Contractor, homeowner fight over money found hidden in walls

[The Straight Story]

Contractor, homeowner fight over money found hidden in walls



CLEVELAND (AP) -- A contractor who helped discover bundles of Depression-era U.S. currency totaling $182,000 hidden behind bathroom walls said the homeowner should turn the money over to him or at least share it.

Bob Kitts said his feud with the owner of the 83-year house, a former high school classmate, has deteriorated to the point where they speak to each other only through lawyers.

Kitts said his lawyer has drafted a lawsuit that he hopes will force Amanda Reece to turn over the money she has kept.

Most of the currency, issued in 1927 and 1929, is in good condition, and some of the bills are so rare that one currency appraiser valued the treasure at up to $500,000, Kitts said.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OH_HOUSE_HIDDEN_MONEY_OHOL-?SITE=WBNSTV&SECTION=HOME

[Schema Thing]

1. C'mon. Am I legally naive, or is this pretty straightforward?

The homeowner gets the money, right?

[Fresh_Start]

5. yea, imagine if the contractor "FOUND" jewelry

dropped on the floor and could claim it.

[The Straight Story]

6. Something about a finder fee

Kitts asserts he found lost money, and court rulings in Ohio establish that a "finders keepers" law applies if there's no reason to believe any owner will reappear to claim it. (but to me the owner is the one that owns the house....)

[RB TexLa]

13. Correct ownership, once one sells a house anything they left in the house is property of the new

owner.

They can not come back two years later to retrieve their oven or dishwasher.

The owner of the house is the owner of the cash.

[MissB]

21. You mean I could've kept that silver serving set?

I know, actually. It just didn't feel right. :)

[Gormy Cuss]

26. and a property law expert wasn't willing to say that it was clear cut.

I'd love to hear the arguments in that court room.
I do agree with the others though that the contractor is being an ass. He found it IN someone's house after all, not laying on the street. It would also have been kind of the owner to offer him a cut.

[sam sarrha]

2. sounds like the 'friend' is a Republican..

[peacetalksforall]

28. What is a reality based concern - having the case come up in the

courtroom of a Republican judge. Logic skewed, scattered, slanted, and sometimes silly.

[Beetwasher]

3. The Contractor Really Has No Right To It

It was in the homeowners house, it's the homeowners. End of story.

Now, that's not to say that it might not be a good idea to give the contractor a bonus for helping get it, and apparently the homeowner offered that, but for the contractor to claim entitlement is ridiculous. The were contracted for a job, they did the job and got paid. If I were in the homeowners position, I would't share it 50/50, but I'd give the contractor something as a bonus, which they offered and that's pretty generous IMO.

[RB TexLa]

4. Does the contractor want the pipes he found in the walls as well?

[The Straight Story]

8. Don't give him ideas

:)

[LeftCoast]

7. I don't think the contractor has a case

Plus, the owner offered a 10% finders fee which is pretty good considering she doesn't owe him anything.

[Beetwasher]

14. Yup, The Contractor Is A Real Dick

10% is pretty generous of the homeowner, IMO.

[displacedtexan]

If I found money where I was working, would a judge give 40% to me?

I doubt it.

[Double T]

9. It's AMAZING what money, specially lots of it, does to people; even friends.

[piedmont]

10. You know who's going to get that money?

The lawyers.

[Kingshakabobo]

22. I think that's the point of the suit....

The attorney eggs the client on to file a nuisance suit in hopes of a settlement. Even if the contractor settles, he'll be lucky to net more than the original 10% offer after the atty. wets his beak.


I'm in the process of remodeling my neighbor's bathroom - all I found was an old butter knife.:cry:

[Javaman]

36. Pfft! I'm remodeling my house I found an old pair of underwear in the attic!!! nt

[marylanddem]

11. As a contractor's spouse

I say he should get to keep the money!

[DS1]

12. Why?

[marylanddem]

15. Sorry - I had tongue-in-cheek...

[formerrepuke]

16. That house isn't very far from mine, but the only thing I found in mine was vintage underwear..

[juajen]

17. I can't believe this. If he had taken the money, he would be a thief.

Why does he think any of this money belongs to him. Her finder's fee was generous. Now, if some of the original owner's descendants come along, she might have to share the money with them, but, otherwise, she owns the house, she owns the money. The contractor wouldn't have been in the house without her invitation. AFAIC, this is a no-brainer.

[Beetwasher]

18. Nope, The Descendants Would Have No Claim Either

You buy a house, you get everything that's left in it. There's really no ambiguity about the situation.

The judge should throw the case out immediately w/out wasting any time whatsoever. It's sad that the homeowners will have to even pay a dollar in legal fees because this idiot contractor couldn't be happy w/ their generosity of even offering him 10% finders fee.

[lpbk2713]

29. Not likely and it would be hard to prove previous ownership anyhow.

If the bills were dated from the late twenties the ownership of the house could have changed hands several times with most of the previous owners now deceased. Who is to say who were the owners (or even rental tenants) at the time the cash was sealed in the wall? The present owner of the house would be the rightful owner of whatever may be inside it.

