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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Would you be livid - ruined clothes?

86 replies

deliakate · 05/12/2011 17:12

Quickly popped with ds, 2.5, to the local shops for milk and he was pottering about on the way back. I was watching him closely on a particularly narrow bit of pavement when he plonked his hand onto a very wide, 4 foot high thick wall running alongside the pavement. I looked down and his hand and arm was totally covered in sticky, stinky white paint - very thick rendering stuff that you use on outside walls. Impossible to get off - maybe unless you have swafega (sp) which when we ran home I found out was all gone :(

Its ruined his Gap puffa (about £45 worth) and he reached up to his wool balaclava, so that's another £20. There was no sign in sight, and the wall is pretty long and unavoidable for toddlers. Its on my lovely purse too, and I'm just so peed off. I think the owners of the house have builders there, but there should have been something to let people know it was wet surely? AIBU ?

OP posts:
hocuspontas · 05/12/2011 18:55

There was a sign but it was moved. A half-filled grit bin that was protecting people from the wall was moved as well.

babybythesea · 05/12/2011 19:08

Well, that might change things a bit - if someone else has come along and moved the things they had tried to protect the wall with then there's not much you can do. Accept it as one of those things. And let your lad wear the coat with paint on it - it won't do him any harm.

Original poster
deliakate · 05/12/2011 19:20

Wonder what time the builders knocked off.... I was going home at about 3:50. The au pair had got in before that - presumably after 3pm. hocuspontas - do you know this house? lol

OP posts:
hocuspontas · 05/12/2011 19:26

Grin Sorry I was being silly. I was referring to a thread a couple of days ago about a paint-ruined coat in the school playground. In that instance a group of 5 year old girls had removed the 'wet paint' sign and a grit bin and managed to get gloss paint over them.

Original poster
deliakate · 05/12/2011 19:28

My mum has just returned again - very decent home owner.

OP posts:
lljkk · 05/12/2011 19:34

I'd be livid with myself for not paying more attention to what my toddler was touching.

Pancakeflipper · 05/12/2011 19:44

When I was a kid I got gloss paint all over my Winter coat, my dad scrubbed it off with turps... It worked, my mother never found out. Though I did whiff quite a bit for a few days.

PurpleCrazyHorse · 05/12/2011 19:55

I would try some white spirit to get it off. As the coat is already knackered, it's hardly going to do it too much harm. Our fence paint was slightly plasticky so it might peal off when dry??!

Rhubarbgarden · 05/12/2011 20:27

When we painted our railings I put two signs up and still worried about passers by getting paint on them. I can't believe how many people have said your child shouldn't have touched the wall - how ridiculous! I regularly hear a familiar xylophone type sound as local kids drag sticks along our railings, and I often find the gravel at the end of the drive scooped up into little mounds or sprinkled on the pavement; toddlers can't help themselves. Do I get chippy about it? Of course not - it goes with the territory of living in an urban area with high foot traffic past our house. If someone had got paint on them from my railings I would have been mortified and would have paid for the damage. And as for the snide remarks on here about the cost of the jacket - how nasty!

marriedandwreathedinholly · 05/12/2011 20:41

I'm sorry about the coat. I think it's just one of those things. You probably will be able to get some of the stuff off and does it really matter if the coat and hat are a bit painty providing they still keep him warm. It's annoying but it's happened and it's only the coat that's damaged. Your ds could have scooted at speed round a corner and bashed into a wall and you could be sitting in a&e waiting for the glue and stitches.

NinkyNonker · 05/12/2011 21:00

Yanbu.

Firawla · 05/12/2011 21:42

so what did the home owner say then?
i am with those who think its not home owner's fault as your ds did not have to touch the wall. i understand toddlers sometimes touch things they are not supposed to, but then that is your fault as the parent not the home owner's fault. i teach mine not to touch other people's things and if i was the home owner and someone came round wanting compensation for this i would find it so cheeky and tell them to get lost, but it sounds like they were generous with you?

Original poster
deliakate · 05/12/2011 22:09

Home owner was mortified about it, and gave us a cheque for £40 which was very kind. My mum didn't go to ask for compensation outright, but she did take the jacket round to show them what a wreck it was, and the lady already had her cheque book ready after the first visit to the au pair. Very grateful.

OP posts:
Laquitar · 05/12/2011 22:22

It's interesting. If this had happened to me my reaction would be 'shit!', then i would start a thread 'Please help me to remove paint from jacket'.

Sometimes i read threads here and i don't know if i am weird, or laid back or idiot Confused Confused

Insomnia11 · 05/12/2011 22:29

People who say you/your child shouldn't have touched the wall really, really need to read about occupier's liability.

Someone had painted their gate when we went round delivering parish newsletters and my daughter and I got black paint on our hands, fortunately not on clothing but I thought it was very thoughtless not to have put up a sign.

Popbiscuit · 05/12/2011 22:29

That was kind, Delia. They sound lovely Smile.

growing3rdbump · 05/12/2011 22:47

Wow, that was very nice of them to do that. I think I would have just thought it was one of those unfortunate things, but I guess it does pay to complain sometimes.

Catslikehats · 06/12/2011 03:21

As an owner of private property you have a duty of care to anyone who uses/comes into contact with your property: hence all the tales of posties sucessfully suing after tripping on cracked pavers or burglars suing after cutting hands on glass topped walls.

OP I am glad you had a reasonable outcome.

Next time you want advice don't mention the cost of the item Grin

Spermysextowel · 06/12/2011 04:05

Reasonable for the OP maybe, but certainly not for the homeowner. My neighbour has a very dodgy garden wall which she cannot afford to have replaced, nor is she in a good position to do so as is 88 & barely leaves her front room. She's become something of a local joke; banging on her window shouting 'get off my wall' as the local primary kids see it as their right to use it as an assault course.

It's about 1'5ft but you can guarantee that at some point she's going to be sued for injury to a child who's walked along it. Hopefully in a Sainsbury's coat rather than a £45 one.

ArtVandelay · 06/12/2011 08:34

Thats a great outcome. What nice people.

(Now you can go to Primark and buy 10 new coats Hmm )

Catslikehats · 06/12/2011 09:37

Certainly reasonable for the homeowner in so far as the alternative (being sucessfully claimed against in court) would be a real pain in the arse.

LondonMumsie · 06/12/2011 10:26

I think the owner potentially had some liability under either/both Occupier's Liability or also the Highways Act.

SMST - I think your 88 year old may need some help to make her wall safe. If someone is damaged on the pavement by it, as a result of her wall, she could be in trouble, I think. Though that may only be over a certain height?

Ghoulwithadragontattoo · 06/12/2011 10:59

YANBU - of course there should have been a sign. Glad the homeowner sorted out so amicably!

porcamiseria · 06/12/2011 11:01

go and throw some black gravel onto the fence

montmartre · 06/12/2011 11:24

WTF? Why are people being so snipey about the coat?
My DS has the gap coats- they're down-filled and v v warm- he has a circulatory condition and it's really the best thing for keeping him warm.

There should have been a sign up!

V nice of home owner to recompense you though, lovely lady.