Who pays for return of company laptop, monitor etc.

ElfHelp121

I have recently handed my notice in, I am WFH 99% of the time, have been in to the office (well I say office, its a shared workspace type of place) once since starting there 6 months ago. The office address is however listed on my contract as the 'place of work' however its in London - about a 5 hour drive away. 

They have asked me to post, and cover the cost of postage myself for my work laptop, monitor etc. all of which were delivered via courier when I first joined. 

Do I have to cover the cost, or do they need to cover it? 

Nothing in my contract relating to return of office equipment. 

74jax

I would presume you covered it. 

Anything I used to hand out (equipment, car, uniform) had to be returned to the office and I was never asked to cover the cost, employees just returned. 

Jillanddy

There's no law here,  and your contract doesn't say.  Would you,  however,  like any money they owe you? Because until you return them,  I doubt you'll see any.  And if your don't return them,  that might be the last of your problems.  I'd suck it up. To be fair,  they could have insisted you collect the equipment from your office base. We have also been working from home - as have lots of people - and we'd have expected you to collect it when you started, and to return it. If you didn't agree to your office base,  the time to object to that was when you were given the contract,  not now

Grumpy_chap

ElfHelp121 said:

I have recently handed my notice in, I am WFH 99% of the time, have been in to the office (well I say office, its a shared workspace type of place) once since starting there 6 months ago. The office address is however listed on my contract as the 'place of work' however its in London - about a 5 hour drive away. 

They have asked me to post, and cover the cost of postage myself for my work laptop, monitor etc. all of which were delivered via courier when I first joined. 

Do I have to cover the cost, or do they need to cover it? 

Nothing in my contract relating to return of office equipment. 

I suppose you don't need to cover the courier cost if you arrange to work from the office on the last day, and then hand the equipment back in person.

ElfHelp121

Thanks everyone, have pushed back and the company has agreed to cover the cost of a courier. 

ACAS also mentioned when calling to push back on this, as an FYI to those giving slightly incorrect advise on here. 

k3lvc

ElfHelp121 said:

Thanks everyone, have pushed back and the company has agreed to cover the cost of a courier. 

ACAS also mentioned when calling to push back on this, as an FYI to those giving slightly incorrect advise on here. 

Hmmm - not sure where you get the 'incorrect advice' bit from  - with my employer if London office was your listed place of work you'd be expected to deliver it back on the last day (whether in person or at your cost) and until that was done any value would be withheld 

Jillanddy

ElfHelp121 said:

Thanks everyone, have pushed back and the company has agreed to cover the cost of a courier. 

ACAS also mentioned when calling to push back on this, as an FYI to those giving slightly incorrect advise on here. 

"Push back" and "incorrect" are not the same things. There is no incorrect advice on the thread here. Which is more than can be said for ACAS if they said you had any legal rights here.

Richard_T_

ElfHelp121 said:

Thanks everyone, have pushed back and the company has agreed to cover the cost of a courier. 

ACAS also mentioned when calling to push back on this, as an FYI to those giving slightly incorrect advise on here. 

Another thing that may be an issue is if you have high value items to return is that if you  organise the return then its your responsibility to make sure that any loss/damage is covered ( ie insurance)  If the company arranges the courier then your responsibility ends when you hand the items to the courier .

 One thing i would do though is to take photos of the items to show they are in good/reasonable condition and possibly a video showing it working

Brie

In addition to Richard_T_ 's advice I'd also get photos of you passing the items to the courier.  

Thrugelmir

ElfHelp121 said:

Nothing in my contract relating to return of office equipment. 

Seems as if the company has made an oversight if that's the case. Are you sure that return of company property on leaving employment isn't covered in the company handbook. The handbook will cover a variety of policies and proceedures.