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.

It wasn’t the content of the comment that I laughed at, it was the tone! I read it completely in the voice of Lynn from Alan Partridge.

Jesus F Christ OP you're like Mr Bean meets Man vs Bee, I actually cannot believe one person would land themselves in this much bother. Are you normally so immature and inconsiderate of risks and consequences? Pushing ham through a fucking air vent after crabsticks through a window, I mean what did you think would happen?!

Either this isn't real or you're minimising the damage caused.

They are CFers of the highest order.

The cat flap is faulty. Cats have a right to roam. It’s their fault the cat got in. It’s also their responsibility that they had items in an unoccupied house.

I think you could offer £200 for repainting and rug cleaning, nothing for the cat flap as it’s their responsibility. I wouldn’t be offering anything. Their cat flap, their responsibility, their cost. If you offer you are accepting responsibility and opening yourself to further costs. Or they could claim on their house insurance and you could pay the excess.

@Catsos I'm going to go against the grain here. Your neighbours did not secure their building allowing your cat to gain access. What would have happened if it was a fox or a stray? Say you will pay excess for proven home insurance and that's it.

You sound like a neighbour from hell OP.
Keep your cat indoors or pay up for the damage. Your neighbours are within their rights to seek you pay up.

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

Not if the neighbours had gone to the police and the op had found herself charged with breaking and entering our criminal damage.

No, they can't. Cats are classed as free spirits and so have the right to roam where they please. Their owners are not liable for damage they cause.

I mean, it literally says that in the link.

If they insist on a new rug, you want the old one your cat pissed on (you can then clean it and flog it!).

What makes you think they would object to handing over the old ruined rug, if OP actually does replace it? I can't imagine they'd want to keep it.

It wasn’t the content of the comment that I laughed at, it was the tone! I read it completely in the voice of Lynn from Alan Partridge.

Ah, OK, then - fair enough. Sorry for misconstruing; gotta love AP

Cat pee is horrendous and pretty much impossible to get out of carpets, laminate etc . I speak from bitter experience. I’d probably try dry cleaning it first but wouldn’t hold out much hope. It’s an awful smell, I’d be furious

Oh FFS ENOUGH! We are all fucking bonkers to be so invested in this saga. Cat's safe, hurrah! (gorgeous fur baby) Expensive jolly, boo! (Offer to pay in installments) I'm having a word with myself (need more self discipline)

They also left a window open, unless they have cameras how can they prove it was OP’s cat and not another random cat that actually urinated on the rug.

I'm not sure that they are the ones taking the piss!

If OP had just broken the window a couple of hours after seeing the cat, after being told that the police and estate agent wouldn't help, she would be paying £150 for a new window.

There's a chance the cat wouldn't have been in long enough to wee.

No need to pay for crabcake - icecube - ham damage too.

Without all the ham and crabcake nonsense they might have been more willing to accept the mud being cleaned, rather than repainting.

Sorry OP, I did say you had to get him out asap due to the peeing.

If it were my house, damage such as scratch marks and muddy paw prints etc I would take on the chin and just paint over etc.

but cat pee stinks. She is right that her cats will still smell it and they will continue to pee there.

Would you be happy to just accept that if it was your house?

Sorry, but the pee is the issue for me and nunderstsnd where she is coming from.

(And I say this as a cat owner).

I think it reasonable. Your cat did the damage. You should pay.

Cat flap looks fine to me - mine is the same. Tunnel through the wall, cat flap installed on the inside wall. There's a plastic tunnel connecting the inside and outside bits.

See picture here

Re the legality of whether you're responsible or not - I did find this (Cats Law)

One extract "If an owner knows that their cat is dangerous; its aggressive nature is unusual for a domestic cat and the owner know that if the cat escapes it is likely to cause that damage, then the owner is potentially liable for any such damage."

In your case I would argue that your cat isn't destructive by nature and that he was trapped, potentially by a failing of their own cat flap.

I'd offer what you can, because it's the right thing to do, and see if they'll pursue it further.

If you have free legal cover with your home insurance, speak with them, or get a free 30 minute consultation with a local solicitor.

I think you should pay.

You and your cat have done this to their house.

Even if you get the rug cleaned it could still smell a bit.

I think the neighbours are really taking the piss with the alleged cost of repainting the wall and window cill - both would take minutes to put right. And I think they are being very unreasonable to not agree to getting the rug cleaned first. Is your cat neutered? It will made a huge difference to the strength of the smell if he's not had the snip rather than having been neutered. I do think the neighbours are being very foolish to leave a valuable rug in an empty house that is being renovated, where it would be vulnerable to getting damaged by the builders. The cost of replacing the vent is also ridiculous - I'm sure it could be cleaned rather than being replaced.

I would ask to see a copy of the receipt for the rug before attempting to get it cleaned, and also ask to see written quotes for all of the work.. However, I suspect that you would only legally be liable to meet the cost of the damage that you caused - ie, repainting the window cill if it really was damaged from dropping a couple of crab sticks and ice cubes, and cleaning the vent where you poked the ham through. I would also point out that none of the damage would have occurred if they had secured the cat flap properly, knowing that the house would be empty for some time. Perhaps they should be thankful that it was a cat which got in rather than a fox If it was me, I would offer to pay for cleaning the rug, and I would offer to repaint the two areas that the cat damaged, and to clean the vent myself. Good luck.

In any things like this, unless the householder has receipts to show that’s how much it’s going to cost. You can’t just kind of guesstimates something.

And the judge would just want to see willingness to try and make things right.

Say yes, but ask for a receipt and asked them to get a couple of quotes first

I agree with this. Any damage you did then you should pay, ie ham and ice cubes (ask for picture proof though). Cat damage is on them not having a secure cat flap. It could have been a fox or small dog. That's on them.

I think it's fair enough of them to ask. I'd be furious in their position. I don't think they can force you to pay that full amount though, and in your position I think I'd offer less.

Chances are you're never going to have a good neighbourly relationship with them, whether you do or don't pay up.

Chip activated flaps are designed to only let the cat with the right chip in - which is not the OP's cat.

So if thats the case, it's faulty.

Some flaps can be bounced open or hooked open by a determined cat from the outside - however the cat needs room and the correct angle to do this and thats not achievable inside a tight space, as the relevant cat flap is. Only possible if the flap is on an external wall with lots of room.

If its not a chip activated flap, it may have been a manually locking or magnetic flap - same as above applies if its locked to prevent entry... shouldn't be possible for the OP's cat to get in.

If the home owners left the flap locked to prevent EXIT but open for entry - they've turned their home into a cat-trap... and should shoulder some of the responsibility.

We don't even know if this IS the home owners new catflap, they could be totally cheeky fuckers and its the old owners catflap. Potentially, her cat gained access whilst the builders were in, got shut in, and never had access to either side of the cat flap, and the damage to it was caused by the previous owners cat!

They sound awful. You didn’t put the cat in there and ask it to damage the place. It was an accident. Don’t pay. But do get your gorgeous cat insured!

Surely it depends if the rug was where the builders were working? If it’s in a different room I don’t see the problem.

There were builders bags in the room. OP said the cat had peed on one bag but some of it also went on the rug. So either they were working there or chucked old bags on top of a new, expensive rug.