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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:
Potnoodledoo · 04/10/2019 08:47

I would get it back from the handyman on principle.As it wasnt his too take.

What the op wants to do with it,is not here nor there.

JacquesHammer · 04/10/2019 09:03

I’d be quite glad he’d saved me some time or effort to be honest.

WizardOfAus · 04/10/2019 09:06

No one is going to buy that online, anyway. He’s done you a favour.

Usernamewillautodestrustin · 04/10/2019 09:09

This happened to my friend. She had new laminate floors fitted, the packs were relatively expensive and she purposely bought more than needed so that she would do the downstairs toilet at a later date.

Once finished she noticed that all of the packs were gone. She knew that even with over use there should have been at least 8 packs left. She called the handyman and he made some excuse about not realising one of his lads had put them in the van.

He brought them back with more excuses but she has not used him since. Didn't help he had mentioned how the flooring would look nice in his dining room!!

AlexaAmbidextra · 04/10/2019 09:18

Slightly different but I had my en-suite retiled. The tiles were expensive and apparently were hard to cut necessitating a special blade. When I came to pay the bill the tiler said it had increased from the quote he had given as he had to buy a this special cutting tool. As I was being charged for it that made it mine didn’t it? He was quite miffed and thought he should keep it.

AmIThough · 04/10/2019 09:23

@AlexaAmbidextra I agree with you, what a CF! Surely he should've had the tool anyway but if you're paying for it it's yours.
Did he remove the cost from your invoice?

Waspnest · 04/10/2019 09:24

The bit that would annoy me is that he deliberately left the part that he knew was only good for the tip but took the bit that had some value and then lied by saying they are no use to me and I just cleared them as I was tidying up. Why did he take the part if he couldn't take it to the tip and if he had no use for it? In Op's position if he'd asked I'd have let him have it for free, (couldn't be arsed with Ebay or Freecycle) but the not asking would piss me off.

It would put me off using him again, I want to be able to trust relative strangers that I let into my house.

WitsEnding · 04/10/2019 09:24

If he had taken the old chimney as well I would have put up with that, but as things are I think you did the right thing, OP.

WitsEnding · 04/10/2019 09:25

X-post with Waspnest who put it much better than I did!

Waspnest · 04/10/2019 09:29

Yours was snappier though!

Original poster
InAQuandry2019 · 04/10/2019 09:35

Thanks for responses. I know it's not a massive deal, but the reasons I think I'm annoyed about this:

Given that he took the new cooker chimney I no longer believe what he said about the old one being too difficult to fit Hmm.

JacquesHammer He hasn't saved me time or effort. He took the useful bits leaving me the job of disposing of the old hood, which without all the parts, can only go to the tip (40 min round trip)

WizardOfAus - that's not true, that nobody would buy it. With all the parts, someone handy could just replace the motor for about £60 and have a 'new' cooker hood instead of forking out £180 for a brand new one. I've seen similar sell for about £50-£60 on eBay. The filters alone sell for about £10 each.

To be honest, if he'd said "do you want me to get rid of the old one for you?" I WOULD probably have said yes, but it's the fact that he stripped it of all the useful/ valuable parts and left me the job of disposing of the rest.

How were my messages rude? I was just making it clear I DID want them back.
He didn't even say 'sorry, I didn't think you'd want them, so took them' but instead did the classic male panic/deny/dismiss response:
e.g.

  • I might have them (they might have accidentally made it into my shed)
  • If I find them, I'll let you know and drop them off
  • They're no use to me... (why put them in your shed then Hmm?)

Grr. I'm also sad that I now feel I can't trust him and I'll have to find someone else to do our jobs!

OP posts:
Original poster
InAQuandry2019 · 04/10/2019 09:36

oh - xposted with Waspnet, who articulated it perfectly Smile

OP posts:
TheSecretJeven · 04/10/2019 09:47

Something similar happened when the church that my parents attended had some work done. There was an old cast iron boot scraper, the sort that you see outside stately homes, by the door. When they had some building work carried out, the scraper disappeared. My Mum asked the builders about it and they said that they 'had thought that they could get get rid of that old thing for you' (without asking Hmm). A day later, it was back in place.

AmIThough · 04/10/2019 09:50

@InAQuandry2019 can the scrap man take the hood?

Original poster
InAQuandry2019 · 04/10/2019 09:53

AmIThough No scrapman around here - a 40 min round trip to the municipal tip + queuing time (it's always busy)

OP posts:
SciFiRules · 04/10/2019 09:57

I'd let this go to be honest. You wanted a hood fitted and it is. Making a fuss over something of no use to you seems odd.

JacquesHammer · 04/10/2019 10:01

He took the useful bits leaving me the job of disposing of the old hood, which without all the parts, can only go to the tip (40 min round trip)

Call the council bulk collection?
Break it and put it in the bin?

Obviously you're not unreasonable if you're bothered - it just seems way more effort to actually get it back and then start trying to get rid of it.

Original poster
InAQuandry2019 · 04/10/2019 10:08

SciFiRules - did you read my post?

As result of him nicking the useful parts I now have to spend an hour on a trip to the tip, rather than having someone collect from my house (ebay/freecycle).

He may also be profiting from about £50 in selling them - which would have been mine, if I'd sold it, and would have covered the cost of the fitting in the first place.
Also, someone may have been able to get a cooker hood cheaply and no scrap metal would end up at the tip.

OP posts:
Original poster
InAQuandry2019 · 04/10/2019 10:11

JacquesHammer

  • way too big for bin and can't be broken up
  • council charges for bulk collection c. £20-£25 iirc

He only lives a couple of miles away, so it's more efficient to get it back than do the trip to the tip.

OP posts:
OrchidInTheSun · 04/10/2019 10:11

No, OP, it appears that most people who reply on AIBU have limited reading comprehension.

I wouldn't let this go. He's a bloody thief

JacquesHammer · 04/10/2019 10:15

He only lives a couple of miles away, so it's more efficient to get it back than do the trip to the tip

Is it scrap metal? Pop a post on local FB group it will be gone within the hour.

Either way it’s clear you want to make a point so hope you manage to get it back without too much effort.

keepingbees · 04/10/2019 10:16

Yanbu as he shouldn't have taken them, but I wouldn't imagine he'd get much for them and they are probably not worth his while selling on so maybe a genuine mistake? If your chimney bit is like mine it's just a metal shell that covers the extractor pipe, so nothing valuable unless he was going to use it for another job of course.
But you are fully within your rights to ask for them back.

StoppinBy · 04/10/2019 10:19

He was very much trying to pull a swifty on you - the cheek of telling you the old one didn't need replacing then taking it with him and leaving you with the rubbish. On principle yes I would insist on it's return and never hire him again.

JemSynergy · 04/10/2019 10:33

My electrician used to do this all the time. He would also email me things I needed to buy and then use them on other jobs. I soon realised and got rid of him.

SilverChime · 04/10/2019 10:37

TheSecretJeven that’s shocking. Stealing from the church!!

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