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.

I’d be so upset if the house I’d spent time and money on renovating was damaged in this way before I’d moved in. I would want a new rug and things repaired properly too. I think you should pay up.

They are CFs. If they have a cat flap any cat can get into, but not out of, that is on them.

Good job you didnt launch that bird bath through the window too 'eh OP?

I suggest you cough up

Aren't you a peach?

Cats are NOT considered to be wild animals. Pet cats are property under the law of England & Wales. There is a legal presumption that they will roam, but more importantly perhaps there is a legal 'duty of care' placed upon the owners of said property, as pp ^^ has already pointed out.

If one person's property damages another person's property then there may be grounds for civil action. It would be a bit of ball-ache though for both parties, having to argue about contributory negligence, costs and losses etc. Any judge would hope to see a reasonable settlement taking place as early as possible.

I'm glad you got the cat back and obviously you didn't mean for any of this to happen.

But you and your cat caused this damage so the owners are not being unfair to be cross. I might not take it too badly in their shoes; but DH would be spitting feathers. Moving home and doing works is very stressful remember.

I think it is fine to counter, but you may have to accept replacing the rug. Given other cat owners agree her cats will be able to smell him.

And you need to get him insured. Clearly he is capable of great mischief (as gorgeous as he is) and it's not fair for others to have to put up with the damage he may cause (no matter his rights to roam).

I'm not sure why people are blaming the neighbours for OP's cat breaking the cat flap. The cat broke it getting in.

Most definitely not the word I would be using.

For the damage the OP caused she absolutely should pay but beyond that if all she did was let her cat put with a cat flap then the neighbours are equally responsible for having an empty house that had a cat flap in but not out.

the OPs cat in roaming isn’t unusual at all.

legally cats do have the right to roam. The OP wasn’t being unreasonable in letting her cat out and the fact that he went into the house isn’t her fault,

her behaviour after that and any damage caused is.

and a court case wouldn’t be that interesting as it is set out in statute law

If OP hadn't seen her cat in their house no one would have known he was in there and he would have just run out when the builders arrived to start work. They would have no idea then whose cat he was so no one to try and get money out of.

They should have made sure no animal could get through the cat flap if the house is left empty for any time

I think they probably can force the OP to pay - that’s what small claims court is for.

Whether they will actually do it is another matter but if they wanted to I’d guess they could.

There is no reason at all why they should absorb any cost or compromised new decorations and furnishings because of another person's pet.

Exactly. Not one person on here would be willing to pay John Lewis full price for a posh £800 'new' rug if JL admitted that a cat had wee'd all over it in the warehouse, "but don't worry - we've given it a good clean, so it's all good".

I feel so sorry for these poor neighbours, being criticised and name-called for the 'crime' of being the victims of a regular neighbourhood pest. They're being called chancers and accused of 'trying it on', as if they personally grabbed a stranger's cat and set it loose inside their home.

As for people saying that they could have got their furnishings and decorating done cheaper, maybe they like to pay a lot for premium goods and materials and then naturally expect to have the use of their luxurious purchases. It isn't for anybody else to dictate that they didn't need to buy Farrow & Ball paint and that they should be grateful to have damage to it touched up with Poundland paint. Similarly, they might be Pimlico Plumbers-type people - happy to pay a lot more for what they perceive as a premium service - and just because Barry from up the street could have done a good professional job of it, they are under no obligation whatsoever to accept that if they don't want to.

Also, all the talk of 'what if it had been a fox', of course that would have been an insurance job - but it wasn't a fox, was it? If it had been an unclaimed wild animal, nobody would have been posting messy food in for it, would they? It is 100% as a result of OP having a cat that she freely admits is a constant nuisance that this happened; if she hadn't had a cat, their house would not have been damaged by it.

You could just as easily say that a shoplifter shouldn't be prosecuted for stealing food from a supermarket, on the grounds that, if the food had remained unsold and gone off, it would have become valueless and cost the shop money anyway.

It never ceases to amaze me the entitlement of some cat owners. Either it's an uncontrollable wild animal that you happily accept may get injured or die as a result of its free-spirited misadventures; or otherwise it's a loved pet, which you would want to supervise and protect. How can it possibly be both at the same time?

This is just theoretical, and of course I would not want any harm to come to a cat; but if you discovered that somebody who had experienced a lot of nuisance behaviour from your free-roaming cat had killed it - just 'getting rid of an otherwise uncontrollable pest', as they see it - would you accept it as 'just how it is with wild animals' or would you want them to be punished for killing it? Very have-your-cake-and-eat-it, it often seems to me.

They sound insane! I'd offer to pay £900. Half of their original asking price and go no higher.

'Asking price'? That's an interesting way to describe the actual assessed costs of repairing damage caused by somebody else's free-roaming pet. Do you somehow think they are actually happy to have had their new home trashed?