[RaleighNCDUer]

19. A 10% finder's fee is entirely appropriate and more than fair.

It was just chance that the contractor found it. It could just as easily have been a different contractor that was hired for the job. But the homeowner would still be the homeowner.

Sad, what greed will do.

[Sydnie]

20. I can hear contracts being rewritten across the country

that state that anything found of value belongs to the homeowner not the person contracted to do the work.

What a sad country we live in. Chances are, she is still living with an uncompleted renovation as well and will probably have to continue living with it incomplete until this case is closed. Otherwise, I can see him suing her for additional fees for loss of wages or not honoring her contractual agreement with him.

[Missy M]

23. What a lowlife that contractor is....

the only reason he found that money is she hired him to work on HER house, that she paid for. How can that possibly mean the money is his? The finders/keepers law does not apply here since she is the owner and has claimed the money. Another reason to be aware of some contractors.

[Kokonoe]

24. It's amazing that people would stoop to Republicanism.

[aikoaiko]

25. The homeowner offered a finders fee of (10%?) -- thats a good deal.

The contractor is deuchebag for demanding 40%. He was working at the direction of the homeowner.

[TreasonousBastard]

27. I've noticed it's not uncommon in NYC for contractors to...

find stuff and just pocket it. I even knew a cop in the Bronx moonlighting renovating bars, and he found tons of coin in the crevices. Never told a soul. Or at least he tried not to, but bragging became an overwhelming compulsion. He kepth the cash, though, just as he kept any other salvage from the job.

The law seems not so clearcut everywhere-- should you find something the owner had no reason to think might be there and wouldn't find by himslef, you might have quite a few rights to it. Depends where you live, though. The shysters will have fun arguing this one.

On edit...

Agreed that the contractor is a bit of a scumbag, and probably an idiot, but I was just thinking about salvage, and how the contractor's right to sell or junk removed items in a renovation is pretty well set unless the contract says otherwise. Is a bag of cash in the same realm as some copper pipe the contractor would legitimately sell?

[1620rock]

30. We bought a piece of vacant land in 2000. The guy next door had

been using it to store old junk cars etc. on. We asked he to remove the junk. He said no and then moved his driveway onto our property, then went to court to claim 30% of our land...he won.

[TreasonousBastard]

32. Is there more to that story? It usually takes years for...

someone to grab your property and I thought you have to have abandoned it to them.

[Beetwasher]

33. Contractors "Finding" Stuff on Someone Elses Property And Pocketing It Are Stealing

That's why they don't tell anyone about it. They KNOW they're stealing. And salvage laws deal w/ material taken from unclaimed, abandoned property in unclaimed territories, such as sunken ships in international waters. No one has a right to "salvage" anything on MY property. Contractors who sell copper pipe removed from my property only do so having had my permission first to remove and "discard" it as part of their contracted responsibility. If they choose to "discard" it by selling it, that's fine, as they had my permission first as part of the contract. In fact, it is even possible and not uncommon to have a contract with clauses included in which it is agreed that proceeds for such sales DO go to the owner of the property w/ the contractor getting a percentage for facilitating the sale. This is more common in contracts where there is expected to be large quantities of semi-valuable material that can be resold such as copper pipes.

There is very little ambiguity in the law about who is entitled to this money. It is without question the sole property of the owner of the property on which it was found and I expect this case to be tossed pretty quickly.

[Javaman]

37. Having worked construction

and have done a bit of contracting. Generally, the "salvage" laws only apply to homes that are coming down. NOT renovation.

this contractor is just a dickhead trying to find a way out of his financial problems by bilking the owner (whom he probably thinks is rich and may well be) out of property that is rightly the owners.

10% is very fair and very honorable. the owner didn't have to give him a dime.

[DadOf2LittleAngels]

31. How lame

Im sure if he had found mold back there he would have wanted half of that..

[-..__...]

34. Here's a case where contracters found old bills and kept them..

Police call Methuen treasure story a tall tale
Four accused of plot to steal old currency

By Caroline Louise Cole and Kathleen Burge, Globe Correspondent, Staff | April 30, 2005

LAWRENCE -- The more they told their fantastic tale of unearthing buried treasure in a Methuen backyard, posing with wads of cash and bathing in the lights of prime-time fame, the more their story began to fray.

Barry Billcliff, 26, of Manchester, N.H., and Timothy Crebase, 24, of Methuen, described again and again their amazing luck three weeks ago when, they said, they dug up antique money worth more than $100,000 at a house Crebase was renting. Thursday night, their whirlwind media tour was preempted by an inconvenient legal development: their arrest.

The good-luck tale that bounced from Tuscaloosa, Ala., to Grand Forks, N.D., imploded yesterday as police yesterday charged the men with receiving stolen property, conspiracy, and being accessories after the fact. Police say Crebase, a roofer, found the money more than a month ago while repairing a barn in Newbury.

The men pleaded not guilty yesterday to the charges in Lawrence District Court. A third man, Kevin Kozak, 27, of Methuen, who owns the house where the other two said they found the money, turned himself in last night at 8:45, according to Methuen police.

Complete story...

[Beetwasher]

35. Yup, Pretty Unambiguous, They Were Thieves And Treated Accordingly

n/t