Money Moral Dilemma: My son's friend borrowed his bike and it got stolen - should his parents pay?

ro2778

If it was me, I would see if they offered to cover or replace it, and if they didn’t I would not pursue it because I wouldn’t want to compromise my child’s friendship. Although equally I wouldn’t pursue any relationship with the parents except logistical going forward. At the very least they should apologise and say sorry but they can’t afford to replace it, at least that would show their integrity, but if they are without integrity then I would judge it not to be worth the stress to myself or my child and simply move on.

Herminator75

The person borrowing, or their parents, should take responsibility. Anything less constitutes a lack of integrity. People have to understand when they need to do the right thing by their friends.

A couple of comments place responsibility on the owner, as if it is their fault/risk for lending the bike out - that view beggars belief, and can only come from the mind of a value-stripper who don’t understand the concept or  importance of moral fibre.

Afourteen

Yes they should but unless they have by now then I very much doubt they will. 

I had similar some years ago - I loaned a 'friend' some kit (a radio ameteur car antenna), it was stolen from his car, when I asked for it back his excuse for not replacing it was that as I loaned it to him I didn't need it...
I don't lend any thing nowadays. 

Jason9091

Herminator75 said:

The person borrowing, or their parents, should take responsibility. Anything less constitutes a lack of integrity. People have to understand when they need to do the right thing by their friends.

A couple of comments place responsibility on the owner, as if it is their fault/risk for lending the bike out - that view beggars belief, and can only come from the mind of a value-stripper who don’t understand the concept or  importance of moral fibre.

If I lend my watch to a six-year-old for 5 minutes and they drop it down a drain by accident, who's fault is it that I've now lost a £2k watch?

Because I'm not a value-stripper and I understand the concept and important of moral fibre, I would claim the cost back from the careless child.

I would not claim on the insurance as that would be immoral since it's not the insurance company's fault the child was so careless.

bikaga

Ugh, really depends on the age of the kids and their maturity, e.g. how much of the risk of what they did they can reasonably be expected to understand. 

Talking about understanding risk, you failed to add a £350 item to your insurance, with your kid(s) at an age where they obviously aren't assessing risks properly. It seems a bit wild to expect someone else to pay for it, unless they were old enough.

jedav

Some things to weigh up:

I doubt that, had the bike been insured, it would have been covered anyway because it was left unsecured.
How important is the cost of the bike to your family if you didn't insure it?
What is the financial position of the friend's family?
How close is their friendship and is it worth compromising?
Would an apology suffice?

When I was quite young (probably single figures) I borrowed a hardback book from a friend.  Unfortunately I left it out on my swing overnight and it rained so the book was spoiled.  My parents replaced it with something of a similar nature and value (I don't think that we could find the exact book).  More recently some neighbours borrowed our electric chainsaw and it broke.  They presented us with a new one at the same time as telling us.  If they'd told us first we'd have said not to bother as is was given to us and we were considering upgrading to a petrol one anyway.

Perignon

The friend should pay for it - not his parents (although that might be what happens in practice). 

maddypc

Definitely the friend's parents should pay. If the friend hadn't left the bike unlocked it wouldn't have been stolen. End of story. They need to pay.

thedr

It’s not clear if the friend had permission to borrow the bike. If the friend had permission to borrow the bike then there’s no real fault here. The owners of the bike should have insured it, but who’s to say it would be covered by the friend using it. 

If the friend did not have permission to borrow the bike then the friend’s parents are liable. If you leave something with someone expecting it to be stored safely and then find out it has been used in public place then they (the friend and parents of the friend) are responsible and should pay for a replacement. 

DrWatson1

It's your son's fault. If he hasn't left it at the friends in the first place, this wouldn't have happened.

He's learned a valuable lesson, just move on.