Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Virginia

cancellation of furniture purchase

3 months ago my wife and I purchased furniture sets from an ad in the Washington Post from a furn dealer from VA. The receipt was signed for the furn to be delivered to our new home with a down payment of $3000 (cost of bedrm set) and a balance of $3600 upon delivery (cost of dn rm set).We were pleased with the bdrm set, but not the dn room set due to quality and minor damage.The next day she called the furn dealer about her displeasure, in which he replied he would work something out. He told her to go to his web site of furn, but he gave the wrong site twice.My wife took this as if he was waiting to clear the check and doing nothing. So she put a stop on the check for $3600 until this could be resolved. He called back cursing and threatening her with court. By the time he realized his mistake my wife was upset and decided to cancel and told him to pick up the dn rm set (not the bdrm set).He called back and told us he will take us to court if we don't pay delivery charges. We received notice to appear in small claims court in VA soon. What are our rights to cancel with no prior written or verbal notice about any extra charges upfront and my wife cx the dn rm furn prior to 72 hours after purchase? Thank you.


Asked on 1/19/04, 3:54 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Michael Hendrickson Law Office Michael E. Hendrickson

Re: cancellation of furniture purchase

It's unclear from your question what form your contract for the purchase of the furniture actually took,i.e, was it oral or written or did it merely consist of whatever relevant terms were contained in the newspaper ad and written on the receipt for the purchase of the furniture. Absent such clarification, there's really no way to determine what your rights may be in this particular situation other than to say that if the product delivered was defective , you clearly have the right to return it and either receive a satisfactory replacement product or a refund of your purchase price.

Unless this sale was covered by the Virginia Home Sales Solicitation Act(VHSSA), which apparently it was not, there is no automatic right of recission of the sale by purchaser within 72 hours

of the completion of the transaction.

As to who is responsible for paying the delivery charges for the return of the dining room set(assuming this is not clear from the sale contract), you might have to have the small claims court judge sort this matter out unless you can work out a settlement with the dealer such as your offer, perhaps, to pay half of the costs of returning the furniture to his business premises.

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Answered on 1/26/04, 12:37 am


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