Is it legal for a tradesperson to keep and sell materials removed during a job without telling the client?
Short answer: Strictly speaking, unless ownership of removed materials has been addressed in your contract or terms, the material technically remains the customer's property, meaning keeping and selling it without any agreement could theoretically be a civil matter (though in practice, this is rarely pursued for low-value offcuts) — the reliable way to avoid any issue at all is addressing this explicitly in your terms, as covered in more detail in a related question below.
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List Free →The legal reality behind the common practice
Informally keeping scrap offcuts is extremely common trade practice and is very rarely disputed for low-value material — but “common practice” and “legally settled” aren’t the same thing, and the underlying ownership question remains unresolved without an explicit agreement.
Why this matters more for higher-value jobs
For a job involving significant quantities of valuable metal (a large rewire, a major pipe replacement), the value at stake is higher, and so is the importance of having this addressed clearly rather than relying on informal norms.
The straightforward fix
A standard terms-of-service clause covering removed materials, mentioned earlier, resolves this for good — it costs nothing to add and removes any ambiguity for every future job.
How ScrapTrade Helps
Once your terms make ownership clear, selling that material through ScrapTrade is straightforward and fully above board.
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