diff --git a/pkg/component/reconciler.go b/pkg/component/reconciler.go
index 97654517..e01bf759 100644
--- a/pkg/component/reconciler.go
+++ b/pkg/component/reconciler.go
@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@ import (
 // TODO: finalizer should have the standard format prefix/finalizer
 // TODO: currently, the reconciler always claims/owns dependent objects entirely; but due to server-side-apply it can happen that
 // only parts of an object are managed: other parts/fiels might be managed by other actors (or even other components); how to handle such cases?
+// TODO: we maybe should incorporate metadata.uid into the inventory to better detect (foreign) recreations of objects that were already managed by us
 
 const (
 	readyConditionReasonNew                = "FirstSeen"
diff --git a/pkg/reconciler/reconciler.go b/pkg/reconciler/reconciler.go
index 93082d27..c55b8e2d 100644
--- a/pkg/reconciler/reconciler.go
+++ b/pkg/reconciler/reconciler.go
@@ -594,6 +594,8 @@ func (r *Reconciler) Apply(ctx context.Context, inventory *[]*InventoryItem, obj
 					item.Phase = PhaseCompleted
 					item.Status = ""
 				} else {
+					// TODO: should we (similar to the delete cases) check deletion timestamp and ownership to void deadlocks if object
+					// was recreated by someone else
 					numToBeCompleted++
 				}
 			}
@@ -793,11 +795,20 @@ func (r *Reconciler) Apply(ctx context.Context, inventory *[]*InventoryItem, obj
 					numToBeDeleted++
 				}
 			case PhaseDeleting:
-				// if object is gone, we can remove it from inventory
 				if existingObject == nil {
+					// if object is gone, we can remove it from inventory
 					item.Phase = ""
-				} else {
+				} else if !existingObject.GetDeletionTimestamp().IsZero() {
+					// object is still there and deleting, waiting until it goes away
 					numToBeDeleted++
+				} else if existingObject.GetLabels()[r.labelKeyOwnerId] != hashedOwnerId {
+					// object is there but not deleting; if we are not owning it that means that somebody else has
+					// recreated it in the meantime; so we consider this as not our problem and remove it from inventory
+					log.V(1).Info("orphaning resurrected object (probably it was recreated by someone else)", "key", types.ObjectKeyToString(item))
+					item.Phase = ""
+				} else {
+					// object is there, not deleting, but we own it; that is really strange and should actually not happen
+					return false, fmt.Errorf("object %s was already deleted but has no deletion timestamp", types.ObjectKeyToString(item))
 				}
 			default:
 				// note: any other phase value would indicate a severe code problem, so we want to see the panic in that case
@@ -872,11 +883,20 @@ func (r *Reconciler) Delete(ctx context.Context, inventory *[]*InventoryItem, ow
 
 		switch item.Phase {
 		case PhaseDeleting:
-			// if object is gone, we can remove it from inventory
 			if existingObject == nil {
+				// if object is gone, we can remove it from inventory
 				item.Phase = ""
-			} else {
+			} else if !existingObject.GetDeletionTimestamp().IsZero() {
+				// object is still there and deleting, waiting until it goes away
 				numToBeDeleted++
+			} else if existingObject.GetLabels()[r.labelKeyOwnerId] != hashedOwnerId {
+				// object is there but not deleting; if we are not owning it that means that somebody else has
+				// recreated it in the meantime; so we consider this as not our problem and remove it from inventory
+				log.V(1).Info("orphaning resurrected object (probably it was recreated by someone else)", "key", types.ObjectKeyToString(item))
+				item.Phase = ""
+			} else {
+				// object is there, not deleting, but we own it; that is really strange and should actually not happen
+				return false, fmt.Errorf("object %s was already deleted but has no deletion timestamp", types.ObjectKeyToString(item))
 			}
 		default:
 			// delete namespaces after all contained inventory items