Workman left ladders behind, what can/should we do with them?

JP1234

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We recently had a workman round doing some work on the roof. When he left, for some reason he left his ladders propped up against the wall. We took them down and folded them down as much as we could and left them at the side of the house, inside the gate.

I have telephoned and texted him numerous times to ask him to collect them, every time he says he will but never turns up. I have left the side gates open for him if I have to go out and have texted him to tell him this,so there is no way he could have turned up and not got to them.

My question is , what responsiblilty do we have for the safety/security of his belongings left on the premises. I don't particularly like leaving the gate open while the house is unoccupied ( been burgled previously before we had the gates), particularly while there are a set of ladders sitting there! I could put them outside the gate but again, do I really want people to see a set of ladders sitting there.

Delivering them back to him is not really an option, they are huge heavy things that need transporting properly.
 
The onus is on him to collect his ladders. Ring him, leave a voice mail if he doesn't answer, indicating to contact you first before he calls to collect them.

I would keep your gate locked & put the ladders around the back of the house. As mentioned, the onus is on him...
 
Send him a final notice that you will dump them or give to charity if not collected by some date. Or that you will leave them oustide the front walls of your house.

You have no responbility for his belongings as far as I am aware. I wouldn't be compromising by house security for someone like this.

You have been as accomodating as you can be.
 
That is incredible! Decent ladders are not cheap!

As Aristotle said give him an ultimatum, set a date and dump/sell/give away the ladders if the date is passed.

A few years ago I sold a 1M satellite dish in "Buy&Sell" and a German guy sent me the money without seeing it.
Three months later I still had it!! This was after many phone calls and txts.
Eventually I gave him an ultimatum, collect it or I'll dump it. He went ballistic, he even threatened the Gardai on me!
I couldn't believe his attitude, he said I had no right to throw out his property.
When I had stopped laughing, I stuck to my guns and told him "One more week or its gone".
He called 2 days later.

People will take advantage if you let them.
 
I agree, it's quite odd that he has just not collected them, they must be worth a lot! It's not like he is ignoring me either, he replies to all my texts and calls...just never turns up!

I am wary of leaving them outside the gate for 2 reasons, my main one being if someone was opportunistic enough to steal them, they could use them to burgle houses and secondly if the workman then tries to claim against us for them.

Off to send another text now....
 
Off to send another text now....

If you have a postal address for them, you'd be better sending them a letter confirming the details, and keep a copy. Say they're in your way you'll have to charge for storage.
 
Ladders are very useful for breaking into premises after the fact - not so much as an aid in themselves, although that too, but as an excuse for getting in over someone's wall when they are away.

I reported two likely lads getting over a back wall near us a few years ago - very suspiscious.
Police collared the pair who said they were "going back to get something they'd left behind".
Not taken and nothing provable, but leaving materials behind is very suspicious.


ONQ.
 
Leo - I have just emailed the company he works for ( not sure if he is an employee or sub contractor for them but he was in one of their vans!) to say one of their workmen has left ladders on our premises and that our house insurance would not cover them in the event of theft etc.

Onq - I am getting a bit suspicious as to why he just hasn't collected them...I can understand someone leaving behind a hammer or something easy to miss...but a set of trade roof ladders!
 
Leo - I have just emailed the company he works for ( not sure if he is an employee or sub contractor for them but he was in one of their vans!) to say one of their workmen has left ladders on our premises and that our house insurance would not cover them in the event of theft etc.

Onq - I am getting a bit suspicious as to why he just hasn't collected them...I can understand someone leaving behind a hammer or something easy to miss...but a set of trade roof ladders!

I think you've done the right thing - now let's see what develops and full marks for pointing out that your insurance didn't cover them. :)


ONQ.
 
Well I am not expecting anything to happen over the weekend, I am going to text him on Monday and say if they are not collected by Thursday we are going to dispose of them. I was thinking of giving them to a charity, something like The Warm Project.

It's a bit annoying that he thinks it is ok to just leave them here!
 
I thought that ladders were frowned upon and that for any height over 600mmm or so you should be using a "stand"?
 
I wonder if this is a regular occurence? Maybe he gets all of his customers to mind his ladders in between jobs.
 
You could bill them for storage, that might get them interested, a friend of mine was in a car accident and the garage billed him for storing the wrecked car even though the insurance company would not agree to release it for disposal.

On the letter say you will keep until x date (give them a week at least) & after that get rid. DoneDeal would work for that.
 
Finally collected...he was very apologetic and said he had expected me to sell them by now!
 
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