Money Moral Dilemma: Do you charge house guests for breakages?

4isnotenough

firstly - reading the previous comments (pg2&3 in particular) .... It doens't matter wheather the TV was £50 or £500 there is no room to judge ... does that price tag give someone a right to pass judgement and say "I'm not paying you because you have expensive tastes"? I dont think so ...

If Tommy was in the main living room playing with a cricket ball then mum and dad should have intervened to start with ....

If it did happen then a decent friend would offer to repair or replace the TV. If the friend could not afford it they would offer a compromise if they were anyway decent.

If the friend did not offer then it creates a very difficult situation .... and I think although it would be hard to ask for a contribution I would do it. A true friendship would endure this and and any negotiations that followed!

I would of course check the insurance on the TV, or the credit card used to buy it or whatever ... and if I could claim and it would not affect my future policies/no claims then I would.

Offering an alternative TV from freecycle probably wouldn't happen - firstly the chances of getting a tv like that on freecycle are slim.
secondly if it were my TV I would not want a 21 inch big heavy box tv as a replacement.

Oh and BTW I mine is a 50inch Samsung, it is up safe on the wall ... there is no way I would accept less (maybe a little bit) ...... but similarly no way I would allow kids to play with balls around it.

shadej

I wouldn't want to ask for the money as I have a 6 year old and I know things happen.
Kids break things and parents can not always be on hand watching.
However I simply could not afford to kiss goodbye to a £500 telly, so yes I would ask them to pay.

lil_lady_2

no kid would throwing no balls in my house , and i would never expect a friend to pay for something that was an accident ... but offering would be polite i have a £500 tv which was a present to my oh and i wouldnt expect anyone to pay for it but id make them take me out for a drink :beer: . this has made me think about getting cover on my stuff thou as are parents have brought us some nice stuff so im off to go look

muffintop

I agree with the "no throwing balls" thing. But I can't help thinking that if someone can afford a £500 telly, they can afford suitable insurance cover too. I wouldn't ask for payment. A gesture to pay by the adult responsible for the child would be nice, but I have no sympathy for the uninsured.

Samart_2

I think that if the tv got broken by your friends child, they should pay up or at least give you their tv, the best tv that they have in their house, that is, and if its the only tv, then its tough, their kid shouldnt have been playing with a ball in the house.
Alternatively, they could just pay for you to get another tv.

liquidswords

I'm quite surprised at the responses here. Friendship is way more important than money, and kids do a lot of silly stuff like this. A lot of you must have had very strict childhoods to find the idea of a ball being thrown in a house so very inconceivable. Yeesh ... I still play football in the house with my little cousins.

Obviously I would expect an offer to replace the TV, but I wouldn't dream of accepting it. How can you sit there and let your friend write out a huge cheque to you because their kid accidentally broke something? I can imagine most of my friends, if this happened, would insist I took the money and they'd probably find some way of giving it to me. Still, my first reaction would be to refuse it. Oh, and accidental damage cover is a total rip off.

Skintmama

My first concern would be that my friends did not feel too mortified about this accident. When our TV was accidentally and permanently damaged by a visitor who had nothing in the way of money or even their home at the time, we laughed it off and went without a TV for years. (Acually we enjoyed our TV free years!) Payment was offered but we refused. Since their circumstances improved, this person has been very generous to us in both gifts and more importantly helping us in times of crisis.
I wouldn't ask for the money but would check my insurance to see if it could be claimed for......now that I know one can!
Any of our friends or relatives would pay us back in some way without being asked to.

PaulX

Firstly, if the little tyke is playing with a cricket ball he probably comes from a posh family with plenty of moolah. So charging is definitely on the cards.

The sequence of events would run like this: young gentleman puts cricket ball through T.V. screen - head of said person connects sharply with your fist - parents of this delinquent now presented with bill for six hundred bucks.

Sometimes life is that simple.

Paul.

Cotku

What was I thinking when I ticked the 'no' box to accidental breakage cover?

Aaarrggh!

But seriously, Tommy's parents are responsible for him until he is 18. At 6 he doesn't know any better and his parents should be looking out for him. Maybe some tips from Dr Tanya Byron will be needed to help them cope with Tommy?

They should be offering to replace it.

But be graceful about it. It's new-ish - so a similar TV is probably less than £500 now. Just ask them to replace it with the same make but a similar model.

They're listed just as 'friends', not 'close friends' or 'good friends' so there may be some friction.

Rather than ask for the full £500, price the same make and a similar model and ask for that cost instead. If it goes pear shaped, mention that you will approach a solicitor or pursue it through the small claims court. Mention also that it will likely cost them more if the solicitor or SCC get involved.

Most importantly, don't throw your hands in the air, let rip a string of expletives and then wail about it dramatically. Be as good natured as you can. It will help your case if it does have to go to legal proceedings. At least you kept your cool and gave them every opportunity.

theamazinggem

wow. i'm glad most of you people aren't my friends.

if it were me i'd offer to pay, but i don't have a single friend who would let me, and i would certainly never ever ask were the roles reversed.

and no i don't have money coming out of my ears before someone suggests that.