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.

Op stated many times that the house is currently being renovated and the new neighbours have not moved in, do not live locally and no one on the road has contact details for them. They were not ignoring OP - they had no idea of the situation until recently. OP managed to get hold of the builders who have been working on the property to get the cat out.

Also OP has caused damage to their property by putting ice cubes, fish sticks and ham through various places - admitting that the cat couldn't even access them so ham and fish has been festering in the house for the last few days.

OP just needs to take responsibility and pay up.

It's covered by house insurance.

They sound like dicks.

Massive. Massive dicks.

You didn't go ahead and push the ham through the vent, did you?!

You don't actually know that the cat went through the cat flap. It could've been the builders who let her in accidentally.

I am not sure about legally who is liable but it seems to me there are two issues in play.

The first being the damage your cat caused (over which you arguably had no control) and secondly the subsequent, completely unnecessary, damage (that you absolutely had control over) caused by putting meat and fish into their house. I honestly can't believe it's legal to do that.

To avoid them going to the police I would be offering as much as I could afford and being extremely conciliatory towards them.

Your thoughtlessness has had real consequences for these poor people and honestly you come across as very flippant about the whole thing.

@BeepBoopBop Still laughing at ‘smell of decomposed pussy’ 😂OP don’t pay these people a penny. As others have said this is what home insurance is for. I have owned cats for over thirty years. Cat flaps of any kind are never fully secure and often malfunction or get broken into by other people’s cats.Anyone who is fussy house wise would do well not to have one. One of my cats brought in a pig’s ear from the local butchers through his cat flap. Then there are all the other live critters they bring home.I also came down one morning to find four of the neighbours cats and mine sitting mournfully in the kitchen. They had got in through the cat flap but couldn’t get out.

They are taking the piss. I would have laughed if they quoted me that ridiculous amount.

The flooring I can understand and, possibly, the vent although don't see how it costs that much.

What is so wonderful about the rug that it cost £800? If it honestly did cost that then why is it in a house that is being renovated and not the house they are living in?

The muddy paw prints on the wall I am pretty sure would wash off but, if not, how the hell could it cost £150 to paint? It can't be that big an area and are neither of them capable of using a paintbrush or roller?

£50 for the windowsill is a joke. What damage exactly did a few icecubes and some crab sticks cause? It's not even been hot so what are the crabsticks meant to have done? Again, if it really does need painting, why can't they do it?

I would refuse to pay for anything other than the flooring and vent and possibly a contribution for the valuable rug.

Most standard home insurance policies won't cover accidental damage caused by pets. Accidental damage cover doesn't usually come as standard with your home insurance, but you can add it to your buildings and contents insurance policies for an extra fee
From compare the market.

I was replying to a poster who proudly admitted to never having insurance for any of her cats or dogs.

You are 100% a CF. You know your cat does this, didn’t keep it inside, caused further unnecessary damage to their house (how many people told you not to poke ham through and you did it anyway!) and now you don’t have insurance for your cat! Don’t think you should own a pet at all. Cough up and move on. I would personally be grateful that the neighbours didn’t take legal action!

Under common law, since at least the 18th century, cats that are owned are regarded as property,

I would offer to pay the insurance excess. They have a duty to secure their home and they did not, what if a wild animal had got in? It's not like your cat is a professional (cat) burglar.

An ice cube will not cause damage to the windowsill in that time but you should offer to clean out the vent, shouldn't take long and the rug. If a biological detergent is used on the rug there will be no trace of cat wee afterwards.

Put it all in writing just in case the decide to take you to court.

I think if they had been living there for a while already and just had been away on holiday or something when this all happened, they might not be asking for things to be replaced etc. The fact is they aren't living there yet and they are spending money to move into a newly remodelled home and until you repair the damage your cat has done, I can understand them not being happy.

You want to just wipe the area on the wall the cat left muddy prints? Chances are his claws have left scuffs on an otherwise newly painted wall. Be grateful she's not insisting on having the entire room repainted. She's also right her cats will still be able to smell your cats wee if things are just cleaned rather than replaced and why should she or her cats have to deal with that in their home.

It's not their problem your cat damaged things. As the cats owner you should pay to make it right. I understand them not wanting to claim on their insurance. Why should they do the work dealing with the insurers and have their premium increase because of someone else's short comings? They probably would take you to court over this if you don't just pay and sort it.

Maybe thread 4 will be about how unfair it is that they have taken you to court and expect you to pay their legal fees.

Perhaps the cat couldn't get out because he broke the cat flap?

If these things work with a chip how did he get in?

I would also want the rug & pissed on flooring replaced plus the repainting done professionally.

They might be estimating too high but I don't think that they are wrong to want the fixing/replacing that they want.

YABVVVU - if a cat entered, pissed in, and touched anything in my newly renovated house, I would be really upset. Despite hating cats, my son and I are really allergic, and they are right - cat wee won’t be washed out if it’s been left to dry.