They should have invested in a petmate cat flap plus chips for their cats collar. I would not be happy to pay £1600.

I've reported the comment. It's absolutely vile.

Why the hell did you post stuff that would go stinky and rotten into an empty house instead of dried cat food?

Cat's piss is a nightmare to get out of anything - my cat has a habit of pissing on things and I've had to get rid of all the carpets. That's my problem though. You inflicted this on your neighbours so yeah you do have to cough up. If you know your cat is going through people's cat flaps, you need to think about letting it out. I have a nervous old cat who's scared of other cats and I'd be livid if some random tomcat broke into our house and terrorised her.

I think you e got off lightly- what if a section of the laminate wouldnt lift out? Often the way it’s laid requires the whole floor to come up as it’s clicked together- often into other rooms. You should bite their hand off and also feel lucky your cat ate the ham and crab sticks- imagine coming home to a house full of maggots and flies- cleaning that up would be ten times worse

If the OP takes your approach going on and on about how the owners used their house to trap cats😂 then she'll antagonise the situation further which is not what anyone needs or wants with new neighbours.

If someone started using that weird inflammatory language with me making out I was trapping cats I'd think they were a raving lunatic.

I'd be more inclined to take legal advice/action if possible to protect myself because I would suspect I had a nightmare neighbour issue.

I think you should bloody well pay up for the damage you and your cat have caused someone else's property...just before they move in! I'd be bloody livid too. I hate it when people think everyone else should make allowances for pets they chose to have. Pay up! You know your cat is causing damage to the property of other's more than once; you need to keep him indoors.

frankly both OP@Catsos and neighbours are taking the P.

OP, you have a cat that you haven't even insured?! it's a Turkish angora, known for being extremely cheeky + intelligent (bad combination) and prone to genetic defects. and you seem very blasé about your cat going to neighbours' houses and causing damage/ stealing food. you can have an outdoor cat, but limit him to your garden by cat proofing. please stop playing victim and take responsibility.

the neighbours should have had the courtesy to leave their details with someone on the street + secured the cat flap . it's very irresponsible of them not to do so. they are also asking for a ridiculous amount.

for the sake of neighbourly relations OP, I suggest sucking it up, apologising profusely - offer a reduced amount eg 1000 and/or pay by instalments.

calling the other lady neurotic when you have been shoving ham through her vent is ridiculous.

I've done a reno project for my current home recently and I can tell you having expended hard earned savings and buying some quite expensive things (relative to my modest income) that I'd been looking forward to - if my neighbours cat destroyed them, I would not be a happy bunny.

It may have been recently delivered. It may be out of the way of the immediate work.

In my case I had balcony pillows just inside that were pissed on and scratched up manically.

You can haha but this is people's property.

The lack of disrespect - led by the OP - on this thread is astounding.

I am guessing if cats could cause significant damage to cars by scratching and peeing on them at will many responses would be different.

400 sounds more than generous. I wouldn't pay any more than that and I would write a nice but firm letter with a cheque saying if they encash it they agree it is in full and final settlement. Keep a copy in case it goes to court.

They are taking the absolute piss. This is literally what house insurance is for.

I wonder if they will mention that they had left a window open in the property if they have to claim on their insurance.

In hindsight, throwing a brick through the window would probably have been cheaper to fix!

In terms of their points:

Rug - unfortunately these are expensive and I can imagine a large rug costing that much. She is right that if her cat(s) can sense any sort of urine on it, they will likely scent mark the same spot. Their noses are much more sensitive than ours and can smell it even when we can't.

Laminate - can the builder provide you with a quote for doing this. Again, I agree it needs doing if the urine has soaked through, for the same reason as above.

Wall paint next to catflap - she should, IMO, allow you to try and clean it off first and see whether it really needs repainting. If it's just mud it's likely it will come off. If it's just been painted recently, then it can probably be touched up.

Repainting window sills - tricky one - if it is damaged, then it should be redone unfortunately. It would probably only likely need a light sand and a repaint. Can you offer to do it?

Bathroom vent - can it be dismantled? If so, it can probably be taken apart and washed. Speak to the builder maybe?

Cat flap - ask to see evidence of it being broken. We have the same cat flap (I think!) and have had rogue cats break through before and it's withstood being hit. If it's SureFlap, speak with their customer service people - they're really helpful and if it's broken as a result of an unwanted cat breaking in when it shouldn't be able to, they might replace it for free.

In her defense (sort of), she installed a cat flap that was designed to stop other cats from getting in and out of her property. Without knowing that some persistent cats can still get in, I'd have left it unattended too.

A scratched cat flap doesn't stop it operating. When their cats start using it, it will get scratched and marked anyway.

I've had to contact them about a few things in the past and they've been really good.

Having said all of the above, I would expect to see the evidence of all the damage myself though.

Of all the posts on all these threads, this is the one that has absolutely finished me off 💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