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Dealing with leftover materials. Who legally owns it?


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My insulators let me down recently. They ran out of insulation and this resulted in me having to postpone plasterers. I wasn't that bothered but I didn't get an apology from the boss which I thought was a bit poor. He's now emailed me his invoice for several thousand £'s and he's left behind one hell of a mess. I spent the day loading off cuts of Kingspan and it has filled a skip.

 

If someone supplies and fits then surely all of this leftover crap belongs to him? I'm debating whether to email him and tell him I'll pay him after he's collected his materials (off cuts) or at least knock off £200 for the skip. 

 

What do you think?

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I do not know the legal side of your question (I am very interested in the correct answer), but I am all for not paying until they have completed the job to your satisfaction.

 

 

 

 

Edited by wozza
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Waste is one of those areas where I think you'll struggle for them to take responsibility for it. You'll have to agree that up front. Any contract I've signed has made it my responsibility unfortunately.

 

On my site any leftovers have been to the benefit/detriment of me. I've managed to get a lot free EPS and wood that way which has been useful, but some of the other smaller bits haven't.

 

Where I have had success is where I've supplied and they've needlessly wasted material. That I have been able to recoup cost (see my roofing post; they paid for all the sheets they ruined).

 

In your situation I'd recommend approaching it as a tit for tat for the delay. You've not got much more leverage other than payment, so negotiate before paying up

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In my mates T&Cs he actually wrote "remove all materials deleterious or superfluous to the fix". 

 

My firm supplied him as our subbie with bespoke steel parts and fixings usually with a 10% contingency. He'd take all the leftovers off site and store in his container. Next job came along where we had forgotten to supply something he likely had it in his container. Saved him time coming back to us through official routes. Not saying that other deleterious and superfluous stuff accidentally made it's way off site on occasion...

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I would have kept the large bits to use somewhere else or put them on freecycle.

 

The small bits I would have bagged up and taken to the tip, or if not in a hurry, a few in the bottom of the wheelie bin each week fortnight.  I would NOT have paid for a skip to dispose of it.

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It cracks me up the way contractors treat self builders 

I supply and fit plasterboard metal framing and insulation to large sites 

Loads of skips there to be used 

No chance I’ve to supply my own skips 
It would be more than reasonable for you to deduct the price of a skip and something for your time 

Had he not let you down Surely he wouldn’t have left a big pile of rubbish for you to get rid of 

 

 

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2 issues here.

 

Did they eventually finish the job of insulating or did you or your plasterers?

 

Did the waste really fill a skip. I'd be interested what their quote/contract says about waste/cleaning up. Most building sites supply the skips with subbies having to put their crap in them themselves. I think your time for cleaning up would be fair, not sure about the cost of skip

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Yes they finished the job and yes it filled a skip. Such a waste really, must be £500 worth at least plus the environmental impact.

 

I told them to chuck a load of the off cuts behind the dwarf walls which they did and still all this waste. No wonder they ran out of insulation!

 

The contract doesn't mention waste. As far as I'm concerned this is all his property so he can come and remove it if he wants paying. Will see how this goes down...

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Regarding valuable or useful left over materials... Perhaps call and ask if they have left anything on site they need to collect because you have new people coming next day. They will probably say no thinking you mean tools. 

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