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.

How did you originally react to her spilling the water on your laptop? I can imagine this may be the real reason why she stopped the contact tbh.

I think if you wanted to use an expensive bit of kit in a shared kitchen then you should have insured it. Your friend was hardly unreasonable to be using water in a kitchen.

Sorry OP, but YABU. You took the risk by leaving it in the kitchen, doesn't matter if everyone else was putting their hand in the fire (which is a mantra I regularly use with my DCs).

The kitchen is for cooking and making drinks, it was not your own fault, but you cannot blame your friend for your risky behaviour.

I think leaving an expensive laptop in a public living area where it could easily be damaged is utterly reckless and lazy. It makes no difference if everyone did this-you were the one to get caught. It makes no difference who you deem is more able to pay-you have no right to make that decision and the responsibility for looking after your property was yours alone. Also, you had enough money to buy the laptop but insuring it, looking after it properly and replacing it are all beyond you? Get some boundaries.

Leaving your laptop out was putting your friends in a difficult position as they could find themselves in this position just going about their daily lives. Someone living in student accommodation should be able to spill water in a kitchen without finding themselves out £400. It's not their job to protect your belongings.

I find it incredibly grabby that you tried to get so much money out of a friend to replace an item you couldn't be bother to look after properly. Especially if I realised you were partly justifying it by deciding I could afford it. I find it distasteful when people decide they're entitled to my money because I've got it. I'll happily give it but I won't have anyone eyeing it up and deciding they're entitled to some.

Yes, I'd end the friendship. And I hope you learn from this that the buck stops with you.

Half and half in this case feels about right as it doesn't come to an enormous amount but what if it was £1500 worth of repairs (possible on an Apple laptop)?

If I was in a similar position as the friend was, I would probably ask what the premium is on the insurance you do have and offer half of that sum (or half the repairs if less). I wouldn't see it as my problem that the insurance doesn't cover the place where you actually live.

@CtrlU Ridiculous argument that if I damage something accidentally I have to pay. If you chose to have an expensive laptop, you should take responsibility to insure it. Otherwise when does it stop. Someone chooses to have a £5,000 coat and I accidentally spill something and stain it. So I’m responsible for £5,000? I end paying for someones stupidity in not insuring it. Yes I may feel bad and make a contribution if you didn’t insure but it shouldn’t be expected.

No it shouldn't have been in the kitchen! It was an accident she didn't drop it or anything like that.

no one would expect to have to pay a huge sum of money as a result of spilling water in a kitchen
Exactly this. You had an absolute cheek expecting her to pay. Things get knocked and spilled in a kitchen all the time, especially a shared one. You should not have left an expensive laptop on the table

Not surprised at all she ended the friendship.

So neither of you were out of pocket and she’s ended your friendship. Doesn’t sound like she thought much of you.

Sometimes friendships end because you see that person in a different light after an incident. That’s what happened, it won’t be the last time.
Accept and move on, you had a difference of opinion.

If it had been insured, I doubt the insurer would have paid out in these circumstances as it is your responsibility to avoid easily foreseeable accidents. That is all you need to know really. If an insurer would feel the responsibility lay with you, your friend will most definitely feel the weight of the injustice when you shirk that responsibility.

You're trying to pretend these circumstances are the same as say, your friend coming into your private room with a cup of tea, sitting down at your clean, dry desk and then spilling something on it. In those circumstances, she would have taken on the risk for your property and compromised the care you were taking. You would have had something to talk about then. But this wasn't remotely like that and you've tried to beef up your case with spoilt disclaimers like 'everyone was doing it' and 'I was just a poor student and she could afford to pay'!! That is nothing to do with her!

I think it’s 50/50, you should have had it insured and you took a risk using it in the kitchen, a place where you know people eat and drink.

If it was a communal shared kitchen didn’t the friend have as much a duty of care towards the OP’s property as OP would have had towards hers? Half and half seems fair. And OP didn’t leave it there she was working on it while her meal cooked.

Not if it's a cooking area where reasonable, predictable behaviour involves others handling liquids that aren't supposed to be around an appliance like a laptop in the first place. No one should have a delicate, expensive appliance in there and expect other to make adjustments and take responsibility for it. That's unreasonable. Whether the OP left it unattended or not isn't really relevant. She took the risk with her own property and no one else did anything that could be construed as risky or inappropriate or unpredictable. Spillages in a kitchen are entirely foreseeable.

No I dont think friend should have paid for it. It was an accident and left in the kitchen. Why didnt claim on house insurance?

House insurance in student digs? You can buy contents insurance as a student, but if she didn't have the laptop insured...

SerenDippity yes, for the usual stuff that could be reasonably expected to be found in a shared student kitchen.

So if the friend broke a box of the OP's eggs or dropped her pyrex dish then yes, I agree she should replace them.

An uninsured laptop is a different story. That would also apply to a £1000 bottle of champagne left in a shared cupboard and accidentally broken. High value belongings need to be looked after. This isn't the responsibility of other people in communal areas.

it was a long time ago, done is done. you cant take money for it now. anyway your friendship has died. take away lessons from it, like not leaving you valuables around carelessly.

The fact that you got a grant to cover the cost of the repair, yet your friend still fell out with you, shows that she wasn’t really that much of a friend. The friendship would have probably fizzled out, sharing a home with uni friends can be very intense and difficult, I had a great circle of housemates at uni, but all of the friendships have long since ended, no fillings out, we just went in different directions.
Try not to dwell on this, you really need to move on from it.

Your friend should have paid for it the cheeky bugger.

I'd like to bet most people have used their laptop on a Café/dining/kitchen table & that if someone else sitting at the table had spilt their drink in it would expect them to have it repaired.

You weren't in the wrong to use it at a table.

If I was her I'd have expected to pay for it & wouldn't have blamed you for not having it insured. It would have been MY fault (albeit accidental).

like not leaving you valuables around carelessly

Fuck sake she was using a lap top at a table, not leaving a diamond ring on a shop counter.

She thinks you were a CF trying to make her pay for the repairs and ended your friendship over it. I wonder how you approached her.

I think the coat analogy is a good one. If you were wearing a £1000 item of clothing that got ruined by a glass of wine would the wine drinker be responsible