Flatmate says I owe her £600

[Digestivesandcheese]

I was meeting my flatmate (who is also a good friend) in London recently and agreed to bring her weekend bag with me on the train (She was meeting her DM earlier in the day for a trip to the Theatre) I had a rucksack containing my things for the weekend.
I got off the train in London and realised I had stupidly left her bag on the train. I got back on the train but the bag was gone! It hasn't turned up in lost property. I have chased up several times.
My friend says I owe her £600 for the bag and contents. I agree it was my fault but can I claim compensation from the rail company as the bag hasn't turned up? If not, I will have to borrow money to pay my friend for her things

I don’t know why people are saying you should replace half a foundation etc!! If I lost all my make up I would have no choice but to buy new. That alone would be £300+ and not pricy stuff either.

I think given that you were doing her a favour and you didn't technically lose it (it was stollen) going halves would be fair. You must have gone back fairly quickly if the train was still there, I wonder how she would feel if it was taken while your back was turned or if someone grabbed it some other way. It's not much different really

If this was a friend of mine and they were doing me a favour,I would really struggle to be asking for the full value of the bag and contents.

Yes you owe her the money. How careless of you - I'd be furious if I were your flatmate.

Not true, she still needs to replace these items and it will cost her the price she paid for them.

No good deed goes unpunished.

I can't believe your friend is not taking account of it being an innocent mistake while you were doing her a big favour. I've left stuff on a train before, it's easy to do with extra bags you're not used to carrying.

If I were in your friend's position there's no way I'd be demanding £600 from someone who was just doing me a favour.

I’d go halves on it but wait for it to turn up too. Bit careless of you to forget the bag on the train and that’s probably why your friend is annoyed, because you don’t seem to have taken care of her belongings.

I would pay for it and I do believe you were at fault. The rail company did nothing wrong??

like what do you think you could claim for against them? For them losing a bad they had no responsibility for? It would state it in the terms and conditions somewhere

That's an insurance job unfortunately. It should be covered within household insurance. At a bare minimum you should pay the excess.

So the items weren’t new? OP still needs to pay full price. Especially if OP was doing a favour by bringing the bag/case.

btw I do agree with PPs that lost property can take a while to turn up. If it's a posh bag it will have been more of a target for thieves but I would give it a week or two if you haven't already.

Perhaps, but really I think as friends they should both just compromise.

I wouldn't want my friend to be £600 down for a small mistake they made and a bag getting stolen.

Also, the friend has chosen to leave her bag with her friend, without discussing the value of it, so it is partly on her too. If OP had known the value then she might have refused to take it or kept a closer eye.

I would compromise and meet halfway.

Jesus, I’d have been so pissed off with you.

I'm so surprised at those scoffing at the cost.

I mentally added up my toiletries bag

Electric toothbrush - £45
Prescription skin care - £25
Moisturiser - £5
Night cream - £5
Eye cream - £7
Cleanser - £6
Flannel - £1
Shampoo - £3
Conditioner £3
Heat protection spray £7
Colour Wow -£15
Hair oil £8

Primer - £11
Foundation £10
Powder £10
Eye shadow pallet £10
Contour pallet £15
Setting spray £24
Mascara X2 - £24

Hair brush £6
Makeup brushes £35

Total - 275

Now let's look at underwear, weekend away, so we'll say Friday and Sat night?

Bra X2 = average 35 each, so 70
Pants x 4 = 20 total
Socks - £3.50

£93.50

Before we've touched chargers (to replace mine it's 35, I know. I lost it), hair tools, shoes, clothes and going out handbag. Total

£368.50

My weekend away bag could easily cost in excess of £600, without adding in any jewellery because I don't wear costume jewellery we could be looking at either irreplaceable or £££.

So all of you who are saying it's OP's fault and she should pay.

Would you genuinely want a friend to get into debt, so that you could spend hundreds of pounds on a bag and a few items of clothing and some makeup?

You see your need for this makeup etc as worth putting your friend in debt for? Perhaps that's capitalism for you in a nutshell.....

I am staggered. This is so patently a horrible materialistic attitude to me. And yet you seen almost proud that this is you viewpoint and these are your values.

Why?

Yep, I don’t even travel with all of my makeup unless I’m going abroad but I’d take my Mac concealer, blusher, mascara, serum and eyeshadow which would come to £120 at least. She can’t buy the makeup second hand and you don’t know - some of it could be barely used.

I also choose not to wear second hand clothes unless a hand me down from a friend, so replacing my bag or shoes with second hand items wouldn’t be what I would like. OP‘s friend may be open to second hand replacements, but she may not and that’s a valid stance for her to take.

Yeah this was an accident but a preventable one. It would be different if someone appeared from nowhere and wrestled the bag out of your hand. I’ve been travelling on trains since I was 11 and never left a bag on them. Have been known to leave an umbrella or two.

OP was aware her friend used high end stuff and should have taken extra care if anything with her friends items.

Mistakes happen, but this is the price to pay! Glad OP was decent enough to pay and who knows - her friend might end up deducting a bit from what she is owed out of goodwill, since OP has clearly tried her best to make amends.

I would definitely say that you’d need to offer her something towards the loss but she’s a shit friend if she lets you borrow £600 to pay her back for used things when you were trying to do her a favour by bringing her bag for her!

Op you sound lovely and sorry this happened to you - so easy to do especially with stuff extra to what you are used to carrying. Accidents happen and sounds like you helped your friend out over the weekend. Also looks like you realised very quickly, so it must have been taken, likely stolen. I think worth to keep checking lost property, in case someone accidentally picked it up (happened to me at airport and we go it back).

If there was an address tag or any other contact detail, there is still a bit of hope. However there are a lot of thefts of bags in London (I and an many friends have experienced it - for example in a train station cafe, my friend's expensive handbag was taken from tucked by her feet next to a wall - neither of us saw anything.)

Actually the flatmate shouldn't be down £600 for OP's careless mistake! And it is certainly no small mistake.

Why should the flatmate have to cough up for this? She shouldn't have to spell out what something is worth for it to not be thoughtlessly left on the train.

Christ, how fast was that their!! Awful.

I think if it was my bag I would want to recognise you were doing a favour for me and go half and half.

If she insists on £600 I will be surprised if your friendship survives that.

Yes, but the friend will have to buy them again so your point doesn't really make sense. If I had a pair of nice trainers that cost me £200 and my friend lost them, I wouldn't want them replaced with a second hand pair that cost £20?

To be fair £600 isn't ludicrous if you think about it. My phone is worth £1.5k, my laptop is worth £3k, my airpods are £200, my make-up bag is probably worth £150/200, I don't use them but straighteners are like £150? Decent jeans can be pricey...

I'm with your friend here. You left the bag unattended, it went, you are responsible.
Will she let you pay her back in installments if its easier ?

it would be different if the friend had said - can you look after my laptop for me - we all know a laptop is worth £500 or so.

But an overnight bag? you'd not generally expect it to be that expensive/valuable and if it is, then it should be insured (my stuff is for general out of the house for £1k, with laptop and phone covered seperately).

So i'd do a police report and ask friend for a full list of what was in the bag/value and when bought.

and offer half. I had not agreed in advance to be responsible for a high value item, just a bag with some clothes in.