Trusting work people in your home...help!

[Theonlyfatmiddleagedwomannotonmonjaro]

We are about to commission a series of home improvement projects to our home. We both work full time.

Im.wondering how the hell do I trust these workman in my home unsupervised?
Do I install cameras?
The work wont be all be one job but will cover bedrooms and living areas overall.
I jave one room which is lockable and considering moving all valuablesnin there and locking it however, this i one room we will be having improved so will need to unlock it.
What do others people do? Do we just trust and hope or remove all valuables/private documents or what?
For context we live in a 3 bed 70s semi an no valuable jewellery etc butni have inherited some items of huge sentimental value.
I have been looking online at Eufry cameras. Is this over kill??
Also, for context...we have relocated in the last 18 months to a new area with jo long term contracts. We will be employing a small primarily 1 man workman with 2 "trusted staff" he uses occasionally. Found on FB but with a website with glowing reviews.

Any advice appreciated.

If you’re having to hide belongings because you’re worried about them being stolen, you shouldn’t be letting the people you’ve chosen into your home.

Or if you’re too worried about leaving them in the house alone, why have you chosen them?!

I do my own cleaning thanks and I dont use baby sitters that are not family. If I had a nanny or a regular cleaner over time we would build trust in the relationship. Truthfully the tradesmen have used I did not know from Adam! One subbed his work out to a guy i was not at all comfortable with. Why have you taken it so personally? I have never accused anybody of anything I just was more aware of what I left lying around! I assumed this would be common sense? People do steal, not everybody obviously but people do. I have been pickpockted, as has my mum. My friend used to steal money out her dad's pockets. Do you live on a different planet where things do not get stolen?

I dont know them! Oh my days. How can you know somebody from spending 10 minutes with them while they quoted the work!! Not everybody is able to use my mate bob the builder or a school friend who is a plumber!

I find the way people speak about trades pretty offensive particularly on this site. Always treated with suspicion as if they’ve got nothing better to do than to search underwear drawers or steal things.

Cleaners are always deemed untrustworthy too.

OP, I’d get some cameras. You can have the pointing at the exits and entrances of your house. I’ve got cameras. The record sound as well as video. You will be able to double check that the house has been locked up properly.
I think you are making a mistake letting people into your house without having any recommendations. Any reputable builder would be happy to give you details of former happy customers.
Have you got a proper contract with the builders? Are you paying in instalments, getting receipts, checking insurance etc etc.
I think you are sensible to consider the risk of theft. You would be daft not to.

Also, you should watch the episode where Jen has the builders in in the IT Crowd. If you are feeling annoyed about some of the ridiculous pompou posts on this thread then it might cheer you up.

I completely agree, I’d have a camera (hidden if necessary) without a second thought.

You are right to be cautious. I’m sure most workmen are trustworthy and do a professional job, but there’s always bad apples.

My brother had work done on his house and although he trusted the contractor he booked, they brought in several unknown sub contractors to do various jobs.

One of them went through the papers in his office drawer, copied bank statements, passport and other ID information and used it to carry out an identity fraud which led to them stealing £10,000 from his bank. Police were involved and the bank ended up refunding the money to him fortunately.

By all means lock away any valuables, but make sure that includes private paperwork as well. Better safe than sorry.

We’ve had lots of work done to the house over the years. Both work full time, always out of the house. It’s honestly never occurred to me to worry about this. Why do you think tradesmen want to steal?? Even if they did want to it would be spectacularly stupid as you would know who they are. If you don’t want tradesmen in your home don’t have home improvements done. Otherwise grow up and stop being ridiculous

We try not to leave any people unsupervised in the house for very long. This is not for reasons of security, as we have a trusted builder, who kindly shares known good contacts with us. Rather, not being there often leads to micro decisions being made without your input (e.g. precise siting ofa plug socket above a skirting board, exactly where to stop the tiling), that you have to live with the functional consequences of. Same applies for cleaners, until you've built up enough of a relationship that they know what jobs you care about and what you don't. We have a camera system for basic security, we don't use it to "spy on" trades, it's there to support deliveries and deter burglars.
We are however lucky to have jobs that enable flexible working and WFH when we need it (cuts both ways as there is weekend and away work too), but divide up the being at home piece. Otherwise you get lots of calls at work to agree something and/or tell you when something goes wrong (which happens, renovating a house inherently uncovers new unexpected stuff). Without this expect to be interrupted lots.
Only go off recommendations if remotely possible, join local Facebook groups or similar, don't use people who need to seek work via knocking on doors or dropping cards etc, the best people are booked up ages in advance so planning is essential (we're just finalising this year's plans for our two last rooms to undergo full renovation with trades).
Fundamentally trust is vital though, these are people who are helping you in shaping your home, and you need to use trades you trust.

I suggest that you or DH are in for at least half a day when the workmen start, preferably longer. Do the tea making and chatting, get to know them a bit. Say they are welcome to help themselves to drinks and biscuits when you're not there. Pop back occasionally at lunch time if that is practical. And remove your valuables to a safe place first. They are extremely unlikely to steal anything, they would be such obvious culprits apart from anything else.

