A courier deciding, on their own, that your bin or an open porch counts as a "safe place" is different — legally — from you choosing that location yourself. The difference decides who bears the loss if it's stolen.
The Distinction That Actually Matters: Who Chose the Location
Building on Section 29 CRA 2015's core rule — risk stays with the trader until physical possession — the specific question with "safe place" deliveries is whether depositing the parcel there genuinely counts as achieving physical possession on your behalf. That turns heavily on whether you explicitly designated the location yourself, during checkout or via the courier's tracking portal, versus the courier unilaterally deciding somewhere looked safe enough.
If you selected "leave in the blue shed behind the garden gate" and the courier delivered exactly there, that generally does complete delivery under Section 29 — risk transfers to you at that point. If the courier instead left it in a location you never chose or agreed to — a bin, an open porch in full view of the street, a communal hallway with no restricted access — that's a unilateral decision by the courier, not something that satisfies the retailer's delivery obligation to you.
Why Bins and Communal Areas Are Particularly Weak Ground for the Retailer
Leaving a parcel inside a wheelie bin or in a publicly accessible communal hallway falls well short of the standard of reasonable care expected in fulfilling a delivery obligation — a bin is designed for waste collection, not secure storage, and an item damaged by refuse collection or stolen from an unrestricted communal area is a foreseeable, preventable outcome, not a freak accident. A retailer can't credibly claim the item was "safely delivered" in either scenario.
What to Do If This Happens
- Check whether you actually selected a specific safe place during checkout or via the courier's delivery options — if you did, and the courier used a different, unauthorized location instead, that's a further point in your favor.
- If no safe place was ever specified by you, state this explicitly when raising the issue — don't let the retailer assume you agreed to whatever location the courier chose.
- Photograph the delivery location if you can (e.g. the bin, the exposed porch) as evidence of how exposed or inappropriate it was, if you're disputing after the fact.
- Request a full refund or replacement from the retailer directly, citing that delivery to an unauthorized location does not satisfy their obligation under the Consumer Rights Act.
- If the retailer insists you pursue the courier instead, this is the same misdirection covered by Section 29 — your contract is with the retailer, not the courier.
Related Kibbo Tools
Sources
- Citizens Advice — If your parcel is stolen. citizensadvice.org.uk
- Legislation.gov.uk — Consumer Rights Act 2015, Section 29. legislation.gov.uk