Dry cleaning

Dry cleaners provide a valuable service to people across Australia. They:

• treat
• clean
• restore
• maintain clothes and other textiles with specific care requirements, for example, silk, leather and suede.

Caring for your clothing and textiles

Care instructions

All clothing and most textile items sold in Australia must have a label attached detailing the care instructions for the item. This is called ‘care labelling.’

These instructions should include:

• prohibited treatments and warnings
• washing instructions
• drying instructions
• ironing instructions
• dry cleaning instructions.

Before taking your item to be dry cleaned, make sure it is the right way to care for it.

Preventing further problems

There are a few things that both you and your dry cleaner can do to ensure that problems do not occur such as:

• making sure cleaning is done in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions outlined on the care label
• if you insist an item be dry cleaned, despite the advice of the dry cleaner, ensure the dry cleaner notes this on the docket, and you should acknowledge it
• prior to dropping in the garment, all pockets should be checked to ensure that there are no foreign objects that may spoil the cleaning process
• examining the item carefully with the dry cleaner and noting any damage, for example, cloth blemishes, fading or tears on the docket
• keeping your dockets and receipt in case a problem occurs in future.

Your consumer rights with dry cleaning

Under Australian Consumer Law, most products or services bought in Australia after 1 January 2011 come with automatic consumer guarantees that the product or service you purchased will:

• be of acceptable quality
• be fit for a particular purpose
• match the description, or sample or demonstration model.

The remedy if something goes wrong with your dry cleaning

The remedy when things go wrong will depend on whether the problem is major or minor.

You are entitled to an appropriate remedy from the business when the product or service you purchased does not meet one or more of the consumer guarantees.

This might be:

• a refund
• cancellation
• replacement
• further service to rectify the problem
• reimbursement for damages and consequential loss in some cases.

The remedy will depend on whether the problem is:

• a major problem, or
• a minor problem.

You can find out more by visiting our repairs, replacements and refunds page.

If your garment or item is lost or damaged

If the dry cleaner has damaged your garment or item, it is considered a major problem, and they should compensate you for it. The compensation will be based on the age and condition of the article. If the pants are damaged from a set, the dry cleaner might need to replace the full set as a reasonable settlement.

Sometimes the items are lost or incorrectly given to the wrong person. If the item cannot be recovered, the dry cleaner will be responsible to reasonably compensate you.

There might be a manufacturing fault or failure of a component, for example incorrect stitching, faulty dyes, faulty or broken buttons which has caused the dry cleaning process to damage the garment, in which case the garment should be referred to the retailer or manufacturer for help.

Making a complaint

If you’re unable to resolve the matter with the business, contact the Dry cleaning Institute of Australia (DIA) on 1300 134 511. The DIA handles consumer complaints for member companies and can give you advice.

If you cannot resolve your matter, submit your complaint by using our form.

Make a complaint

By mail

Post your complaint form and documentation to: 

NSW Fair Trading

PO Box 972 

Parramatta NSW 2124 

Ask a question 

If you are unable to find the information you need, you can call us between 8:30am to 5pm on Monday to Friday. You can also use our form to make an enquiry. 

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