Tradesman left item behind

[Teancake1]

I'd a tradesman working in my house for a week. On the last day I'd an appointment so left him to it. When I returned, I saw he'd forgotten a tool. I looked it up and it's valued about £250. I texted him straight away, he read it but no reply still after 12 days. We got on very well, chatted a lot, he volunteered a lot about his life and asked about mine, so no issues there. The job is also paid for and finished. It was sitting on the kitchen table. I'm not going to text again, I've done it once, but I'll keep it safe. AIBU not to contact again?

There was a news story today about tools being stolen and that they're expensive. So definitely tell him, when can you collect this, and take a screenshot of your chat for your records

Then box it up and stick in your loft x

There's a handyman that my landlord uses to fix numerous jobs on our house. Nice enough guy, but it's a running joke that he always leaves a spirit level/ hammer/ screwdriver here every single time.
I keep it in a safe place but only ever message once to say it's here. It's up to him to take more care of these things are of value.

Not bad, but I'd say "if I haven't heard from you by x date..."

Message him again. Perhaps attach a photo of the tool to draw attention to your message.

I work for a trade and myself and the tradespeople quite often get such a barrage of messages it's not unknown for some to be accidentally missed. It's especially tricky as the messages come from all different sources like email, WhatsApp, texts, voicemails, phone calls etc

If he's a gas engineer the colder weather will likely mean a huge number of messages right now. I'm sure he wants a £250 tool back so won't deliberately be not contacting you.

I’d message again tomorrow.
my husband is a tradesmen and it’s really easy to read a message in the middle of doing something and then think, I’ll get back to that. But then forget. It’s going to put you out to just send a reminder.

I will leave it for another few weeks i think and if I haven't heard coming up to Christmas, I'll text then.

Why not make a voice telephone call? Or are we not adult to do that anymore in a business context

But why should I have to contact him twice! It won't be going anywhere. He knows where it is. I'll text again but not right now as it's causing me no inconvenience and he obviously isn't in desperate need of it.

just pick up the phone and call him, if he doesn’t answer leave him a lighthearted message “hey Pete, just reminding you, you left a really nice cordless Dewalt screwdriver at my house. Are you coming for it or can I stick in my tool box for keeps?”

if he doesn’t come for it, you have your answer. I’d be hoping he doesn’t reply.

Just contact him again and put it in the garage out of the way for the time being.

Seems strange that he would not have replied to your message informing him that he left the tool behind. I'd text one more time.

You can say what you want. Off is regional or informal. No need to correct other adults in a non work/report writing situation.

OP wrap it up, put it in loft/storage somewhere and text again. For those saying dispose of it, you could only consider that after a verbal conversation and back up text. Otherwise it is theft. Good builders are hard to come by, just hold on to it.

This happened to me. I’ve got ladders which were left by the men who decorated the front of my house. They’re expensive as well - it’s been five years and they never returned.

Just send him a text today. Why wait weeks!! It’s like you haven’t read the replies for the people in the trade, who have said it’s easy to miss a message. It won’t kill you, it will take the same length of time as it did you to post the update.

Dear Dirk, you've left your massive tool chez moi - it's been on my mind for a while now. If you want it, I'm it's yours, please come and get it.

Just phone him and ask when he's coming to collect it.

I’d personally send one follow up message to ask if he wants to collect it and if he ignores you again, stick it on marketplace or something.

My plumber left a tool a couple of years ago - I messaged him and then forgot about it. When he came to look at the boiler a year later he remembered that he had left something , fortunately I had stuck it in the cupboard and could find it!

Keep it, he might want it back eventually! Does it take much space?

They were making it easy for one of their mates who's a burglar. My builder brother used to see you could tell if a tradesman was any good or not by the way he looked after his tools. Good tools are expensive (unless you buy stolen ones), one of the things you always do before leaving is check you've got everything, otherwise you do look a plonker when you get to the next job.

You know that "finders keepers" isn't really a thing in adult life?

This happened to me. A handyman left a plastic container with a big metal drill bit (very large, must have cost a lot). I texted him, emailed the business and left messages. One time, his boss replied to say he would remind him but it is still here 3 years later. No idea what to do with it - will probably take it to the recycling site. The handymen are based only about 4 miles away. It beats me how anyone can afford to abandon expensive parts so lightly; maybe their charges would be less if they didn't keep having to replace tools.

Don't just get rid of it as you might be acting illegally if you do. We often have similar threads here and it sounds to me (not a lawyer) that you might be considered an involuntary bailiff. If so, you have responsibilities and the law expects you to act within that.

Hang on to the tool, put it somewhere out of the way & safe then find out what to do.

I got a word wrong - bailee and not bailiff.

Ask AI/Google it. Make sure you've got the correct jurisdiction though.

Do not dispose of it.

might be better to leave voice mail? some folk don’t bother reading texts, especially regarding completed stuff.