For context, I am a single lady house owner, retired, so on a moderate income.
Just 8 weeks after I had new vinyl laid in my kitchen a local man came to my house to collect something I sold him on eBay for £50. There was a piece of furniture in the way of him carrying the purchased item out of the house, and without asking me or waiting for me to help lift it and move it, he took it upon himself to drag the piece across the vinyl, stretching it and tearing a jagged hole 40cm long and 20cm wide. He was suitably apologetic and said to let him know how much the repair cost, and left.
Flooring man came back and tried his level best to make an invisible mend but because the vinyl had been rucked up and stretched as well as ripped, it was impossible. He glued it down so it wasn't a trip hazard but it looked horrible. He did not charge me.
I tried to live with it for a couple of weeks but it's in a most prominent and brightly-lit spot in the middle of the room. The only solution was to re-buy the whole sheet and pay the fitter again. It cost £350. I messaged the man who did it and he flatly refuses to reimburse me, saying that is a ridiculous amount to pay for his innocent mistake.
And so I am £350 out of pocket, entirely because of him!
AIBU to think that he should reimburse me?