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

Mickey666

Most people are unaware of how much ‘scrap’ can be worth.  When I moved into my current house, one of the outbuildings had about a dozen old car batteries, among other things, littering the place.  I was going to take them to the local tip but a friend told me I could get £5 for each one at a local scrapyard.  So I did and it turned out to be nearer £6 each.
I’ve subsequently kept any old bits of metal I’ve accumulated during my renovation project and now take them to the scrapyard rather than the local tip.  My last trip yielded a little over £130 of which £80 was for an old copper hot water cylinder.

General_Grant

How does the householder know that the taps have been listed on a website?  Was it someone chancing it because they had seen work being done?
How do they know what price, if any, was suggested on the website and that they aren't being cheated out of a higher figure?

akwexavante

I can now imagine hundreds of people across the country fishing out all that metalwork from their back gardens, skips, bins, sheds and outhouses, some of which will go to the scrap metal men and some will end up on Farcebooks marketplace, eBay, gumtree and Amazon etc etc.

There's brass to be made from selling your scrap metal, don't let the tradespeople take it away as rubbish.

Hadenoughofitall

So your plumber steals your taps and advertises them for sale and you ask if you should give him the money. You should be more concerned about finding what else he has stolen and deduct the cost from his fee plus a 20% deduction for having the nerve to do it. Then leave him bad feedback wherever possible. 

Mickey666

Hadenoughofitall said:

So your plumber steals your taps and advertises them for sale and you ask if you should give him the money. You should be more concerned about finding what else he has stolen and deduct the cost from his fee plus a 20% deduction for having the nerve to do it. Then leave him bad feedback wherever possible. 

Well, possibly . . . It all depends on what was agreed as part of the job.
Following your example the next moral dilemma might be from someone who has had work done and is complaining that the plumber has left all the old taps, pipes and other fitting in their front garden and can they be sued for leaving such a mess!
It’s always best to specify every aspect of any building work in great detail so that all parties fully understand and agree everything.

Carolmed

Unless the plumber had your prior agreement, they were not his to sell.  They were obviously still on your premises - keep the money.

Pruberry

Talk to the plumber. Simples.

p00

If the plumber wanted it
1: he wouldnt have advertised them at your address if HE was selling them. 
Simply ask him if it bothers you. Personally I would have told him I was selling the bits myself when I agreed a quote. If he made a mistake by putting your address (never known a business man do this yet) just give him the money. You were disposing of them anyway so what difference does it make.
p00

VincentVega

GDB2222 said:

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.

Where does the poster you're quoting say that anything on a property belongs to the property owner?  You're adding two and two and making five.  Your example of leaving an umbrella behind or parking a van are ridiculous.  No one in their right mind would claim they're not yours.

I think it's perfectly reasonable to argue that ownership of the objects being removed remains with the property owner until at least the time the items leave the property, if not until the time they enter the hands of a scrap merchant or end up at a recycling place.

As for the dilemma, personally I'd keep the money in protest at the plumber advertising my address all over the internet without my permission or knowledge.  It would be common courtesy for them to at least ask the householder beforehand.  What would happen if the householder had previously offered the taps to someone else, but the plumber's sold them behind their back?

4caster

Unless you agreed with plumber that he would take away the old fittings as part of the deal, then the taps remain yours to sell. The plumber jumped the gun in advertising them upon the assumption that they would become his to sell; therefore the advertising costs are his loss. But it is strange that the plumber advertised the goods using his customer's address. Something fishy is happening.