Finder’s Keepers? A Puzzling Plight of Contractor’s or Homeowner’s Rights

Have you ever found something on someone’s else’s property or their domain that seemingly belonged to them, but without your discovery, they never would have known that they had it? This is a case going on now in Cleveland, Ohio between a homeowner and a contractor over money that was found on the homeowner’s property. This interesting story of who gets to keep the money got me to thinking: What would I do if this happened in my old, treasure-laden home? In this instance, the first thing I think is that the money should be split, 70-30 with the bulk going to the homeowner. Give the contractor a finder’s fee. My opinion is that if the contractor had not been hired by the homeowner to do the work on the house, he never would have found the money. Contrastly, the homeowner would NEVER have found the money if she hadn’t hired a contractor to do work on the house. Perhaps, one day if the walls had come crumbling down, she would have found it, but otherwise, it would still be safe and sound in its secret hiding place.

As a homeowner, I would think that this money is personal property because it was found on my property, right? After all, it is the property’s owners home on the property owner’s land so I figure the contents on the site belong to the property owner. I’m not sure about this, so maybe Kelly over at taxgirl can shed some light on it for us. Perhaps she can tell us who gets to sing “finders – keepers”.

In the meantime, I hope things can be amended between the two parties soon. To have once been great friends, now, they’re not even speaking to each other except through their attorneys.

Sad how money can come between friends, isn’t it?