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.

Not being a good idea and hate crime are 2 very different things. That is a really ludicrous comment.

hate crime
/ˈheɪt krʌɪm/

noun
noun: hate crime; plural noun: hate crimes

1. a crime, typically one involving violence, that is motivated by prejudice on the basis of ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or similar grounds.

Surely cats getting accidently trapped in houses and their owners doing something daft to try keep the silly sod alive doesn't translate into a violent crime motivated by prejudice.

Why on earth don’t you have pet insurance?! if you don’t have cash available to reimburse your neighbour - what would you do if your cat was in an accident and needed surgery at the vets? That can easily run into the thousands

I feel raally sorry for the new neighbours. They are probably now regretting having bought that house because (as they see it) one of the neighbours is trouble. Imagine how we would all react if they posted on here about returning from a break to be confronted with all that damage.

why do they need a new cat flap?
anyway i think they are chancers,

but i cant believe you dont have insurance for your cat?
surely they dont need the rug replacing or the wall repainting?

We don't know the age of the cat. I don't think pet insurance usually pays for medical bills for cats once they get to 8?

@MarvellousMonsters
If your cat has managed to force his way in through a locked cat flap, the cat flap is faulty.

Or the cat broke it, which the OP said her cat has a habit of doing.

If someone forced their way through your locked window by breaking it then it wouldn't mean the window was a faulty window.

Tbf that sums up most of the thread!

This is where it jumped the shark. In one post the OP is panicking about the money and next she is joking about the ham

If it’s not made up and that’s your real attitude, then you are a CF and if that’s how you have come across to your neighbours then no wonder they are pissed

The scuff marks and the rug you could have maybe got away with minimal damages but you left fish and ham in their house and didn’t even remove it after you freed your cat

Legal or not I am on the neighbours side.

Agree with this. Their property wasn't secured and the cat flap allowed your cat in and caused you and the cat distress when it couldn't get out. You can't tell a cat not to go in to somewhere it can get into. They should claim on their insurance. And why should they have to? Because you are not going to pay them £1600. This is what insurance is for.

I don't understand how the cat could break the cat flap off the hinges but still not be able to get back out? Surely if the flap had come off the hinges it could get past it. Can someone draw me a diagram? I'm way too invested in this story.

@Catsos
http://www.catbehaviourist.com/blog/cats-law-uk/

Good grief pps stating it is the neighbours' fault!
That's the same as punching someone in the face and saying "your fault for walking into my fist"
OP is 100% liable for any damage and I reckon ought to stump up whatever they ask because she went against police advice that she couldn't do anything.
That's pretty brazen in the eyes of the law.
I'd be utterly fucked off if this were my new home, ready to move into after who knows how many months of moving stress and expense.
The cat belongs to OP ergo the mess is her fault, it's a basic moral of pet ownership. Even if say, the door had been left wide open while they were washing the car-it is her cat. Her fault.

Do crabsticks even contain crabmeat? I thought it was some cheap white fish!

I would go with £400

Cat owner here.

I hope your cat is OK and you are too as I can imagine how stressful this has been.

£1600 is bit steep. I understand what they mean about the flooring though. I'd pay for those bits to be replaced and rug professionally cleaned.

All the other bits like the paint work is very easily fixed. I'd offer to do that work myself and it's them being idiots if they refused.

Tomorrow call Citizens Advice to see if they can offer any advice or point you somewhere else.

Your neighbours can't take what you haven't got. But please listen to me, don't be getting an overdraft to pay them off.

Sound bit weird to me. Also Pet Plan are amazing pet insurers.

They do but the premiums are humongous. I pay more to insure my 12 year old cat than I do to insure my house!

can you claim it on your home insurance?

Many people won't have chip activated cat flaps - so this may mean he has shoved his way in/bounced open a magnetic or locked to prevent entry manual flap - he's unlikely to be wrecking them, just flipping a paw under or bouncing them open.

Or indeed it has been assumed he has done this and he may not have, cat flaps get mucky, stick open one way or the other, and then its pretty easy for a nosey cat to wander in.

I doubt the OP has verified that he has actually broken multiple chip activated cat flaps, just that he has entered homes with catflaps before.

But who knows, he could be going out, tooled up, and breaking into every house in the street, nicking Dreamies and flogging them on the black-cat market.

They should be able to claim most of that on their insurance.

You should offer to pay their excess.

They are BU to ask for £1600

I can't see how you would be.
While they're free to roam, there's nothing to say we must ensure they have safe passage in or out of a building etc that they roam into.

Ok although your pet your responsibility they seem to be taking this insanely too far, they don’t need to repaint for foot prints and seem to be trying to make you foot the bill for their renovations. That said a peed on carpet is kinda ruined, if it’s new especially. They could claim insurance, though not likely to do long term relationship well. I would compile own estimates (I really think they are using it to upgrade) through and offer to pay half, as i doubt their insurance will pay out as the house wasn’t secured.

Just a thought, maybe they didn't install the cat flap and it was the previous owners?

Also maybe the costs are high as the owners haven't yet moved it so need to employ someone to do the repairs