenancy evidence.

Do not implement the 2026 consultation as law

The Department for Business and Trade published a further consultation on 31 March 2026 and closed it on 23 June 2026. It proposed a new smoulder-test approach and other reforms. The consultation itself says the policy remained subject to review and that the Government would set an implementation and transition timetable after considering responses.

Until replacement rules are made and brought into force, run the property workflow against the current amended 1988 Regulations and current official guidance. Track the consultation as a policy change, not as permission to remove today's evidence checks. The revised legislation is the primary source to check when the position changes.

Use one pre-let gate across the portfolio

Put the furniture check between inventory capture and approval to advertise or hand over the property. The gate should show unresolved items, the person responsible and the latest date for removal or replacement. Keep item evidence underneath the portfolio view so a manager can see the queue without losing the photographs and supplier records.

For long- and short-term portfolios, Tekniti's letting agency offering can be configured around the agency's actual approval process. The system should surface missing evidence and preserve the decision. A person remains responsible for deciding whether an item can be supplied and when specialist advice is needed.