am I responsible
 

ok so I had a workman (he also works for me as a driver)at a house of mine painting and chucking out rubbish
so after 10 weeks I say ok thanks for your help ill finish it from here , pls take your tools

he was offended as I was getting in a better painter and decorator to finish the house, he also seemed offended I asked him to take his tools

he said he hadn't finished doing a job in the garden I said its ok ill get it done
he said he didn't have the chance to get his tools out straight away , I said ok leave them there until you can collect them...so he takes all tools a day later but leaves the ladders in the garden

ok so 15 days later he rings me up ranting, hes been to the house and his ladders are gone....supposedly worth £200 extendable ladders 24 foot at full length

hes now trying to claim I am responsible and should buy him £200 ladders as ive had workmen there.....

so am I responsible or is he?

Tell him to do one, fecking chancer

You're not responsible, he left them there unattended, its not your responsibility to look after them, I bet he has the ladders but is trying to con you.

I wouldn't imagine you're responsible but I couldn't say for sure where you'd stand legally :think:

If say I owned a shop and someone came in and dropped their phone without knowing and someone took it, would I be responsible?

Well, that's a different situation completely Mitchell

From what you say in your posts,you should be okay, he should have asked you if the ladders could have been put somewhere safe until he got back for them.

If he left the ladders outside, then it is his bad luck someone grabbed them.
You allowed him to leave his tools, then his ladders again after getting his tools, you have done more than you needed to, you could have insisted on all being removed the day he was stopped from doing any more work.
You accommodated him, it is his fault for not securing things, I guess he would be expected to put this down to experience.

Good luck.

This is what it says on the Citizens advice website :

Do you have a responsibility to look after the goods?

Your responsibility to look after goods left with you depends on whether you have a contract with the trader who left them.

If you have a contract with the trader for goods left behind, you are responsible for looking after the goods with a reasonable degree of care. This means you should take care to ensure the goods are not lost, damaged or stolen. If anything happens to the goods you may be deemed to have been negligent.

You could be liable to pay the trader compensation if you were negligent and something happened to the goods that you could have foreseen.

If you don’t have a contract with the trader for the goods left behind, you should look after them as if they were your own. This is a lower standard of responsibility than if you had a contract.

For example, if a builder leaves scaffolding poles in your garden that they should have taken away, you are not responsible for making sure the poles do not go rusty.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/co...oods-with-you/

I was going to ask how he'd been in touch and if he'd rung you. :laugh: I would tell him to take me to Court, but then again, if he still has the ladders, he might climb them and take you to High Court. :hehe:

Seriously though, LT's advice is sound because, No - you are not at fault.

I would imagine as the job had finished and he was no longer in your employ then the ladders revert to his responsibility. Had he left them in the house and you put the out in the garden you would be liable but as he left them there and did not collect them, I would imagine he hasn't a leg (or ladder -sorry) to stand on.

Was this job a "cash in hand" job? If so I don't think he can have a case at all as he has carried out the work illegally anyway.

Oh yeah that's a very good point actually

:fist: I'l do the jokes Annie. :hehe::kiss:

How about if I run a shop, the owner left the dog outside the shop (still on my grounds), tied up whilst she bought some products from my store and then someone came and took the dog whilst she was in the shop, would that be my fault as I should've been looking after it?

You gave him a chance to get his stuff off your property, you were even flexible enough to agree to him returning 24 hours later to collect his things. Unless you had a prior separate agreement regarding the ladders, they are his responsibility.

Still a different situation, anyway I don't know why you're so hell bent on catching me out when I clearly said I didn't know where he would stand legally......... I did post an answer from the Citizens advice agency though

What a ladder rubbish. He should take steps to ensure his goods are safe. He is completely in the rung.

Heh, I reckon I'm getting good at this.

I think you need to step out of this thread tbh :idc:

Thrash it out on Judge Rinder if all else fails ! I don't think you are responsible at all for these ladders.

I'm unsure if I belong here too, but I'm taking it one step at a time for now.

Oh no I'm not trying to catch you out Niamh, I don't know what the purpose was, but it wasnt that or anything to really do with you :love:

I'm not a lawyer and I don't have an in depth knowledge of the law so whilst I didn't think he would be responsible, that is only my opinion based on nothing other than what I think would be right that's why I said I didn't know where he would stand legally :laugh:

It's OK to pull Niamh's pigtails. It says so somewhere in the forum rules.

Infract his sorry arse, Bold Niamh.

Just a pinky finger

I might infract you all (except Livia of course)