To break into my new neighbours house *THREAD 3: The Final Conundrum*

[Catsos]

I’m really not trying to drag this out 😩 but I seriously need some advice following on from my posts this weekend where my cat (who has a reputation for breaking cat-flaps in the neighbourhood) broke into my new neighbours vacant house while it is being renovated.

Here is the original post if anyone needs more context:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4881905-to-break-into-new-neighbours-house-serious-question-not-trolling

After not being able to get back out the cat-flap he was stuck in there for 48 hours over the bank holiday weekend and then finally released by the builder after various rescue attempts by me.

During that period however some damage occurred to my new neighbours property. I had hoped they would take it all in good spirits as fellow cat owners and we’d laugh about it and be new cat bessie mates but they we’re absolutely seething!!

They have proposed that I pay £1,600!!! for the following:

£800 to replace the rug my cat wee’d on

£400 to replace an area of laminate flooring as apparently the wee has gone into the underlay

I offered to pay £100 for professional rug cleaning, but the wife (who seems very neurotic) says her cats will still be able to smell my cats urine and they don’t want that to stress their cats out when they move them into the new home

£150 for repainting areas of muddy foot prints on the walls where my cat scratched to get out
(again I offered to just wipe them off but the wife insists it is repainted)

£50 to repaint window sils where the crabsticks & icecubes I dropped through the window has damaged the paint

£200 for a new bathroom window vent as I pushed thinly slice honey roasted ham through it

AIBU to think they are being very over the top? I could personally clean/repaint all of these things myself. Should I refuse to pay this amount? I don’t even have this amount available anyway, I would need to get an overdraft.

That seems fair considering the extent of remedial action needed.

Is your cat insured, and does the policy come with any kind of 3rd party liability cover?

That seems fair to me

Surely they need to claim on their household insurance.

£1600 that’s a joke. Sorry OP, they sound awful.

Sorry I think YABU. Your cat did the damage, you have to cough up. I say this as a cat owner as well, and as much as it would hurt they are your responsibility.

Oh as if. I'd just laugh at that tbh.

I would say claim through house insurance, I’m shocked they are asking that much!!
Especially if she’s a cat owner I would have thought they would understand. My neighbours cat walked over our painted doors, we still laugh at the paw marks . Just painted over it!

You honestly thought they were going to laugh off damage to their brand new house? I followed your previous threads and you seemed to treat the whole thing as a bit of a jolly jape but I'd be seething if I were your neighbour too.

To me it seems reasonable to pay £900. Most of the costs they've mentioned seem fair except replacing the rug, paying to have it professionally cleaned seems fair.

Nope. Wouldn't be paying that.

Tell them to claim off their insurance and you'll pay the excess.

Or does your cats' insurance include third party liability?

They (and the pps on here) are having a laugh. Either they accept a clean or they can claim on their insurance, who I guess may try to recoup from your insurance but someone else may understand better if this is possible. This may affect your relationship with your neighbours but I’m not convinced that they sound like people you want a relationship with.

Have you seen the damage? I don’t wholly buy it.

That seems a bit much

Oh what a surprise. You knew your cat gets into houses and refused to do anything to stop it and once it causes damage you don’t want to rectify it.

Not sure why you have a pet, since you’re unwilling to take any responsibility for it.

@Catsos Really sorry - but I think that is all very reasonable to be honest. Your neighbour is right that once a cat has peed somewhere, no matter how it is cleaned, other cats will smell it and will revisit the spot to wee on it again. You said the rug looked expensive and the floorboards will need to be replaced

So I'm sorry to say YABU, in my view

Have you got some kind of insurance yourself that would cover it? Or are they willing to claim it on their insurance, if you haven't got any that will cover this scenario, and you pay the excess only?

Also, £250 of the damage was caused by you pushing random items into their house. So offering £100 is being a bit cheeky.

I think you’ve actually got off lightly here.

Isn’t your cat insured? I mean your cat did the damage you should pay to fix it. It’s not even like they accidentally let the bloody thing in. It broke into their house, you’ve shoved food though windows and vents and your cats pissed and scratched stuff up.

Not head about any poop though surely he went somewhere 😰

They can claim off their insurance- offer to pay excess. Ultimately, your cat should not be able to access their home.

The rug I’d insist on it being professionally cleaned. She’s being unreasonable to not try that first.

The other items I think are ok, remember they’re looking at moving into a newly removed home, this isn’t a home someone has been living in. Their mindset (understandably) is wanting it to be new.

Most people told you not to put ham in the vents.

Tell them to eff the eff off and send them the bill for the vet checking your cat's health after its ordeal. They should have secured their house.

If they had been reasonable I'd have said, okay, pay to repaint the window sills, since that was damage caused by something you did - even that was ultimately their fault. They have insurance.

I did suggest claiming on their house insurance but they kind of said “why should we?” And the wife said it would make their premiums go up next year?

My cat doesn’t have pet insurance

I wouldn't pay that. As someone said previously, I would offer to clean the marks and pay for the rug to be cleaned but any more than that they would have to claim on their insurance.

Surely the ham can be cleaned from the vent, if wouldn’t need completely replaced. I guess the rest is reasonable especially if the wee has soaked through the laminate and the other damage is genuine. I would see if your pet insurance would pay it? If they have to prove the damage exists it might turn out not to be as bad as they are claiming!

I mean they could take you to small claims court I guess.