Trust is essential for the functioning of any society and any personal relationship. You trust your parents, your partners, your friends, and, sadly, sometimes you are proven wrong. You realize you shouldn’t have trusted someone. Have you ever been in a situation when you had to ask someone to take care of your property or take some of your valuables for safekeeping? Is it OK to trust someone that much? What could you do to protect yourself and your prized possessions?
Who can you trust with your high-value assets?
Say you have to be away from home for a long period. Maybe your office is sending you to another branch for a couple of months and there’s no one to look after your house and your valuables. What can you do?
If you had family living nearby you could ask them to come round and water your plants or feed your fish?
Or maybe you need to move to another city but until you find yourself a new place you’d like to have your precious paintings collection and your jewelry stored in a safe place. There’s too much stuff to cram into a safe deposit and you’d like to find someone to keep them? An old school friend might be a good choice, only you haven’t been in touch much. Perhaps you’re next-door neighbor? After all, you’ve watched many games together and had a few nice barbecues?
Would you trust them with your most prized possessions? That’s very risky and you should try to put it into writing somehow, just as a precaution.
Can you ask for a background check?
If there’s no one really close to taking care of your high-value assets you’ll have to trust a friend, workmate, or neighbor with some of your stuff. Before you do that, though, you’ll need to ask if they care to submit to a police check. It’s going to be awkward, but if they’re decent people they’ll put themselves in your position and they’ll understand that it’s a lot of money and trust is simply not enough.
To make things easier, let them know that in Australia there are now online character check agencies that can perform a criminal history check like an ANCC police check in no time and all you have to do is upload your ID and a photo. It’s so simple you can do it on the phone while you’re enjoying a beer. It’s a very small fee, which you’ll naturally pay, and you’ll have the police clearance in a couple of days.
Once that’s cleared, you should try to call in someone to witness the whole thing, someone who can testify that you entrusted certain valuables or the keys to your house to that person. It would be a great idea to make a list of the valuables you’re entrusting them. Also make sure to take pictures of the items, at least the most important ones.
That might be a lot to ask of anybody, so make sure to let them know you’ll find ways to express your gratitude once you get back. If they’re your friends, they probably won’t accept money, but you can at least buy them a case of expensive wines or something you know they’ll appreciate.