Soldato
Has anyone left stuff there before that despite not being broken or old, would be considered unwanted>?
People I paid to clean my flat took my posessions
- Thread starter HaX
- Start date
Has anyone left stuff there before that despite not being broken or old, would be considered unwanted>?
im well undecided on this topic.
In one view, they are there to bin everything that is not furniture in there, all items regardless are therefore designated for destroying.
But this item was taken away from the flat and not destroyed, meaning the contract was not completed and nor was the contract followed.
But in the other hand, if I was a cleaner on a cleaners wage and I saw that (i know they are worth a bit of money), I would have done the same thing of taken it.
You are very lucky they owned up to they had it and have returned it.
If it was me, I would have told my boss exactly what is stipulated in the contract "its destroyed/in the bin".
In one view, they are there to bin everything that is not furniture in there, all items regardless are therefore designated for destroying.
But this item was taken away from the flat and not destroyed, meaning the contract was not completed and nor was the contract followed.
But in the other hand, if I was a cleaner on a cleaners wage and I saw that (i know they are worth a bit of money), I would have done the same thing of taken it.
You are very lucky they owned up to they had it and have returned it.
If it was me, I would have told my boss exactly what is stipulated in the contract "its destroyed/in the bin".
Man of Honour
I think the very fact that the worker straight away admitted to having it means they had no idea it was worth anything and just thought it was a toy that was destined for the bin anyway. If there was any malice they would have just denied noticing it and said everything went in the bin.
Soldato
If you were a cleaner on a cleaners wage, but knew the box was valuable, i would be doubtful you would tear the box open and devalue the mint condition item.
The value of item shouldn't really come into context here. likely the cleaner did not know it and its real worth would not be betrayed by the fact OP left it there for what they would see as 'to be thrown'.
In fact you can safely assume his reaction will be 'You're disciplining me for opening a toy train box, that was left in the house and was going to go in the bin anyway? Are you insane?'
Soldato
Depends how knowledgeable the person is, but model railway stuff is massively expensive these days. Last time I thought about reviving a small layout, just buying one loco and a couple of coaches or a 2 car DMU was way over £100. Back in the day, I remember buying Lima Mark One coaches in Beatties for around £5 each.
So yes, very valuable and very collectible too.
you seem to have skimmed it again, I'll quote the second line for you to read a third time and highlight it in bold for you
getting another company in was conditional on telling the original company to go back and rectify it first
and yes, if someone steals something from you then you can report it to the police
Perhaps if it was a low value item left discarded on the floor but not something in a draw still in its box and interesting enough to them that upon discovering it they didn't throw it away but decided to keep it for themselves. Items in a draw are quite likely to be items accidentally left behind and we're not talking about an odd sock here. They know it doesn't belong to them, they know it isn't rubbish and they know who's flat it is... it is quite easy to put it to one side and mention they found something belonging to him.
Taking something that you know belongs to someone else and keeping it for yourself is theft. Even stealing rubbish or taking things out of a skip parked on someone's drive is illegal so even though the 'I thought it was rubbish' excuse is rather dubious in the first place given the item wasn't thrown away it doesn't work anyway in this instance.
It is perfectly possible that they can know or suspect it is worth something but be completely ignorant of the fact that un-boxing it destroys value. Likewise someone may know an old coin could have value but not know that cleaning it up a bit can destroy some of that value.
Soldato
Is taking someones rubbish theft if you have been paid by them to dispose and clear the contents of their flat after they move out?
I am doubtful of any ill intent from the cleaners. Something forgotten in a draw could just as easily be something unwanted tucked out of sight due to being too lazy to bin.
As far as I understand it, yes. (and to be picky - he hasn't paid them to dispose of rubbish, he paid them to clean and was supposed to have an empty flat in order for them to do this) But I'd be highly skeptical, due to their action, that they believed it was rubbish. They'd have to be pretty stupid to assume that and ought to have contacted the OP. The fact they took it home rather than disposing of it indicates they knew it had some value.
Soldato
Like i said earlier, rather than rubbish it likely seemed unwanted. With Christmas coming and a low wage, it wouldn't surprise me if they thought 'a waste to bin it, ill open it and have a look to see if its something i can give to a kid'.
I think OP should focus more on the sub par cleaning more than the 'theft'. He has gotten it back if there was ill intent and his gripe should be with whoever recommended the cleaners if it was the agency/landlord, as they can be held somewhat accountable for their recommendation.
I think OP should focus more on the sub par cleaning more than the 'theft'. He has gotten it back if there was ill intent and his gripe should be with whoever recommended the cleaners if it was the agency/landlord, as they can be held somewhat accountable for their recommendation.
Man of Honour
edit: nvm
Soldato
And if you leave something in a flat and ask for it to be emptied, someone else takes this 'rubbish' then gives it you back when you say it wasn't meant to have been left, you call the police? Ha ha, they would love you...
Soldato
You're forgetting the part where they "owned up" straight away. If they were intending to "steal" it, then they could easily have just said "it's in the rubbish" and the OP would have been none the wiser.
Soldato
just trying to put in some defense to these cleaners as if anyone remembers me they'll know i run a company that does exactly this.
if they had left it, the chances are they'd be told off for leaving someone elses junk in the property. It's ridiculous. Customer leaves stuff, cleaners get told off for not removing it. I'm not just talking about clear waste, but items like this where it seems so obvious that it'd want to be kept. But you get it all the time. After emptying 99% of the house, some reason people just lose interest of the last 1% and will leave all sorts of stuff they can't be bothered to move. If you're cleaning 3/4 properties a day 5 days a week, at least 3/4 will have stuff left in it that 99% of the time you're told to chuck because the customer just decided removing their rubbish was now our job.
yes it's wrong that the cleaners took it, but the alternative is pretty much to either 1) leave it and more likely get told off, 2) put it in the bin and either it go unnoticed or get told off for not putting the food contents into the food bin , the plastic in the plastic bin etc. or 3) keep it if it's only going in the bin any way. Perhaps the better idea would have been for them to wait a week and make sure it's definitely not wanted before opening it.
He didn't ask for it to be 'emptied' he employed some company to clean it and clearly forgot to empty a draw
I'm not forgetting that at all it doesn't really matter. They took the item and it didn't belong to them.
Or maybe just make a quick call to the person who is handing over upwards of £100 for them to be there in the first place. 'Hi we've found some of your property in one of the drawers - it is model railway related.'
We're not talking about odd socks here and it was something in still in the original box a draw that quite clearly could have been overlooked not stuff discarded by the bin/thrown on the floor.
Man of Honour
He asked for it to be cleaned, they told him to make sure the place was empty. I'd say from that and I'm sure most people would agree that anything left behind was therefore rubbish and to be disposed of.
You keep saying "clearly", well it's not really is it because it could also be "clear" that anything left behind after being told to make sure it's empty is no longer wanted.
OP can raise both points, it isn't like he only has to deal with one. They likely knew it wasn't rubbish and should have called the OP. They likely thought he'd forgotten about it.