Paid £400 and he walked all over it!!

[AnUnhappyStudent]

Had an area of over garden concreted today (getting a new dog and wanted area we could let him out in and hose clean if necessary. Laid for about 2 hours go outside and find a ball mark and a set of footprints. Only child on the street my DN 12 years old so went to have a word with my sister about it and she hit the roof! Said he had not been out and that I aleays blame her kids for stuff. Told her had been out because we had seen him on the drive. She marches round has a go at me and gets her son to lift feet up saying 'there is no concrete on them' just fuck off. Point out that the tred is exactly same as the foot prints. More abuse and she storms off back into her house. Then texted me about 15 minutes later to say it was him, to get the contractors back and she will pay for it and that there nothing else she can do.
But its not the money its the fact that once again her DS can do no wrong and we have been verbally abused because her son caused damage then lied about it! He has form for this but honestly if he had knocked on the door and told us we would have accepted an apology! WIBU to say yes there is something else you can do, both of you need to apologise?

Just say thank you for the kind offer to pay, but it isn't necessary and you just want an apology from DN.

Next door but one?

So is he also climbing other fenced to get into your garden?

If you don't want him climbing over your fence anymore then you have to say!

He can wait until you're in to get stuff back.

Could she have reacted like that because you often accuse her DS of things purely on the basis that he is the only child on the street (do you mean the only child living on your road, or the only child playing outside? Neither really sound like enough basis to go in all guns blazing with absolute conviction).

In this case it was your DN, and your sister has offered to pay, but have there been lots of other occasions when you have accused your DN of walking on flower beds or scratching cars or whatever based solely on the fact he is a young boy and with absolutely no actual evidence or genuine reason to believe it was him?

Perhaps if this is the 3rd or 4th time you've gone around to accuse your nephew of something your sister hit the roof and sods law dictated that this time it actually was him, and when she told him Auntie Unhappy has gone off half cocked again he said "oops, it was me this time actually" and she offered to pay but with slightly bad grace as the last 3 or 4 things you have accused him of have not been him.

You have to stop your sister from allowing her kids to climb over gates and treat your house as if it was theirs. If you are getting a puppy, you don't want someone else's kids going in your garden without your knowledge and potentially leaving gates unlocked etc.
If the concrete needs replacing, I doubt your sis is going to want to pay £400 for it, so I would get a quote before you ask the builder to just redo it.
A high bill might focus her attention on keeping her dc a little more under control, going forward though.
From her pov, she has admitted it was him and offered to pay, which is all she can do so far, but I really think this comes down to you making it absolutely clear that your house is not an extension of her own and that her children mustn't treat it as such.