My friend water damaged my laptop

[ston]

Last year while in my last year of university I had my laptop in the kitchen to do some work (everyone in my house regularly did this) when my friend accidentally spilt a whole pint of water on it.

I did not have insurance. The cost at Apple was around £400 to repair.

At the time I was sure that my friend should pay most of the cost for the broken laptop and I pay a bit also. Thinking back was this the wrong stance? I was a broke student with no money and my dad had just been made redundant so could not help me. My friend however had disposable income.

I’m now just thinking was I in the wrong - my friend basically ended our friendship over this situation.

It was an accident. In a shared setting. I’m inclined to think it’s not really anyone’s fault and £400 is such a lot of money. If it was me I’d have offered though - was it not insured?

Of course your ‘friend’ should have paid for it, most decent people would immediately apologise and insist on paying for the repair. The fact that she has ended your friendship over this shows that, sadly, she was not really a good friend in the first place.

Your friend should’ve paid for it, but you also should’ve had insurance.

You break something, you pay for it. Of course your friend should have paid.
Why are you still stewing over this now tho? It’s long since done, and you no longer have a friendship with this person.

I think food and liquid spillages are a risk of having your laptop on the kitchen to be honest and so I think yabu. Also if anything should have said at the time. Is one of those things. Let it go now

Yes she should have paid. It was an accident of course, but of I did that I would offer to pay.

I walked past my friend's car and the hardware on my bag scratched it quite badly. I was mortified and paid for the repair.

It’s a bit like people who try to blame supermarkets when someone damages their car in the car park!

You Probably shouldn’t have had it in the kitchen. It’s great your friend payed for some of it though. Seems a bit dramatic to end a friendship over it though. A shame it’s still bothering you so far down the line though?

Were you actually working on it at the time, or had you left it on the table to do some work on it later?

I don’t think your friend should pay for it. You left an expensive laptop in the kitchen where there is a real possibility someone could spill water on it.
Spilling water on a kitchen work top is normal.
Leaving a laptop in the kitchen is carelessness.

Example if someone leaves a laptop on a sofa and I sit on it who’s to blame?

How is it OP’s fault for not having insurance ?

Regardless wether she was insured or not - if the friend damaged her item, she should pay for it.

Seriously, the IQ of some people on here

She should have paid for the repair. I would have been mortified if I had damaged something and would have paid the full amount.

Even if the water spilled on the laptop in the living room, bedroom, kitchen or garden - it’s irrelevant.

The friend did the damage so she is to pay for it.

You should have had insurance and, knowing that you didn't have it, shouldn't have used it in the kitchen, regardless of what others did. I'd have gone halves on that basis.

I would probably have gone with 50/50. You took a risk by taking it to shares kitchen where the odds for spillage is high and she was the one to spill it. I don't think in this situation it's automatically the friends responsibility.

Moral of that story is don't have uncapped liquids anywhere near a laptop (which sounds goady but since I learned from hard experience I feel vaguely justified)

She should have contributed yes, but you should have had your laptop insured if its important/essential.

@Soapytoad waw thats a dumb analogy!!!! Its not like she asked the landlord to pay for someone else's mistake!!!! The supermarket would have passed over the registration number, so the car owner can pursue this as hit and run in court. We've had a case like this before and we got the reg number from morrisons

OP are u going through reflection? :)
any decent person would have paid, we make mistakes and we correct them.
in a court case you would probably lost due to negligence, as the laptop was left in a risky place to begin with, so you would have accepted that risk implicitly.

Dont let this bring you down... It is way overdue now

Imo you shouldn’t have had it in the kitchen in uni digs and it should have been insured. I would have gone 50/50 at most as it was a preventable accident. You say she had disposable income, however, you have no idea how much she had and £400 is a lot of money. You can’t be that broke if you have an apple laptop. She did what you wanted and paid for the damage, however, she may have felt taken advantage of so she decided you weren’t the type of friend she wanted.

Did you leave it unattended? Were you working on it at the kitchen table when she spilled the water? Did she pay? All this info is necessary.

If you were with it and she damaged it, I think that’s her fault and she should’ve paid.

If you had left it in a communal kitchen and it been with it, you were stupid to leave it unattended.

50/50 in my opinion too. Halves would have been fair. If it’d been somewhere sensible then the costs should have come down fully to your friend.

Bloody hell, maybe she should have paid, or maybe she shouldn't

You will get both from this thread. But you need to let this go for your own mental wellbeing. You cant change what happened and her actions

My thoughts? You insure anything that important

Thanks for all replies.

To answer some questions:
I should have definitely had it insured but unfortunately I didn’t. My insurance only covered damage in my home (not my student house)

I was in the kitchen working on an essay deadline I had while my food was cooking. As I said everyone in my house always did this frequently.

I am still thinking of it as this ‘friend’ I thought I would have for life. But after this happened and was resolved she would purposely leave me out of things, always decline my requests to do things etc. I’m just thinking if things could have been different.

Even by this thread it’s apparent there is a lot of differences in opinion on how to deal with these sorts of matters

*and not been with it.

You did have your laptop in a kitchen where there are liquids. So you are also responsible. However yes I feel your friend should have at least offered to pay half

How did I say it was all her fault because she wasn’t insured?

Question your own IQ and inference skills before attacking other people @CtrlU.

Whose water was it? When I was at uni my friend used to sit on the kitchen floor smoking, then leave the (massive) ashtray there when she got up. I was always kicking it over because I didn't see it.
Yes, I cleared it up, but it used to drive me mad.
I think you should have paid half each, unless someone had left water in a really spillable place by the laptop!