Holiday cottage soiled mattress

somuchindebt

Hello, asking for advise. I took children for a holiday in a rented cottage. Child has sometimes accident in bed (wetting). He wore drynites but unfortunately he had a leak. Landlords have tried to clean and steam clean it but cannot get it off and have to replace the mattress. They want to charge me 64% value of the new replacement mattress but damaged mattress is 10 years old. They said there was nothing wrong with the mattress and they wouldn't have had to replace it now plus they incurred costs of cleaning. Is this value reasonable? Thank you

glentoran99

Definitely not reasonable, the mattress was beyond its recommended lifespan

somuchindebt

Thank you glentoran99, I think so too but finding it very difficult to convince them. Do you know if they are allowed to take that amount which falls within the value of deposit or is there a procedure for it? They say that their agent advised them to go for a full value of replacement mattress but they decided agains it and taken some wear and tear into consideration. I hate having these conversations and want to reimburse some money. I offered smaller amount just above 20% of value but this was rejected.
Luckily it is not very expensive mattress but still a big expenditure for me.

glentoran99

I find it shocking that a holiday let doesn't have mattress protectors in place on a mattress,


This is in no way legal advise but personally I would offer them what I thought was reasonable, (only you can have that figure) on a take it or leave it basis,


A mattresses lifespan is around 7-10 years, So 64% seems unreasonable. 20% sounds fair enough and probably more than I would offer as that's assuming around 2 more years useage

greenface

How do you know how old ? what have they asked for in total ? is that price reasonable at two thirds of a decent matress . offer a quarter or price around for a decent of same quality and ask them for a third of that if the price is less

somuchindebt

Hello Greenface. Thank you for your comment. The cottage owner said that they bought mattress 10 years ago when they started the business. (Her daughter said they started 12 years ago but I am going with what the lady said about the mattress).
She said they are getting replacement on the like for like basis and the replacement is costing £234. She demands £150 from me. I offered £50. She said this is a very good mattress with 5 years warranty so she expects the life of the mattress to be 15 years. I asked the bed supplier about this mattress and they said this is the shortest life span mattress. They said that bed industry suggests changing the mattress every 8 years and no more than 10 years.

somuchindebt

glentoran99 wrote: »

I find it shocking that a holiday let doesn't have mattress protectors in place on a mattress,


This is in no way legal advise but personally I would offer them what I thought was reasonable, (only you can have that figure) on a take it or leave it basis,


A mattresses lifespan is around 7-10 years, So 64% seems unreasonable. 20% sounds fair enough and probably more than I would offer as that's assuming around 2 more years useage

Thank you, I will go back today and say this is my final offer. Hopefully we will settle

13Kent

In the end they can't use one of their beds until they have purchased a new mattress, and even though it was an accident that was down to you. They could be losing letting income because of it, regardless of the cost of the mattress.

In my opinion I think they are being very reasonable not asking you to foot the whole bill for a brand new mattress.

somuchindebt

13Kent, thank you for your opinion. I disagree but I do want to see views of various people.
I am wondering if there are insurances to cover businesses for incidents like this? I know it is inconvenience and I was hoping to sort out amicably but I still think this is too much.

martindow

13Kent wrote: »

In the end they can't use one of their beds until they have purchased a new mattress, and even though it was an accident that was down to you. They could be losing letting income because of it, regardless of the cost of the mattress.

In my opinion I think they are being very reasonable not asking you to foot the whole bill for a brand new mattress.

I disagree entirely with this. They are running a business and damage or breakages are likely to occur every now and then.

In rentals of houses there is a well established concept of betterment. The landlord can seek compensation for the remaining value of a damaged item but cannot expect the full cost replacement for a used item.

With the OP's mattress being near the end of its life the offer seems very fair. I would send a £50 cheque in full and final settlement and not get involved in any more correspondence over it.

warehouse

somuchindebt wrote: »

They said there was nothing wrong with the mattress and they wouldn't have had to replace it now plus they incurred costs of cleaning.

In that case ask them to go out and buy a 10 year old mattress. I'd say your £50 covers it completely, plus cleaning.