Damage to TV screen on holiday

sheramber

It may be a new or fairly new tv. 

powerful_Rogue

YellowCarBlueCar said:

powerful_Rogue said:

YellowCarBlueCar said:

Why should the owner be expected to buy a used TV of unknown provenance, and possible electrical safety issues?  The owner would be liable it it caught fire or electrocuted a subsequent guest. 

They will need to quickly replace it ready for the next guests, so will most likely need to pay whatever a local store charges, without the luxury of shopping online. 

Please don't talk such nonsense.

Well that's quite rude!

Not a word of nonsense written - coming from a chartered electrical engineer and owner of a furnished holiday let.  I'm just presenting the other (factual) perspective.

The owner has a duty of care to ensure that all electrical equipment is safe (The Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 1994).  Most owners aren't 'competent persons' (i.e. able to prove that they have sufficient knowledge, skill, and access to calibrated PAT equipment) to test second-hand goods, so at best would have to arrange and pay for PAT testing.
In the event of an injury the onus is on the owner to prove that they have discharged this duty of care.

On the second point, owners typically have a 6 hour change-over period between guests.  How would you feel if you arrived on holiday to find that the TV (or other advertised amenity) was broken?  The owner needs to find a replacement in those 6 hours as well as ensure the rest of the changeover is completed (and at the moment with the need to sanitise every touch-point, apply anti-viral fogging to all surfaces, as well as a decent 'standard' clean there isn't a lot of time to spare).

As for insurance, of course the owner will be insured, but policy excesses have increased massively in the last 12 months as insurers scrabble to recoup their Covid cancellation losses (mine is now £250), so no help there.

The bottom line is, if you broke it in your own home you'd have to pay to replace it.  Why would that be different if you break it somewhere else?

We're not talking about the owner going to the local charity shop and buying a used TV. What's being said is that the owner can't expect betterment - IE the cost of the TV brand new when it was for example 2 years old.

YellowCarBlueCar

We have no information to go on regarding betterment.  It may have been 10 years old or 10 days old.

I was responding to the only preceding posts which suggested the owner could buy a used replacement from eBay for £100, based on very little information. 

I pointed out that the owner would neither have the time to buy online, and could not carry out their duty of care to their guests by doing this, both factually correct.

Which was in your view 'nonsense' which I should not be expressing.

Jumblebumble

YellowCarBlueCar said:

We have no information to go on regarding betterment.  It may have been 10 years old or 10 days old.

I was responding to the only preceding posts which suggested the owner could buy a used replacement from eBay for £100, based on very little information. 

I pointed out that the owner would neither have the time to buy online, and could not carry out their duty of care to their guests by doing this, both factually correct.

Which was in your view 'nonsense' which I should not be expressing.

Why should the owner benefit by virtue of an accident ?
The OP is within their rights to just pay as compensation the market value of the TV should they choose. 
( This is standard practice with every write off following a car accident and the TV situation is no different)
I imagine in practice most AirBNB hosts would not be enormously concerned about PAT testing

sheramber

I doubt the OP intends to contribute any more to the story.

SPOWER

Hi.  I would say holiday parks are raking it in and these caravans are made of chipboard.  They are flimsy and wear and tear does happen.  There is no way you should pay for this.  

martindow

SPOWER said:

Hi.  I would say holiday parks are raking it in and these caravans are made of chipboard.  They are flimsy and wear and tear does happen.  There is no way you should pay for this.  

The caravans may well be flimsy but I doubt the TV was made of chipboard.

jon81uk

Also did the caravan owner ask you to turn the TV off at the mains? If so they should have ensured it was accesible to do so.

If you decided to do that, thenit is your fault the TV fell and you should contribute towards a replacement.