Who Owns The Contents Of A Skip?

[ladybirder]

If I see something I could make use of in a skip outside of someone's house, am I breaking the law if I help myself to it?

[CatGirl4]

I believe that you are supposed to ask if you can have it.

[Maydup]

Technically it would be stealing. Best to knock the door and ask for it, after all they don't want it.

[weecalf]

Skip firm would own it as its in their skip

[jno]

as long as it's out on the street I shouldn't think there would be a problem anyway, but we usually ask. If it's still on their driveway, though, it'd be different.

[woofgang]

Yup. It either belongs to the owner of the skip or to the person who put it there...in either case it doesn't belong to you so its theft. Having said that its a theft that loads of people get away with. years ago we had a skip when we moved. It was amazing. Every day I would put stuff in it and the next morning the stuff I had put in it would be gone and there would be other stuff in it. The next day that too would be gone and there would be yet other stuff in it instead.In the end all the stuff that we wanted to get rid of had gone into the skip and either stayed there or gone somewhere and we had it collected

[Psybbo]

As a person hires a skip, I would assume it belongs to that person until the skip is removed

[tonyav]

Psssst, what is it that you want, ladybirder ?.

[craft1948]

When I was having the garden landscaped I put quite a few large paving slabs in the skip (well not me personally). There was a knock on the door and this guy asked if he could have them and I agreed.
He was so worried about someone else taking them that he left his poor wife guarding the skip whilst he fetched his mates to shift them.

[FredPuli43]

But it doesn't cease to be the owner's property. They retain an interest in it and how it is disposed of.

The argument that the property had been abandoned by its owner (is 'res derelicta' in law) has been put before. In Williams v Phillips , some Corporation dustmen were prosecuted for theft of stuff left out for collection. It was argued that you could not get more of a 'res derelicta' than something put out for the dustman. The court held that the property was still owned by the householders until it was taken away , at which point it belonged to the Corporation. In the case of a skip the property is still the owners until taken away in accordance with their directions; thus you must ask them if you wish to take anything (after all, they may have promised it someone else)

[ladybirder]

I wouldn't take anything without asking anyway but it seems that according to the law, nothing is ownerless. Just googled and found that out. You still own it after you've chucked it in your skip and once the skip owner takes the skip away it becomes his and when it gets to the dump it belongs to dump owners. My trouble is not people taking stuff out of my skip but others filling it up before I have finished with it.

Psssst tony, got some nice pieces of wood to make some raised beds?

[Answerprancer]

akaic you would be doing the 'owner' of the skip contents a service by making more space. I spotted a fairly large aquarium sticking out of a skip once, climbed up to fish (pardon the pun) it out. Owner leans out of window and shouts "Oi! we're sick of people dumping stuff in our bloody skip!" so I shouted back "I'm not dumping stuff, I just fancied this fish tank!" to which she replied "Oh, ok - sorry, help yourself!"

[tonyav]

Psssst tony, got some nice pieces of wood to make some raised beds?


Mmmmmm, interesting.

[ladybirder]

Good for you ap, recycling's the name of the game.

[DJHawkes]

my eldest son make a decent bit of money as a sideline pulling wiring out of skips, he weighs it in,

[TWR]

The person that fills the skip, once the skip is loaded on the HGV, It's then the responsibility of the skip hire comp.

[vulcan42]

ladybirder, like you I had problems with people filling the skip before I could put my rubbish in. The second time I needed one I found a company that hired skips that had lockable lids, that cured the problem. Perhaps you have such a company in your area.

[ladybirder]

dotty I read there are people making fortunes, literally, out of the contents of skips. They have lookouts reporting to them as soon as a skip is spotted on a road and apparently you have to be quick as word is spreading.

[ladybirder]

Does that restrict how much you can get in it vulcan?

[Buenchico]

19 answers so far but not one of them seems to refer to the actual law!

The Theft Act 1968 states:
"A person’s appropriation of property belonging to another is not to be regarded as dishonest . . . if he appropriates the property in the belief that he would have the other’s consent if the other knew of the appropriation and the circumstances of it".
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1968/60/crossheading/definition-of-theft

So if you take something from a skip, genuinely believing that the person who placed it there wouldn't mind, you can't be convicted of theft.

Chris