I just made sure there were no wads of cash (not that I had much ha) lying around or jewellery. It wasn't that I didn't trust them, but put temptation in the way and.....

Other than that I just left things as they were. Documents were in a locked filing cabinet anyways.

You need to make sure they can contact you by phone as they will have questions as things arise, it will be very difficult if neither of you are ever there when they are working.

And to answer your question, I leave them a key, plenty of biscuits and tea and coffee and that's it on the days I'm not there

Year before last i saw a news report about a Peabody tenant who wondered why work on her home was taking so long. She had been decanted. She set up a camera which caught the contractor going through her knicker drawer. In the case of social housing tenants we have no choice about who we allow into our homes

I would take the valuable/sentimental stuff out. Maybe you could keep it at your parents house while the renovation stuff is done.

Alternatively you could consider putting things into storage, but make sure the insurance is up to it.

The problem is that if something does go missing then you pretty much have zero comeback. They claim they never took it and that you must have lost it. You have no proof either way, and still need to rely on them to finish the job.

My third bedroom/ study has a door lock. That bedroom/study has a built in cupboard with a door lock too. When I go away, or trades are in the house, it’s easy to lock everything precious or paperwork away.
Your trades won’t presumably be working in all rooms at all times? Just get a chippy in to put a lock on a door & shove stuff in that room. If trades need access later on in the contract, could you put stuff in the loft & put a bolt and padlock on the hatch?

Frankly I don’t blame you for being cautious. Do what makes you confident and comfortable.

I don't trust them totally so am always home when I have tradesmen in.

I live somewhere dodgy so can't trust them to keep the front amd back doors locked all the time. They usually waft off to their vans with the front door wide open and I have to keep shutting it. Does my head in.

I had two rings stolen by one of the removal men last time I moved house. One of them was quite valuable, but both were basically priceless in terms of their emotional value to me (they belonged to deceased family members). I had taken my jewellery box in the car with me, but he obviously came across it whilst moving things into the house and decided to help himself.

There is no way I would ever trust someone in my house again. I move all valuable/precious items out of if I have to have someone here.

We don't leave tradesmen unattended in the house when we have work done. Luckily we both work from home. My ex used to work for a company fitting burglar alarms and they were all light fingered. 😞

This. We had an extension done which took 6 months. Usually 3-4 builders in our house every day plus plasterers, electricians and plumbers. They had a spare key from day one and never gave a second thought to them stealing anything?! We also (shock horror) went on holiday for 2 weeks and left them to it.

My ex used to work for a company fitting burglar alarms and they were all light fingered. 😞

What a fucking awful and offensive comment.

I would definitely go for the camera option. I think it’s the sensible option for anyone you don’t personally know coming into your house. I think people almost expect cameras these days with ring doorbells, baby monitors, dog cameras etc. Most people have cameras in their home. Just make sure there is a sign outside your house stating there are cameras.

When we were selling our house our estate agent faked a viewing - phoned us with the feedback as well! Only trouble was our cameras showed that there was no viewing and he stood on the doorstep for 10 minutes alone with nobody arriving or leaving!. 🤷🏻‍♀️

When ours couldn't get in one day they took the French door off. I didn't like to ask how. I was a few minutes late back from school drop off and was expecting them to be put out by not being able to get in, but they said it was fine they let themselves in!

Same here. When we first bought our house, we had few possessions (just married) so it was easy to lock/hide away our few valuables, whilst we had tradesmen in for kitchen and bathroom replacements, re-wiring, new central heating etc., all of which we did within the first few months. We weren't bothered about leaving the workers in unsupervised as the house was a mess anyway and we had no valuables accessible. Next thing was new internal doors (the existing ones were cheap crap), and we got the joiner to put locks on them all. Then it was time for new windows, new external doors, decorating etc., and we simply locked the doors to rooms they didn't need to go in, so just moved our valuables/possessions around the house into the locked rooms.

It's not just the risk/temptation of theft, it's the mess they sometimes leave behind, so, for example, we lock our main bathroom so they have to use the downstairs loo. We've suffered a couple of neanderthal tradesmen who've left the loo in a terrible state, i.e. muddy/oily footprints on the loo seat (!) and another who wiped his arse with our towel(!) so they're not using the main bathroom!! Likewise another who brought his dog into the house so there was dog hair all over the rooms he was working in (!) and another who smoked in the house. If you're not there, you can't control what they do, but at least you can limit where they go by having internal door locks.

Yes, that annoys me too. I'm constantly having to remind them to close the doors. Fair enough at the start/end when they're coming and going constantly with their tools etc., but for most of the day, they're not constantly in and out yet still never think to close the door.

DH is a tradesman & a large amount of people just trust him with their spare set of house keys! But honestly accidents can happen so if it's sentimental & fragile then move it out of their way if possible in case of accidental damage/dust etc etc