I don’t understand why you think they are in the wrong at all? You have a pet (without pet insurance). They did EVERYTHING possible to prevent other animals entering their home including a microchipped cat flap - what else could they have done?!

This is (obviously) your cats fault, and seeing as you are in charge of the cat - all lies on you.

I would be going to the small claims court if I were them 🤷🏼‍♀️

I would ring citizens advice but personally I would be reminding them that they have breached their insurance conditions by leaving access to the house available and not properly securing the site. Insurance wouldn't cover a break-in if someone accessed the house via a cat flap.
I agree cats get distressed by other cats wee...but there was no guarantee previous cats did not live there and left a bit of wee on their own.
I think you need to focus on paying for things which you did rather than what the cat did - like the vent damage and then quite frankly I would leave it. You are not going to make these people happy by the sounds of things and you are never going to be friends - if they had of had a wild animal come into their house and pee they would be picking up the costs themselves.
And no where in the world is a cat flap £200 so they are just taking the piss.

Here’s an idea. Refuse to pay or only pay in part, have a dispute with your neighbours, then declare it when you come to sell. Does that sound sensible to you?
If you continue to argue that the cat flap was the cause of the problem, and therefore they’re to some extent responsible, you’re implying that they can’t leave windows or doors open in future because your cat enters other people’s houses.
Would you like to move next door to me? Would you like it if I had a gerbil, a rat, a snake or a cat which freely entered and roamed in your house? Would you find that acceptable? Could I expect you to animal-proof your house immediately after completion? No. That’s unreasonable and ridiculous.
Just because the wife is not happy with your offers, doesn’t mean she’s neurotic. That’s rude. Of course she’ll be outraged. She and her husband are paying professionals to create a beautiful home for them.
This was bound to have consequences but you made it worse by posting in food. Twice. Even though advised not to.
Learn to be a considerate neighbour and pay up.

The rug and the floor seem fair enough to me. People are warned not to let water stand on laminate as it will cause damage. Cat pee there for hours will stink forever. It will almost certainly have to be replaced.

Same with the rug. They always look tired after cleaning and if it was a new one then I'd expect it to be replaced too.

Paying for repainting where your cat and the food you pushed through has caused damage is also not unreasonable but unless they can't get the ham out of the vent it seems a little OTT to replace it.

I actually now think this is all a wind up, but I'm enjoying it anyway.

Unless this petition was successful I don't think you have much to worry about.

https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions/53831

If you google, there's a bunch of articles from disgruntled home owners on the other side of this scenario. In every case they had to suck it up and pay the costs. I'm not saying its right, but given they're taking the piss a bit, I'd be tempted to offer them "£400 or nothing" and let them claim off their insurance.

@Catsos That estimate sounds unreasonable. They are partially at fault for not securing their house, so let them take you to court. At this point a friendly neighborly relationship with these people is very unlikely, so there is no benefit in trying to appease them.

However, for his own safety and your peace of mind, please, please consider securing your garden so your cat does not continue to roam.

I'm the poster who proudly said I'd never insured my pets.

Why you're quoting something irrelevant about pets damaging their owner's home is beyond me, when we were talking third party cover.

The fact that the cat is known by herself and her neighbours to destroy cat flaps and thus breaking into peoples house would go against her if they took her to court.

The fact that op also caused some damage herself being a bloody idiot about it again goes against her.

Cat owners do till have a duty to other peoples property and other people from actions by her cat at certain times. The fact hers is known for these issues means she should be making sure the cat cannot continue to do these things or pick up the tab.

The flap didn’t break or fail as a flap error her cat took it off its hinges like it’s known to do as its broken neighbours cat flaps. At that point op should have cat proofed her own garden to keep her cat in or been prepared to paid to remedy her nuisance cat’s behaviour.

And yes I have cats myself.

If the cats been scratching at the wall it has probably caused damaged to the plaster with its claws so that cost could be needing to re skim that part of the wall and then paint it again all of which costs not only for the materials but the person doing that.

Wife sounds like she’s pulling numbers out of her arse here. They left the cat flap unsecured in an unoccupied home. Anything could have gotten in. You’ve owned up and told them what happened, offered to repaint/clean/pay for professional services to sort the minor inconvenience caused. £1800 is a joke and I’d be telling them to take me to court if they believed I was liable to pay all of that for something not within my control. They can claim off home insurance and you pay the excess which will be far off the ridiculous amount they’ve demanded. Good luck with your new neighbours, they sound absolutely delightful!

Its a lot.. but I'd want a new rig and floor replacement where needed. Cat puss is horrendous to get rid of.. the repaint costs I'd offer to clean then reassess
But honestly your cat and you caused this damage you need to make it right

Really??? What doesn’t OP be a responsible cat owner and stop her cat breaking into neighbors houses to steal food? You noticed non of the neighbors helped her? Because the probably tired of her bullshit.