To expect a woman to pay for the damage done to my house by her dog?

[architien]

A while back:
I look after a woman's child while she was in labour (36hours!)a while back on the understanding a price for 6 hours after which we'd "get a little extra" if it was over that. I happily looked after her child for 36 hours gave the mum and child and baby presents. She promised she had set up an automatic bank transfer for the payment but it didn't appear so in the end after well over a week later I convinced her to pay.

Three days ago:
Same woman contacts me saying would i look after her dog for a month because she was getting harrassed and going into emergency council accomodation. I invited them to stay with me at Christmas and when she said she had to stay in the temporary accomodation in order to be rehoused i put together a christmas tree, lights, gold baubles and Christmas presents for each of them so her child didn't miss out. I felt really sorry for her and agreed a price for looking after the dog (dispite being heavily pregnant and currently ill) as i could bare the idea that her child would lose the dog. She said she's pay by automatic transfer yesterday. Nothing. Yesterday i contacted her to say that the dog has destroyed my kitchen door last night in freting. Today I wake up to take him out and he's also chewed and ripped up my lino. Then i get a message from her saying she is coming to pick the dog up only wanting to pay a qurter of the orginal price that was due yesterday. My husband said i should hold on to the dog until she pays for the damages but i couldn't see her child without the dog at Christmas.
The question is:
AIBU for wanting her to pay for the damage now and for being as angry that i'll now spend Christmas scrubbing floors (the dog pooed and weed at least 12 times each day all over the house)?

No way in hell should you be holding onto the dog, it clearly is not happy being with you and apart from his family, so don't even think about listening to your DH.

YANBU to ask for the damages paid though. On what grounds has she asked to pay only a quarter of the price? Did you quote her too much?

Btw, are you a CM? Or is this woman a friend? If it's the latter, I'm a bit surprised you charged her for childcare while she was in labour tbh, I wouldn't request payment for that. Maybe she thinks that way too.

Sounds like you have the makings of a nice little business, performing altuistic, neighbourly deeds in return for cash payment. Let this be a lesson - always agree terms in writing, and make sure you declare the income in your tax returns.

i think the fact you looked after her child when she is in labour is entirely another matter, to be honest, but yes, I would expect her to pay for the damage or the entire four week agreed amount for the dog.

firstly, I assume you're OFSTED registered as you're looking after a child in your home for over 2 hours? ( thought not!).
Secondly, what do you expect if you look after someone's dog? Official petsitters will have insurance to cover this with good reason.
Did you not hear it fretting and biting the door? I take it you were taking the money to lock her dog in the kitchen on its own for hours?

Yes, don't jump to conclusions I'm care commission registered folks and i report my income ta and she is not a friend but someone who looked for my services.

I was up quite a lot over the nights to calm the dog down but duringthe day it would be right next to me only in the kitchen when i was asleep so that's not the problem, it turns out (i find this out today) she had left it in her old flat on it's own for a week apart from walking it once a day then leaving it again. I don't blame the dog for fretting after that.
I quoted £5 per day to look after it so this price is not the question.
The question is AIBU to expect her to pay for the damage?

And of course i took the dog home to the family...i didn't listen to my husband but I am left with this awful mess :(

poor you . bet you won't want to do favours any more. she should be making amends, big time

YANBU. And I can't understand why you're getting such a hard time. You've gone out of your way for this woman and she is jerking you around. Agreeing a price and afterwards refusing to pay it is not OK, and she should IMHO be paying for the damage.

Might be a good idea to take photos of the damage and mess now: it never hurts to have evidence even if you never have occasion to use it.

I'm dreading my husband getting home i know we're going to argue as i had to convince him it was a good thing to help out in the first place. I think your advice of photos is a good idea ThisIsANiceCage and i should dig out the camera.

Small claims court will cost you £30, google it.
You may never see a penny but you might be able to get an attachment of earnings or benefits to pay towards your kitchen.
Take lots of photo's.

I don't see how you are BU at all. I'm suprised everyone is jumping down your throat tbh! You provided a service and expected to be paid for it... I'd like to see anyone else here go to work for free. I think you should be paid but doesnt sound like you will be :(

If you are registered, don't you have insurance cover for incidents such as these (the damage done by the dog)?

I don't think yabu to expect to receive payment for the time you looked after the dog (£5 per day for 3 days?) but I think it's questionable to ask her to pay for the damage. Isn't the dog your responsibility once it is in your care? If you could see that you couldn't cope with it why didn't you tell them to come and collect it sooner?

I think it's a bit odd to offer to look after a dog unless it's a friend or unless you are qualified or experienced enough to look after it. Do you have insurance to cover you looking after someone's dog in your own home? If so, that should cover the cost of the damage.

However, I have looked after friend's dogs before as a favour (am v. experienced) and for free and accepted minorish damage (scratches to doors) without asking for the cost of the damage to be covered, but I did draw the line when a friend's dog chewed the veneer off my kitchen cupboard door. She has the same kitchen as me luckily, so we swapped doors.

I think it's an occasion where you have to learn from experience. She could claim that you didn't care for the dog appropriately and that's why the damage was caused.
So YANBU to be paid for the time you looked after the dog, but YABU to expect her to pay for the damage, and YWDBU to enter into any sort of arrangement with her again.

She should definately pay you for damages.

Get her to get in touch with Cinnamon Trust. They provide a service (free of charge I think) to look after animals when the owners can't for whatever reason (hospital etc)

Insured for children but not dogs :(
She said she couldn't afford to put the dog in kennels and if i didn't help her out she'd have to take the child's dog to a pound. I couldn't let that happen to her child so agreed a tocken gesture of £5/dayu for what she said was a well-behaved dog.
I'm pretty experienced with dogs and have lived with dogs for 20odd years now, so i wouldn't have even mentioned a little bit of damage.
I think your advice of small claims is something i'll look into if she decides to not pay.
It's just such a shame i'm left with a wreaked kitchen door and lino over christmas and I can't imagine it'll be cheap to replace.

Yanbu and I also think its odd that some people seem to think you are being unreasonable to charge for your services!! Bloody hell- do they work for free?? Doubt it! I would put this one down to experience and black list the woman in future. You have gone out of your way to give her and her kids a decent xmas and she's taking the piss

YANBU and I hope you get some satisfaction for your troubles. As a rescuer and dog-lover I can only thank you from the bottom of my heart as you may well have saved that dog's life. Had he gone into a pound just before Christmas there would have been an even greater chance than usual that he would have been put to sleep there.

The owner got a very good deal from you in the first place and is now taking the mick. I second the suggestion that you go to the small claims court if she continues to refuse to pay.

YANBU to want her to pay for it but I doubt she will or be able to?

As you're regsitered etc, do you have insurance for the damage?

In future get the payment before you do the work, it'll save alot of hassle!

dog weed and pooed 12 times in one day??? good grief

I wouldn't warn her if you will pursue a claim - you will need an address for her to be able to serve the claim on her I think so you will need to know where she is after the hostel so you might have to be in touch nicely until the point at which you have her new address. Agree with other posters that you provided a service (and above and beyond because of your concern for the children being in such a situation) but that is not a reason for her think she can take people for a ride.