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Enforcement Strategy

The Bureau of Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation (BHFTI) protects California consumers through enforcement of the Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation Act. Our comprehensive enforcement program ensures that businesses manufacture, sanitize, and sell home furnishings products to California consumers in accordance with the law. We strive to prevent consumer harm and take swift action when consumers are victimized in the marketplace. We meet this mandate through various proactive enforcement efforts, strong disciplinary actions, and adherence to our Principles of Enforcement.

Our proactive enforcement efforts encourage positive business practices that protect consumers. We work with industry associations, trade groups, and individual businesses to educate licensees on the laws and rules governing the manufacture and sale of home furnishings and thermal insulation products in California. An educated and informed industry enhances the BHFTI's ability to protect consumers.

We inspect manufacturing plants, importer warehouses, wholesale facilities, retail establishments, and sanitation processes to identify obvious or potential violations of the law. Inspectors are authorized to secure and ship products to our laboratory for compliance testing. In accordance with strict scientific standards, laboratory personnel conduct flammability and quality tests to determine if the product meets all applicable standards. Non-compliant products may pose a significant health and safety risk to consumers and, therefore, must be removed immediately from the retail chain of distribution. Our enforcement program minimizes the quantity of non-compliant products entering the marketplace and eventually into the homes of unsuspecting consumers.

The complaint investigation process provides added protection to consumers. We fully investigate all consumer complaints within our jurisdiction and take strong disciplinary action when we find violations. Depending on the severity of the violation and consumer risk, the Bureau uses several enforcement tools to compel compliance:

• Notices of Violation
• Office Conferences
• Administrative Citations
• Infraction Citations
• Telephone Disconnects
• License Revocations
• Statewide Withhold From Sale Orders
• Referrals for Criminal Prosecution