If you go out for a meal with colleagues, family or friends, quiet often you are able to hang up your coat on a coat rack that is located away from your table. But what happens if your coat is stolen or another diner leaves with it by mistake? Who is liable? You or the restaurant? The Flemish hospitality industry association Horeca Vlaanderen says that If you hang your coat on a coat rack during a restaurant visit, it is you that remains responsible for your belongings. This is the case even if the restaurant staff hung your coat there for you. However, Horeca Vlaanderen’s CEO Matthias Decaluwé adds that “If someone from the restaurant takes your coat and hangs it up in a locked cupboard or cloakroom, then it's different”.
Recently Joke Kerkmans from the village of Stevoort, in Hasselt (Limburg province) dined with colleagues at a restaurant. At the end of the evening she discovered that another diner had taken her jacket home with them. Joke told her story to the VRT’s consumer team ‘WinWin’.
"When we arrived, our coats were taken at the door by restaurant staff and hung up on a coat rack. When I wanted to put my coat back on again it had disappeared”.
She left her phone number with the restaurant and contacted them a few days later, but her coat had not turned up. “The restaurant couldn't do anything for me and I never saw my coat again”.
Cloakroom is the safest option
But who is legally liable for the disappearance of Joke’s coat? The restaurant or Joke herself? Mathias Decaluwé is the CEO of the hospitality industry association Horeca Vlaanderen. According to him the owner of the coat remains responsible for it even if a member of staff from the restaurant took the coat and hung it on the coat rack.
“If you hang your coat up yourself on a communal coat rack, then clearly you remain responsible for it yourself. If someone from the staff takes your coat, it depends on where he or she hangs it. If it is in a locked cloakroom or cupboard, the restaurant will take custody of your belongings and they become responsible for your coat. If the staff member hangs the coat on a communal coat rack, then as a customer you remain responsible for it”.
That is what happened at the restaurant Joke visited. A staff member took her coat, hanging it up on a coat rack a little further down the restaurant. The rack was not enclosed and was accessible to everyone. Consequently, It was not the restaurant, but Joke that was responsible for the coat.
“This is why good communication with your customers is important. As a restaurant, it is best to indicate from the outset whether a coat rack or cloakroom is public or not. That way, customers can decide for themselves whether or not they want to put their coat there”.