To think this property owner had a cheek?

[EngineeringExcellence]

We're just back from a lovely weekend break with extended family.

We rented a house costing £1300 for the 3 nights (10 of us) It was lovely and we had all mod cons etc.

At night i have a bedroom window open, the curtain blew in the breeze (not the great storm!) and knocked a trinket box off the windowsil. It was a heart shaped mirrored box marked made China.

Anyway owner has just called asking for cash to replace it.

AIBU to think there was/should be enough profit there to cover minor damages, which are to be expected, things left in windowsills are always at risk, it was a bit of cheap tatt and it's highly unlikely that she would bother replacing it?

It's a bit shit for the landlord to put objects in the way of things like windows that need to be used with the intention that the person staying there has to be concerned about moving their property to keep it safe.

Just don't put it where it can get knocked or blown over or better yet.. Don't put it in the let.

I am not sure, APartridge - I put things on my windowledges, and I always forget, until it happens, that they could get blown over. But if you are going to put ornaments in the property, you have to accept that the occasional one will get broken and need replacing - and that cost should be built into your rental figures.

Send a postal order for £5 and move on.

I'd have mentioned it, (after all, how embarrassing if you just cleared it away and the owner later accused you of pinching it), and apologised, but would hope there'd be no replacement charge. Something like a tv would be a major expense to fix or replace, but I'm surprised the owners would hold out for the cost of repair or replacement of fol de rols if the full cost of replacement is tax deductible.

Btw LOL @ We have had the occasional breakage when staying in a holiday cottage (and the time when ds1 ate a cork table mat)

YANBU. For all the reasons given by the YANBUers above.

I'm agog as to how the phone call went. Did she say how much she wanted? What did you say? Were there cross words? (Did you say you'd have to think about whether it was reasonable or not?)

The onus is on the owner to make sure her property is safeguarded. The op had nothing to do with the breakage. She was using the cottage in the way it was intended to be used. The trinket should not have been placed somewhere, it was not safe from things outside of a renters control. It is not unreasonable for the op to have a window open. In law, the word "reasonable" is bandied around a lot.

YANBU

Donkeys - the OP did leave a note 'fessing up about the breakage.

I am in the "would pay up" camp - have broken a cheapo mug in a cottage and replaced it with a similar sort and left a nice note. It's just manners.

I also think that people use the words "it was an accident" when they have not taken adequate precautions themselves - ie moved the thing away from the open window. In this case the "accident" was perfectly preventable. as a grown adult, the OP should have realised that.

Is there NO common sense in the world anymore? Or do we all just expect to be able to blame someone or something other than ourselves?

I was agreeing I too would mention it but would hope the cottage owner would not pursue me for recompense.

That item could have sat there in the same spot, window open, for months, just bad luck the fabric caught it that night.

Apologies for misunderstanding, Donkeys.

No worries SDTG.

The £1300 is irrelevant. That is what both parties agreed was fair to rent the place for the time you were there. Nobody forced you to rent the cottage. You got what you paid for.

The breakage is a completely separate matter and yes generally you should pay for other people's things that you break.

I agree, OTOH, that the owner is being a bit petty if the box was indeed "tat" as you say. I pause only to note that not everything made in China is worthless, and perhaps the mirrored box was worth more than you imagine.

Do you not think that the cottage rental, whatever it is, would include an amount towards breakages, Voice? I don't think it is particularly unusual for the odd breakage to happen, and if I were renting out a cottage, I would rather have taken that into account in advance, and made sure that 1) I didn't put anything irreplaceable and precious in the cottage, 2) I had spare stock of things like mugs, plates, cutlery, glasses etc, so I could keep a full set stocked up at the cottage and 3) That there was a sum within the rental to cover replacements if necessary.

I am totally guessing here - based only on my own experience of renting cottages - but I wouldn't expect a breakage per rental, so on those occasions, the breakage sum would go onto profit. If there was a breakage, it would be covered - even if it cost a bit more than the sum allocated for replacements within the rental - so over a season, you'd still end up ahead.

Of course, if the renters break lots of things, or cause a lot of damage to the property by carelessness or deliberately, then the owner should absolutely chase them for those costs. But chasing someone for the cost of a small ornament (unless it was priceless or irreplaceable, in which case it shouldn't have been there in the first place), seems petty to me.

I do see what you are saying about not everything made in China being worthless/cheap - but the presence of a sticky label on the bottom saying Made in China does suggest it is not a priceless antique...

You broke something in the house - and the owner is the one being cheeky wanting it paid for?

Probably already been said but if there were 10 of you and if it was just "cheap tat" then surely a whip around would only cost you a few quid each anyway?

Some property owners just do not understand the value of not sweating the small stuff and how important on-line reviews, word of mouth and repeat business are these days.

OP rented a high end expensive cottage. A minor accidental damage occurred, OP was honest enough to mention it. A good business person would send her back a lovely note and say "thanks so much for letting us know - there's no cost these things happen, hope you had a good time, please let others know how much you enjoyed our property. "

It reminds me very much of a gite we rented in France. It was part of a group of properties and the British owners were on site. The grounds and pool were lovely, but gawd they didn't half manage to suck the joy out of our holiday. First evening we were sitting outside - the outside light was broken so we had brought out a candle holder - the lady appeared from nowhere and swooped it away, shouting that we weren't allowed to use inside furnishings outside.

I found a broken Ikea mug with the handle hidden inside it on our first morning ( other people probably couldn't face them) and thought I better mention it to them. I was more or less accused of lying - as if I would bother about a mug worth 1 euro or less.

Similar incidents happened around other things - they had bought the cheapest furnishings known to man, then were strangely surprised when these proved less than durable.

Agree with theoriginal there.

If at all possible we make no alterations to rent due each month during a tenancy. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, and it doesn't make good business sense to piss the tenant off unnecessarily.

With holiday lets, you would operate in a similar way because you would be hoping for good reviews and perhaps some repeat bookings.

A holiday let is a business. If as an owner you leave stuff in it which is of great value either in monetary or sentimental terms, you're an idiot.

If you don't have a stock of glasses ,crockery etc to replace items which get broken you are not running your business properly.

If you don't have your insurance cover properly set up to cover the fact it is a holiday let, then again, more fool you.

I'm astonished at some of the sanctimonious postings on here. I let out property. Tenants deliberately trashing the place, yes you get what you can from them.

Making a fuss about wear and tear and accidental damage, absolutely not. If I ever find myself arguing about a broken ornament I'll take that as a big sign I've lost the plot, sell up and do something else.

SDTG Yes, I agree with you. I even wrote that the owner was being petty. OTOH I don't share the OP's sense of outrage at being asked to pay for a breakage and her sense of entitlement to eat into the LL's profit. Personally, I agree with later posters about reviews and goodwill being worth more than, say, a tenner.

Another point to bear in mind is that a high end cottage is also often the owner's own holiday house and so may reasonably contain items that are not just replaceable IKEA tat, that need to be taken care of. I have one friend who used to rent out her castle but stopped as the french polishing of furniture after each rental, where guests had just put down drinks with no coasters, was getting ridiculous. Plus damage she would only discover later (the place is enormous) and not know which tenant had caused it.

You have a friend with a castle!! Wow!!!

It's only a scottish one. Two a penny ;-)

My best friend from school is the Grande Dame in a much more impressive (English) castle/grand house/palace (you all know it) but telling you who and where would out me!

You know the QUEEN???!!!

he, he, not quite

You break it, you pay for it. Unless she tells you it cost £300 when it clearly didn't - in which case you source a new one of the item and send that to her instead.