Update and further advice please

MMLS · 21 December 2010 at 1:23PM

I posted a few weeks ago about a burst water pipe that damaged both mine and my neighbours house. The tenant was away and hadn't taken precautions to insure that the house was protected against frost damage. Our neighbour wasn't insured and it turns out that under the terms of our insurance, neither were we. The tenant is liable according to my solicitor but we know there's no way we're going to get any money out of him. (Except the bond). We also know that we're liable for next door's damage.

From the start I've reassured our neighbour that they don't need to worry but now they're starting to worry me!

Firstly the quote that they got from their friend - a builder who was giving them a knock down price and doing it as favour for both them and us - turns out to be more than 5 times what my builder quoted. Needless to say, my builder is now doing the work. Now they want £1000 for their bed which they threw outside, along with all the carpet, when the water came through. I'm not sure how the bed got soaked as the water didn't come through the ceiling and one of their family members told us that it wasn't wet anyway. They also want £40 a sq metre for the carpet which the same family member told our builder was second hand and bought after a scam insurance payout. We did get a sample of the carpet so we can get some idea of the price but in itself that's frustrating. They threw all the carpet out but the carpet in my house has dried out nicely with no damage and no smell (the water after all, was clean water from the tank) and my house is many times worse than theirs!

So how do I arrive at a fair price when everything has been disposed of and I have no proof of the price that they paid for it originally. And without going in to detail I very much doubt that the prices I've been quoted by them were the ones that they originally paid.

From the start I've been totally fair and haven't wanted them to be a penny out of pocket but now I suspect they're after all they can get. They know that I've had to get loans to pay for it all, they know this isn't an insurance job, they know that it wasn't even my fault...it's not as though any of this was malicious.

Any constructive advice would be gratefully received. (I honestly don't need lectures - I'm doing my damnedest to do the right thing without being taken for a ride). I just want to know how to arrive at a price fair to both of us.