I have worked for a contractor of safeguards as a sub contractor for almost 3 years now and have not seen this type of problem in safeguards actions. In the last 3 years I have been accused of stealing personal property ONCE. I follow the work orders to the letter and have not had any problem with getting paid for the work I have done unless it was because I was late sending in paperwork. Sometimes the work load gets overwhelming. I have received as many as 40 work orders in a single day all due in 3 days anywhere from 80 mile away to just around the corner from my place. While trying to do a good job and also get done by the due date I have always noted a house as occupied if any sign of life was present ( grass cut, lights, pets, belongings, toys in the yard and many others. I err on the side of the home owner never the bank if I have any doubt at all about occupancy. I always talk to the neighbors if possible to see if they know if the house is vacant or not. (this is required by safeguard to confirm this). So reading these posts makes me very angry at the workers doing this kind of stuff to those in difficult times.
If I could point out a fact about the orders received to do work at a house one of the first things you read is IF OCCUPIED DO NO WORK and report as occupied. Next thing is to enter through the secondary door and CONFIRM that no personals are present and document with pictures if personals are present change locks on secondary door and leave immediately. The next thing is if no personals with a garage sale value of more than 500.00 total are found proceed to complete the work order.
These statements are in BIG BOLD LETTERS on the work order and hard to miss unless you are blind. So with this in mind anyone that enters a home and steals so much as a penny needs to go to jail for a long time.
Now in defense of the contractors doing these orders I must point out this simple fact. MOST HOUSES I GO TO HAVE WINDOWS OR DOORS UNLOCKED!!!! or other means of entry left open or unlocked. I very seldomly have to force entry into these homes. The first thing I do when I go inside is to take pictures of every room from at least 2 angles to document what if anything is still left in the house. If personals are found I document them by listing everything and photographing it as proof of it being there. USUALLY TAKE MINIMUM OF 200 PICTURES ON FIRST VISIT to fully document condition of the property and anything in it and place a bid to remove personals to a storage unit if personals are still there. (IT IS REQUIRED TO POST A PERSONAL BELONGINGS NOTICE that 15 days after posted date belongings will be considered as abandoned and removed to storage if valued over 500.00 or disposed of if less than 500.00 with my phone # and location of storage unit so they can get there stuff back. (they must reimburse any expenses to reclaim stuff) after 30 days it is deemed abandoned and I can do with it as I see fit.
This is the policy of safeguard to secure and protect any property. So the stories I have read above boil down to dishonest people not safeguard (maybe poor vetting of their contractors and subs) but not due to safeguard stealing anything. So blame the guy stealing the stuff not safeguard.
Many time I get to a house that has plainly been gone through by someone before I got there if that is the case I call and see if a police report is required to send to insurance company for a claim to be filed and if any damages or vandalism is found the answer is always yes.
What more could be expected of safeguard than this. If orders are followed correctly and honestly by the contractors none of the things above should ever happen.
only the dishonesty and greed of some contractors ever gets put on sites like this not the accounts of the good ones like me who never steal anything or lie about contents for personal gain. The truth of the matter is that there are a lot of scumbags in this world.
Please don't label all of us as being so because it is not the case at all. Thanks for letting me stand up for the honest people like myself who are just trying to make an honest living not steal others stuff.
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