Friendship reimbursement limit?

[C1N1C]

The same goes for friend, neighbour, family member of course...

If they damage an item of your property, say accidentally drop your phone in a puddle, reverse into your car, knock over an heirloom etc... pure accident, no carelessness, where is your forgiveness limit?

Obviously, a good person would volunteer the compensation immediately, and you may instinctively waive it because it's not lot of money... but if it is a moderate amount, where is your "I'm sorry, but..." limit for a pretty good relationship?

But to answer your actual question. Anything above £20 I would expect the person who caused the breakage to pay.

This is hilarious, accidents very regularly involve human error

You must have some spare money! If our car was bashed we couldn't afford to fix it or absorb with the loss of value in not getting it fixed

Generally speaking a car that is damaged to the point that it needs to be repaired will be covered by insurance.

most other things if you can’t afford to replace you just live without.

OP made the distinction between a "pure accident" and one due to carelessness. And said she was only talking about accidents that weren't careless. The sort of human error involved in driving into something is almost always carelessness.

Hey! Aphantasia doesn’t mean that!

unintentional = accidental

That's what I meant. I can't see how driving into someone else's car is a pure accident, as opposed to careless driving.

Not on purpose but not paying full attention etc.

What if a friend genuinely can’t afford to reimburse you for the damage caused by the accident? Would you just give up on the friendship whereas if clumsy friend had been better off you would have kept the friendship? It doesn’t sound like a real friendship if that is the case.

If it was over about 50 quid I'd try and get payment and I'd think really badly of someone who didn't insist on this. But I've always insisted on paying for anything I've damaged or broken even if they initially politely decline. Yes accidents are a fact of life...but that doesn't mean you shouldn't take responsibility for your own actions.

I find it a bit weird that lots of people on this thread wouldnt expect payment...but threads where someone cancels an event because they are genuinely ill, people always say they should reimburse others lost costs. (Eg a group event where other people would end up paying more). An accident is usually more preventable than an illness.

We are insured against most accidental damage and canafford any excess.
I am both a klutz myself and naturally forgiving, due to having angry Dad who exploded with temper at anything being damaged.

I think it depends on the circumstances. How it happened, why they were there, why my property was where it was, whether I can easily afford to replace it, whether they can, whether they offered, the nature of our relationship otherwise...

while it's not nice to ask a friend to pay for something that was obviously an accident, it's also not fair on you if you're saddled with the expense.

If I had to put a figure on I'd say anything over £100 is a lot