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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Handyman took my (old) stuff without asking...

78 replies

InAQuandry2019 · 03/10/2019 19:50

Last week a handyman chap we sometimes use for odd jobs etc came to fit a new stainless steel cooker hood as the motor had gone in the old one.

I bought the exact same model to make replacement easy (and so I wouldn't have to repaint Wink )

When I saw the finished job he'd replaced the triangular hood bit (with the motor in) but left the original stainless steel chimney bit as he said it was in good condition and made the job quicker. I said fine as it looked OK etc.

He left me the old cooker hood in the box from the new one and said 'that old one will need to go to the tip' and I said fine. (our council charges ££ for tradesman vans, so they prefer to leave stuff for householder to take in a car).

Thing is, I hate dumping stuff and prefer to offer on eBay or Freecycle as spares or repair, so today I got it out to photograph and found that the new chimney wasn't in the box, nor were the slide in filters for the
bottom of the hood. Hmm

I texted him and asked him if he 'left them' somewhere (our garage is a bit of jumble).

Him: I’ll have a check, I might of put them in my shed when I cleared out my car at the weekend!

Me: I'd like to put the whole thing on ebay/Freecycle

Him: I never throw any thing away - if and when I find them I let you know and drop them back.

Me: Well I would like them back. Please check and let me know.

HIm: I think I just said I would drop them back. They are no use to me and I just cleared them as I was tidying up. I just got home and will look in my shed tomorrow morning.

Me: Great, thanks.

AIBU to think he nicked them to sell on etc thinking I wouldn't notice, but now realises he's been rumbled?
Seems he went quite quickly from "I might have them" to "I just cleared them up" (if so, why not put them in the box with the rest of the old hood?)

OP posts:
SamBeckett · 04/10/2019 00:03

A friend had a similar situation some years ago , she was having her newly bought but very old house re-plumbed and a new kitchen fitted to make the whole job cheaper she had agreed to pay for the hire of a skip ( I think she was conned about this ) the workmen took out all the old pipes and to save filling the skip with scrap metal they would take the pipes away when she told me this I told her to tell them not to worry about filling the skip I knew someone with a van that would pick it up and dispose of it .
I sent said pal around he weighed it in and got almost £200 for it .
It was all lead

I recon your handy man was on to the same kind of scam and hoped you would not notice so he cold flog it

SamBeckett · 04/10/2019 00:04

could flog it

butterandbread · 04/10/2019 00:19

So he took the new parts, OP, not anything that he’d removed/was old?

SilverChime · 04/10/2019 00:32

It’s obvious he stole it. Nobody takes away a chimney by accident. Or puts it in their shed by accident. He’s a thief and I wouldn’t hire him again.

MaxiPaddy · 04/10/2019 06:38

He's a thieving fucker. Get your stuff back and don't let him back in your house.

Thehop · 04/10/2019 06:46

Also, his reply was rude.

Freaking0ut · 04/10/2019 06:51

We had this when we were having our new kitchen fitted. We had quite a large piece of beautiful wooden worktop left over and it just disappeared. I asked a few times where it was and the builders made some vague noises about putting it in their van but we never saw it again. I was a bit younger then and less confident but I’d love to meet the fuckers now 👊

AmIThough · 04/10/2019 06:53

He did take them, probably to reuse, which was cheeky/wrong.
But he did say he'd drop them back then you sent him another shitty message.

I think you're both unreasonable.

Icantthinkofanewname87 · 04/10/2019 06:54

I think you were quite rude to him and if you’re putting them on freecycle anyway it was unnecessary.

henchmen33 · 04/10/2019 07:15

I don't understand why you are happy for someone else to have them for free but not the workman who has done other jobs for you too? Wtf? Expect he will remember this.

InfiniteSheldon · 04/10/2019 07:20

So you want to give it away for free but not to the man who did the work is he not deserving enough or do you need to receive some sort of good will credit for giving things away? Generally I agree with making sure tradesmen only take away things I don't want to use or sell but if you don't want it and are intending to give it away for free why do you care?

DameXanaduBramble · 04/10/2019 07:23

Why cant he have them if you’re freecycling anyway?

seaweedandmarchingbands · 04/10/2019 07:24

He shouldn’t have taken it without asking. However, I would let him keep it if I was just going to freecycle it, and just be happy it was out of my hair. I wouldn’t waste his time and petrol money bringing it back. With those messages he is probably rolling his eyes pretty hard, to be honest.

Bluntness100 · 04/10/2019 07:28

I'm also unsure if you wish to freecycle why he can't have them?

Namechangeforthiscancershit · 04/10/2019 07:39

It sounds much easier for him to take it than to both with the Freecycle madness!

Sewbean · 04/10/2019 07:42

He can't have them because he took them without asking. That's cheeky.
If he'd asked I bet OP would have let him have them to save herself the trouble.
But you can't just take things and hope no-one notices. To take the new stuff and leave the old stuff just makes it worse.

amiapropermum · 04/10/2019 07:46

Fine if he'd asked and OP said he could have it. Taking stuff without asking isn't on

Hwory · 04/10/2019 07:46

The OP wants to give it to someone who needs it. Her handyman has stolen it to profit from it. Different situation.

seaweedandmarchingbands · 04/10/2019 07:53

He can't have them because he took them without asking. That's cheeky.

I agree. There was another thread yesterday where I made the same point and got jumped on. 😂

But for me, personally, I wouldn’t bother asking for it back now. Saves me trouble.

TheresAFuckOverThere · 04/10/2019 07:53

The OP wants to give it to someone who needs it. Her handyman has stolen it to profit from it. Different situation.

The only difference is give and stole
Anyone can have anything on freecycle, you have no ide what someone wants something for

AngusThermopyle · 04/10/2019 07:55

Maybe he mistook what you said to assume he would take it to the tip, but then may or may not have.

"He left me the old cooker hood in the box from the new one and said 'that old one will need to go to the tip' and I said fine. "

cathyno5 · 04/10/2019 08:09

I honestly couldn't get worked up about something like this. You're going to give it away anyway. If the handyman is someone you use regularly why bother upsetting him.

Namechangeforthiscancershit · 04/10/2019 08:22

The OP wants to give it to someone who needs it. Her handyman has stolen it to profit from it. Different situation

No one has any idea who actually needs anyone on Freecycle. It's not like people turn up with all their bank statements

Namechangeforthiscancershit · 04/10/2019 08:22

Anything! Anyone would be weird...

Waspnest · 04/10/2019 08:35

The OP says Ebay or Freecycle so why are people assuming that her priority is to give the chimney to somebody who needs it for free? She's said she just doesn't like dumping stuff that may still be useful.