Real-life MMD:Dogs destroyed neighbour's signed ball. Should we replace it?

Primrose

Certainly not. If the ball was that precious it would be in a place of honour on his bedroom shelf. If he was kicking it around in the garden it would have got damaged anyway eventually. Your neighbours are just trying it on!

hogger84

I dont think you should pay for the ball at all for the reasons already stated.

however to those saying "send him the vet bill" I do wonder what the advice would be on this diliemea

"My son accidentally kicked his [ordinary] football into the neighbours garden. My neighbour is now charging me for vet bills as his dogs may have eaten it, what should I do?

(p.s. the dogs were showing no signs of distress)"

gaum

Further to my previous post, I've found a signed book on eBay for £34.99 (there are two available). You could offer to give your neighbours that as long as they pay (your much more expensive) vet's bill for checking that your dogs are okay after their son let a potentially dangerous object land on your private property without your permission.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WAYNE-ROONEY-SIGNED-BOOK-MY-DECADE-IN-THE-PREMIER-LEAGUE-MACHESTER-UNITED-SIGNED-/261319152494?pt=Non_Fiction&hash=item3cd7d5d36e

pippinpuss

My son has 2 signed balls, that he has had for approx 15 years since he was 12. He knows they are valuable & they are for looking at not for playing with.

So NO the child should not be playing with it & you could counter their claim with trespass onto your property.

eurovision_fan

The walls are 6ft high, if he's kicking them over that then the child isn't a very good shot, secondly if its a signed ball - why on earth are they kicking it? It's a valuable item

Secondly, I assume the neighbours for sometime and have known you have dogs which have free access to the back garden.

I would rule that it is negligent of the child's parents for not supervising the child playing with the valuable ball - any parent with any understanding of value wouldn't let the child play with that particular ball, and accidents always happen but because the accident isn't of your fault you shouldn't be pushed to pay for a new signed ball.

One person's stupidity shouldn't be the legitimacy of a claim.

gaving7095

I add a strong "heck, NO" vote :-)
Why play with a valuable ball? The child clearly needs to learn a lesson which the parents don't seem at all interested in teaching (which is the real problem here in my opinion).
Do what you can to "help", by not paying :-)
Sorry to hear about your obviously-crappy neighbors however :-(

gaum

hogger84 wrote: »

I dont think you should pay for the ball at all for the reasons already stated.

however to those saying "send him the vet bill" I do wonder what the advice would be on this diliemea

"My son accidentally kicked his [ordinary] football into the neighbours garden. My neighbour is now charging me for vet bills as his dogs may have eaten it, what should I do?

(p.s. the dogs were showing no signs of distress)"

Having always had pets myself and having worked in an animalshelter, I'm afraid I think that you should foot the bill if their dogs had tobe checked. You can't always tell whether something has gone wrong until thevet checks things out. Better safe than sorry. I’m assuming that part or all ofthe ball was missing after the dogs got hold of it. If I were in your situationthat's what I would do, as it would be my responsibility and I know howimportant it is not to leave these things to chance.

There are three possible levels of bill: 1) If the vet givesthe all clear, it's just the consultation fee; 2) if x-rays or an operation areneeded and your neighbour has pet insurance, it should just be the excess onthe policy; 3) If your neighbour doesn't have pet insurance, it could be amighty bill.

On one of those vet programmes last week a dog died afterhaving chewed part of a blanket. He was operated on because he would have diedif he hadn’t been, but he went downhill after the operation and died anyway. AsI said, you can’t leave it to chance. Our pets are part of our family – we investyears of our lives, not to mention a huge amount of money in them. They areliving creatures too. I would no more leave it unchecked than if it were mychild.

Elisecas

I agree with most everyone else, you don't owe them any money.

It wasn't a secret you had dogs; their ball trespassed into your garden. This is their issue, not yours.

Makes for uncomfortable neighbourhood relations, and normally I'd suggest a token gesture, but I can't think of a compromise here.

Allow him to pursue a court action - he'll give up when his solicitor advises the no-case-to-answer waste of money on his part.

bigbloke45

I would think that being kicked around in a back garden would have destroyed any value in the first place. If they were that worried, they should not have let him play with it all.

They are trying it on; ignore them!

Good luck

spike2012

Id replace the ball like-for-like (unsigned) and send a tweet to whoever at most. If it meant that much, it shouldn't have been kicked...