Money Moral Dilemma: Should I keep the money my plumber would have made from selling my old taps?

GDB2222

RedbullRJ said:

As previously stated bizarre circumstances:
  I would say as an retired gas installer, it is normal for the installer to remove and dispose of all rubbish, waste, scrap and old fittings.  The quote should state the installer is responsible to remove all of these things and legally and safely dispose of them.  If the customer wants to dispose of the rubbish and/or the scrap copper/brass or keep the old fittings, then the quote would be made on this basis and the price agreed accordingly.  If the installer takes the time to carefully remove the existing fittings so they can be sold, or separates copper and brass to be sold as scrap, taking these from them, is equivalent to them leaving you all the rubbish and waste at the end of the job, having agreed they will take it away.
  

I agree. The householder selling taps that belong to the plumber and keeping the proceeds is clearly theft. I doubt that the police would get involved, but it is ridiculous to suggest that there is any moral dilemma here, as theft is almost universally frowned upon.

Of course, this depends on the contract with the plumber, which has not been detailed. This makes the question asked doubly daft, as there is insufficient detail to answer it properly. Sending people off on a wild goose chase in this way is very poor, and I would expect better as this thread originated from MSE. 

pollypenny

PS123 said:

Unless you agreed for the plumber to sell them advertising your home address for collection then they are your taps and your money.  Besides most plumbers and I mean most plumbers will find a way to rip you off.  Where are the honest tradesmen?

Very harsh and totally untrue in my experience. Before he retired our plumber was the brother in law of a friend. Now our plumber is an ex-pupil of mine and a member of our rugby club. The plumber who fitted our new boiler as part of our kitchen refit turned out to be the son of an old neighbour.  

Re dilemma - it's odd that the taps were advertised under your address. As for selling stuff, perhaps he was covering fees for the council dump. Just speak to the plumber. 

Beauborg

I’m surprised no one has asked whether the plumbing job has been completed.  Has the plumber finished the job, taken his tools, cleaned up after himself and been paid?  If not, you need to have a conversation with him when he returns, perhaps expressing concern that he advertised your address without permission.  If the plumber had finished and gone, I would consider the transaction complete and take the view that he left the taps and therefore didn’t want them - it seems bizarre that he expected you to carry out a sale of “his” goods on his behalf, deal with the customer, handle the cash and then contact him with a view to passing on the money. 

KarateMan

I wonder if the plumber was trying to avoid breaking Coronavirus tier rules of having tap purchasers come to his house, but hoping  he was on site when the purchaser turns up at the posters house. Not only cheeky to advertise their address but they have now handled money from a complete stranger that could have Covid.
If it hadn’t been agreed beforehand to sell the taps and advertise the address, I would be keeping that money as compensation.

HazelB01

The taps are still on your property which means they still belong to you, whatever has been arranged between yourself and the plumber beforehand. If he has been so daft to sell them and give your address for collection then you should definitely keep the money maybe it will teach him a lesson.

GDB2222

HazelB01 said:

The taps are still on your property which means they still belong to you, whatever has been arranged between yourself and the plumber beforehand. If he has been so daft to sell them and give your address for collection then you should definitely keep the money maybe it will teach him a lesson.

Why does everything on your premises automatically belong to you? If the plumber parked his van on your drive, it doesn’t belong to you. If I inadvertently leave my umbrella behind, it doesn’t belong to you. If the plumber left some of his tools behind they would not belong to you. The same applies to the taps, if the contract said he should remove them.

There is no moral dilemma here. Just a lot of very very muddled thinking.

JayD

As always we only get a tiny bit of the information needed to make an informed reply. Has the plumber finished the job and gone, or is he coming back? If the former, then keep the money. If the latter then ask him why he would have the cheek to advertise them for sale at YOUR address and not wait until the job was finished, take them away and sell them from his own address. He may say he has deducted that sum from your bill in anticipation of the sale .. though unlikely. I am sure his answer will guide you.

John_Gray

Do you not get the impression that we're scraping (tapping?) the bottom of the barrel for these "moral dilemmas"?

Richie244

Are you happy with the plumber? If yes its a pair of taps if no then keep the money. How much are we talking in reality £20. Good trades people are hard to find I personally would call it their Christmas tip and move on.  
I had the misfortune of hiring the wrong builder some years ago, my work takes me away and he was employed to renovate my new bought house he proceeded to demolish the place, selling everything from the bricks from the extension to floor boards and even the Slab floor. Of course when caught he was no longer employed by me but I couldn't get anything back. £15k for the privilege of this guy tearing my house to bits and selling it. 

kilanel

Its definetly good  for things to be reused rather than scrapped or recycled so I'd see this as a positive thing. However the plumber should have mentioned that the taps might be sold or checked that you didn't want to keep them. If you had no intention of advertising them ( which can be time consuming) and were simply glad to get rid of the stuff you didn't need cluttering up your house then let the plumber keep the money.