Mum being billed for window she didn't break

DRP

Forward the bill to the mother along with a polite note thanking her for accepting responsibility and the offer to pay for the damage.

That would be the appropriate and polite thing to do in my opinion.

ValHaller

CKhalvashi wrote: »

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

Suppose the LL sued OP's mother. OP's mother could successfully defend on grounds of not being responsible for causing the damage, or if not, I would be extremely surprised. If OP's mother could successfully defend on these grounds, then Child's mother could defend any claim from OP's mother on the grounds that OP's mother was not liable.

Don't forget that the LL is responsible for Buildings Insurance. I have a feeling your thinking may be based in contract vehicle hire. If the hirer has a responsibility to insure, the liability model will not apply to housing in the same way. Housing is largely governed by common law of tenancies and Statute law more recently. Vehicle hire will be governed by contract law and a different body of custom and practice.

ValHaller

AlasInWonderland wrote: »

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!

The lack of contact from child's mother speaks volumes louder than the police reporting pretty much what you would expect the police to hear.

OP's mother should stay out of it. This is the best way for her to help the LL recover his losses. If she starts acting as a postbox, she will be in an awkward position if the child's mother refuses to pay and may find herself under pressure from the agent to pay up herself.

G_M

DRP wrote: »

Forward the bill to the mother along with a polite note thanking her for accepting responsibility and the offer to pay for the damage.

That would be the appropriate and polite thing to do in my opinion.

This is step one. But please... do not send the bill. Send a copy of the bill. Keep the original.

If mum pays, problem solved.

If not, then return the original bill (keeping a copyforyour records) to the landlors (or his agent) denying responsibility. Provide the neighbour's details for information.

greenface

Why dont you knock and pass the bill for the damage to the mum. Kids are kids and accidents happen . Why was the police called if you knew who broke the glass. Being the youngest of 4 boys my dads second job was a glazier when we were growing up.

GDB2222

Hi Alas. As your mum becomes frailer, you'll need to take over responsibility for more of her affairs. Why not start here, and get her permission for you to sort this out for her?

thesaint

I believe the agent is correct in sending the bill to their tenant.
Let the tenant forward the bill to the neighbour.

tim123456789

thesaint wrote: »

I believe the agent is correct in sending the bill to their tenant.
Let the tenant forward the bill to the neighbour.

I don't

unless the agents are claiming negligence on the part of the tenant, repairing a broken window is always the LL's responsibility.

tim

AlasInWonderland

greenface wrote: »

Why dont you knock and pass the bill for the damage to the mum. Kids are kids and accidents happen . Why was the police called if you knew who broke the glass. Being the youngest of 4 boys my dads second job was a glazier when we were growing up.

I do appreciate that kids play sometimes gets 'out of hand' so to speak, and that accidents happen, but the stone used would have to have been thrown with as much force as the child could muster AND was thrown from a next-door garden to an upstairs [double-glazed] window, resulting in the outside pane being broken, ie: with a hole in it, not just cracked.
The police were called as it was a deliberate act - whether to antagonise or genuinely cause the resulting damage - and also to validate my mum's call to the landlord for the damage to be fixed.
Mum's had no bother with any neighbours for the 20+ years she's lived there, but has had ongoing bother since she appears to have been targeted (for want of a better word) by these kids as some kind of source of amusement.

Whilst I do want to stick up for and defend her, I also have to respect her wishes that doing so may further antagonise the situation - something I dread happening when I'm not here as I've seen first hand how this situation has got to her... it's been wearing her down since the first, fairly minor, incidents happened.

I'm trying to persuade her to let me take her to Citizens' Advice so that she can find out the rights etc. of it all from someone directly, with facts.

ValHaller

thesaint wrote: »

I believe the agent is correct in sending the bill to their tenant.
Let the tenant forward the bill to the neighbour.

Sorry, once again, I think you are mistaken. OP's mother has told the agent who is responsible

If it were an owner occupier property, would you be advising that the owner (who has sustained the loss) should send themselves a bill and then forward it to the neighbour?