Mum being billed for window she didn't break

AlasInWonderland

Bit of a newbie so please bear with me.... !

My mum has lived in a rented property for 20+ years. She has a local agent Company who collects the rent for the actual landlord who is based out of town.

Last week a window of my mum's house was broken by a neighbour's child who threw stones from the confines of their property. Police were called but as the child is below the age of criminal responsibility then no charges could be brought, although the child's mum accepted he was at fault, apologised and said she would pay for the damage.

Mum then reported the breakage to her agent & landlord who duly sent round a local contractor to assess and quote for repair - however, the bill has been sent from the agent to my mum!?

She's 70yrs old, on a meagre pension and worried sick about approaching her neighbour for the money or how she's expected to pay. I've tried telling her it should be covered by her landlord's insurance or they should be the ones to bill her neighbour but I can't convince her to raise this with her landlord.

Grateful for any advice please?

ValHaller

AlasInWonderland wrote: »

I've tried telling her it should be covered by her landlord's insurance or they should be the ones to bill her neighbour but I can't convince her to raise this with her landlord.

You are perfectly correct. Mother should send the bill back to the agent and state that as already advised, the window was broken by child X of whatever address whose mother has accepted responsibility and suggest that the agent deal with Child X's mother direct

19lottie82

If the urchins mother said she would pay, what's the problem?
Why can't you take the bill round there and get her to provide you with the funds to pay the bill?

AlasInWonderland

Thankyou! Hope this puts her mind at rest... It was horrible to see how much this upset her as it was the latest in previously 'annoying' incidents such as laser pens being pointed at her window and the age-old 'knock and run'

AlasInWonderland

Hi 19lottie82, my mum's very timid (mainly due to an increasingly debilitating illness) and has feels more intimidated as various 'antics' have gone on, so the last thing she'd want is a doorstep stand-off with the family next door.
Plus, if they'd seen her as the addressee of the bill then they could have simply posted it back thru her door then I guess it'd be back to square one.

CKhalvashi

ValHaller wrote: »

You are perfectly correct. Mother should send the bill back to the agent and state that as already advised, the window was broken by child X of whatever address whose mother has accepted responsibility and suggest that the agent deal with Child X's mother direct

I'm with this from a purely theoretical 'what's fair' point of view, however this may need to be sub-invoiced to the neighbour in law.

CK

ValHaller

AlasInWonderland wrote: »

Hi 19lottie82, my mum's very timid (mainly due to an increasingly debilitating illness) and has feels more intimidated as various 'antics' have gone on, so the last thing she'd want is a doorstep stand-off with the family next door.
Plus, if they'd seen her as the addressee of the bill then they could have simply posted it back thru her door then I guess it'd be back to square one.

In which case, I suggest either not sending the bill itself back, in case the agent just sends the same bill straight to the neighbour, or marking the bill 'rejected' or some such before sending it back.

AlasInWonderland

Thanks for your help guys, think I've managed to persuade her to contact the agent again in the morning

I've just said to her "what if you'd had ALL your windows broken by this kid, do you actually think it's right that you'd be held financially liable for them all to be replaced??"

Bless her, don't want her to feel that I'm getting on her case about it too tho!

Fishingtime

Am I reading too much into this ?

You first said ( although the child's mum accepted he was at fault, apologised and said she would pay for the damage )

Then you said
Plus, if they'd seen her as the addressee of the bill then they could have simply posted it back thru her door then I guess it'd be back to square one.

Surely if they got a bill for a broken window, in which they had already said was their kids fault, then it would not matter who the addressee was

ValHaller

Fishingtime wrote: »

Am I reading too much into this ?

You first said ( although the child's mum accepted he was at fault, apologised and said she would pay for the damage )

Then you said
Plus, if they'd seen her as the addressee of the bill then they could have simply posted it back thru her door then I guess it'd be back to square one.

Surely if they got a bill for a broken window, in which they had already said was their kids fault, then it would not matter who the addressee was

Bear in mind what OP says about her mother and the incidents involving the child. I doubt that the encounter with the child's mother in the first place was a comfortable experience even if the promise to pay came easily. If things were neighbourly and the child's mother was obviously generally on side, I might agree. But plainly mother has not got a good handle on the child and mothers like that tend to turn nasty when confronted with the finacial consequences of their offspring's behaviour.

Let the agent sort it. it is their job.

AlasInWonderland

Ahh yes, sorry, my fault for not being clear -

The child's mother apologised profusely, accepted he was responsible and offered to pay for the damage when questioned about the incident by the police officer, thus this is what they reported back to my mum. No apology has been made directly to my mum.

Call me old-fashioned, but if i'd dared do anything like that when I was a kid, my mum would have marched me round by the scruff of my neck and made me apologise, as well as putting my pocket money towards paying for the replacement!