A Summer Tradition Reconsidered

This past weekend, I was blessed to have spent the entire weekend with my 60-something year old mother hosting a yard sale. We hadn’t done one in a LONG time, and we were both excited. While we were buzzing around and setting up, my mother suddenly shrieked out. Now, my mother has a history of crazy injuries and illnesses, so I knew anything was possible. However, when I turned around, a totally unsurprising and predictable thing had occurred – she had tripped on an old hole in my yard. I literally and not thought about that hole in the yard in 5 years. Upon investigation, I realized why I had not thought about it – I had not seen it in several years. The grass had grown up around it so that it couldn’t really be mowed, and it truly created a deceptive appearance. At that moment, I had two strangers (to me) in the yard looking through my belongings and walking perilously close to the hazard. Me being me, I immediately grabbed an old chair, taped a sign on the front and back of it and put it literally over the hole. In the end, the only surprising outcome was that my mother was not injured (this time). We had a lovely sale, and no one was injured! This did get me thinking about how this wonderful summer tradition does create liability exposure that needs to be considered. I present for your consideration, the top 5 things you should think about when having a yard sale on premises that you own or control:

1. Be sure to inspect the totality of the premises. Don’t just look at the area where you know people will be. Assume people may be curious. Is that old grill sitting over near the side of your house, near the thorn bush? You might want to move it before folks wander over there and cut themselves. Perform a reasonable inspection of the premise.
2. If there is an area that is hazardous, be sure to either (a) remove it, or (b) clearly mark it. Don’t put your most popular items near that hole in the yard. Hazardous in this context isn’t just obvious hazards such as electricity, water, imperfections in yards and sidewalks. It could also be little things like roofing tacks in the yard, sudden changes of elevation, etc. It is not crazy to ask someone else to walk around with you and see if they see anything hazard. Anything that gets identified should be remedied in some manner.
3. Create a confined space to host people. Don’t allow for wandering by design. For example, at my sale, I had furniture inside that was too heavy to take outside. I put a sign outside and anyone who wanted to see it was escorted. This allowed me to explain any condition to the person inside my home (e.g. watch your head on that ceiling, etc.). It also should go without saying that this prevents people from stealing from your home or property.
4. Make sure you check all of your goods for sale to make sure they don’t create a condition. I have this crazy end table that the top completely, 100% comes off, often without warning. I made sure to offer it for sale without the top lying down as that would surely have fallen on someone’s foot. If you cannot reduce the risk of the property harming someone, either (a) don’t sell it, or (b) post a very obvious warning – “TOP FALLS OFF WITHOUT WARNING” is an example.
5. Don’t serve food and drinks unless they are prepackaged and unopened.  If you want to give out cans of soda, no problem. There is, however, no justifiable reason at a small family yard sale to sale or giveaway coffee, cake or anything else. There are many concerns including choking, nut and other allergies, temperature, foreign substances, poisoning, etc.

I sound like the King of No Fun Ever. I get that but you definitely don’t want to be on the receiving side of a civil Complaint for a sale that pocketed about $76.32. Just be smart, preemptive and prepared beforehand and communicative with your guests during and you can successfully continue to enjoy this awesome summer tradition!

WRITTEN BY STEVE A. BAKER, ESQUIRE Steve is a personal injury lawyer in Roanoke, Virginia. He has regularly represented people injured while shopping, being arrested, driving, riding in a car, and in many other situations. His practice is focused on getting clients maximum recovery for their injuries with a personal, kind, country touch.