Damage charge to a UK holiday home caused by a young child - help!

GLSussex

Hi, we stayed in a UK holiday cottage last week for a family Easter break. My young son made some marks on the wood cladding of the building using a stick. The scratches are visible but are really not that big a deal - the cladding is 'rough-cut' and the whole ethos of the accommodation is eco and rustic.

The owners, via the letting firm we booked through, have let us know they need to replace 11 of the cladding boards and the total charge to us is £1000!

In my mind this is A. completely out of proportion with the damage caused and B. isn't damage caused by a young child counted as 'accidental damage' (whilst my son obviously should not have made the marks, there was no malicious intent behind it).

Any advice much appreciated, we don't have £1k and I'm feeling very stressed about it all.

Georgina

macman

It may not have been malicious, but it's certainly not accidental. And even if it were accidental, you'd still be expected to pay for the damage, since you are responsible for the actions of your child. Refer to the terms of your contract re breakages/damage.
The sum requested does seem high, and suspiciously 'rounded' at exactly £1K, but without knowing the area of the cladding, or the type of wood, or the means of access or attachment, it's not possible to say what a fair price would be. If the scratches are light, could it not be sanded and refinished?
Did you pay a security deposit, and are they retaining this?

GLSussex

Thanks for your reply. Yep the holiday let company have taken our £150 deposit and then invoiced us for £850 more. I have a photo of the scratches but I can't post it as it's not a URL.

But it seems an easy fix job to me, and I have no idea how they are justifying the 1k spend. They say they can't sand the boards as they're 'rough-cut finish' so to have some smooth patches amongst the roughness wouldn't look good.

I question the need to replace the boards at all - it's environmentally unsound and the function of the boards hasn't been compromised (and in my opinion the aesthetic is hardly affected too). Do you think I just shouldn't argue it and accept the charge? Thanks for your advice.

Keep_pedalling

It's cosmetic damage and it is nonsesnce to say the boards need replacing, as they are going to have to do that every time a small child finds them running a stick against the boards makes a rather nice clacking sound.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

wow £1000 seems a lot, sounds as though you've wrecked the place.

I'm sure there has been other damage done to the place previously.

If you did pay, be interesting to see the place at a later date to see if damage had been repaired.

Oh, if you want a picture up, somebody will post it for you.

firefox1956

Post up the actual details of the letting firm & then somebody can read their T&C's & offer better advice.
HTH

PasturesNew

GLSussex wrote: »

I have a photo of the scratches but I can't post it as it's not a URL.

Go to website https://postimage.io/ - no registration, no signup.
Just upload the photos.
You can use the dropdown for them to automatically delete in 1 day if you wish, or 7 days.... or never.

Once it's uploaded, you then get a whole list of urls to post here for people to see it. One says "direct to image" that'd do, or any other of the options.

As a NEW USER you won't be able to copy/paste the image url - but if you insert some spaces in it we can join it up again to make a clickable link.

iammumtoone

How did they find out about the damage? Did they spot it after you checked out or did you point it out to them?

warehouse

I'd like to know how a young child using a stick can cause £1000 worth of damage to wood. When my son was 2 he made some minor scratches to my cars paintwork with a stone which could easily have racked up into the high £hundreds if repainted, (they're still there), but a stick onto wood?

Would really like to see those pictures OP.

greenface

Wow . Overcharging for small damage . Let them chase you for it and prove its a grands worth of work . Pic would be good . If its roughcut cladding and ten boards of average length (less than 10ft) half that easy unless the lot needs to come off to replace the damaged ones

parking_question_chap

I would post it up on a review sites like TripAdvisor etc and say you have been billed £1,000 for the damage.