Still have work Laptop after redundancy

jemsy14

Hi,
I was made redundant last October from a company that had a UK arm that now no longer exists. I was told in August and our office was gotten rid of the same month so we worked from home for the final few months.
I was told to take home a company laptop and as I had a few catch ups during september/october with my old boss he said to give it back when my employment finished.
However I still have the laptop and no one has arranged to get it back off me.
The company are now only based abroad and they were very late paying invoices and final wages so there is no way I am paying to send it back out of my own pocket.
I was thinking of selling it - does anyone know my rights or if they could come after me for it?
Thanks in advance

elsien

You can't sell it - it's not yours and there was always the expectation that you'd return it. Them being delayed in making some payments doesn't alter that.
I'd contact them and ask them to arrange to pay for the return. If they decide it's not worth the effort and they tell you to keep it then you can sell it if you wish.

jemsy14

Thanks for you advice.
The thing is I don't actually have any contact details for anyone anymore?

custardy

No way would I sell it.
If they come knocking and you are held for the full retail,then what?
As said,contact them and see what they say. If they have no UK sites anymore then theirs a good chance they will write it off.

jemsy14

thanks I will see if there is a contact I can find online for them.
Thanks

IAmWales

jemsy14 wrote: »

Thanks for you advice.
The thing is I don't actually have any contact details for anyone anymore?

You don't have a number for your old boss? Even if he doesn't work there he'll no doubt know who to contact.

Does the company have an online presence? I find it difficult to believe that you have no way of contacting a multinational company.

jemsy14

it wasn't a multi national company just a small business that was mainly based abroad but tried to make it in the uk.
I will try emailing his personal account and see if he knows thanks

lincroft1710

If a company had neglected to give me contact details, I would wait for them to contact me. I would not be chasing around trying to find contact details for them.

getmore4less

Just sit on it or use it as your own, selling is just too risky in case someone wakes up.

I suspect all UK inventory has been recovered/sold/written off and they have moved on so you won't here anything.

If you are really desperate you need the person that wound down the UK operation and find out what they did with the UK assets.

Mr.Generous

I would format it, re-install windows and use it or donate it. I wouldn't normally but in the circumstances they will have written off a lot more stuff than a second hand laptop closing a uk operation. If someone did come back to you - and how likely is it? - then I'd just say I handed it in at my last meeting / gave it to xxx (person made redundant also), but come on, unless its worth thousands they really are not going to be least bit concerned, and once the Uk operation has been closed they are not going to be looking at old stuff.

badmemory

I would doubt the financial viability of returning this to a company that does not have an address in the UK. Which is another way of saying it would cost more for them to have collected than it is worth. I certainly wouldn't pay for the return myself as the chance of getting the carriage refunded is very slim.