I know nothing about the law pertaining to this matter. But if it can be established that his control of the material constituted or established a bailment, he might be held responsible. And are the materials yours prior to adding them to your house?

Here is a link that might be useful: bailment

Iiiiinteresting. Our contract doesn't get into this sort of thing. materials I'm not sure. he buys them, we pay him back plus a % on all invoices and work. We did reimburse him for the wrap prior to it being stolen.

GreenGuard makes 5 different house wraps: RainDrop, Max, UltraWrap, ClassicWrap, and ValueWrap. The theft of some would be a blessing; others, a loss.

This is a really interesting and important question. Especially for people building in the city, where theft will naturally occur much more often. I'm interested in what people have to say.

macv funny, I'll have to see which one it was on the invoice. Not that it matters anymore, it is now wrapped with Tyvek. krycek, it's one of those things we didn't even think would happen and nothing was written into our contract in the event of theft. live and learn.

Was Green Guard Classic Wrap which on a contractor talk forum search the consensus is Tyvek > Classic Wrap.

Our GC mentioned that if he had something delivered and it was stolen from outside, it was on his insurance. But if it was already installed on the house, it would be reported to our insurance. The example he used was windows - sitting outside, it's on him. Installed, it's on us. I'm sure that varies by state, so maybe you could check it out through your municipality.

I think RLthomas is correct on most things. However, it really depends on the arrangement.

ie: if I buy material for a GC to install and its stolen, its on me.

if he is supposed to buy and install siding on my house and its stolen, its most likely on him.

if you're in a cost plus arrangement, I have no idea, but I could see it lending more to being on you, but thats just a guess.

its ironic, just last night my framers ladders, jack stands and platforms were stolen from the backyard of the construction site. beleive it or not, they passed on the new entry door that was sitting on the porch. I feel bad for him, nice guy. I find it amazing what people do.

Our builder told us that his insurance did not reimburse for items that had not been installed yet. The rest depends upon contract.

Our neighborhood has had a lot of construction theft. The best thing to do is not leave things lying around even for an hour. Most of the theft was from the construction workers themselves. We were one of the first to move in on our street while the other houses were under construction. I would go hang out in my gardens in the late afternoon. There would be construction guys leaving one site and then circling around to the other houses. I actually saw some guys from one site come and steal lumber from the house across the street. My builder tried not to get supplies in advance. He would order them to come in on the morning the job needed to be done.

We have had the same happen to us, I think it was lumber and the GC never made mention about us having to report anything to the insurance he just chalked it up as a loss on his part since it was sitting outside

Lots of different experiences. I trust it wasn't his workers, but have a bad feeling about the roofers. I was there when roof was being installed and noticed one of the cleanup guys poking around the trees where the material was laying next to piles of lumber. Obviously I can't prove a thing, but he immediately came to mind. It was sitting outside a month before that. We already told builder we will deal with it, but I was just curious and hopefully this can help for those that are building in the future. Stuff like this should be in a contract. Our insurance agent didn't even think theft was covered until he looked at the policy. He said it was an add-on and that he must've added it as a precaution (we never discussed it) .

It really should be written into the contract. Anything that was for the build, installed or waiting to be installed, was the GC's responsibility until substantial completion. We also had him name us as additional insureds on all of his insurance policies.

We owned the lot and were carrying the finances for the build, so you are still able to do this even if it is not a house that will only really be yours at a "closing."

Our builder just had an entire pallet of GAF shingles stolen from a neighboring property. He added theft insurance to his existing builders risk policy for our build. The insurance agent he worked with said in the last few months the theft claims have skyrocketed. In the case of the shingles, this was definitely on the builders tab, not the homeowners.

I have noticed things like ladders and tools are now chained to something. My mother-in-law is building as well and her builder put a door with a lock on one of the interior rooms and that is where the workmen lock their tools up at night.

Around our "safe" little town, we've had a string of thefts from unlocked cars and unlocked doors in the last few months.

It is too bad that everything has to be locked these days, but I suppose it is a sign of the times.

we tracked down one of our subs for stealing, at the end of the day a good ladder was gone called other two subs and they did not have it. Contractor went to the third and guilty subs house , arriing just as he was unloading the ladder. police were called and they called me and i told them where my drivers licence number was on the ladder! Lots of tools were recovered!