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.

House insurance - exactly. OP's offer was more than generous. These arseholes are coming into the neighbourhood (before they have actually moved in, in fact) with an unreasonable attitude when greeted with accommodating politeness in an awkward situation caused by their own incompetence.

John Lewis gives you 35 days to return something you've ordered you no longer want.

I really think they're just trying to get one over on you, because she wouldn't have just gone ahead ordering an expensive rug if she was claiming from the insurance. And I bet the new rug is more expensive than the one that was soiled!

These threads are something else I thought the poster on the first thread suggesting a catio was joking about making your cat part of a patio! 😂🤣🤣🤣Never heard of a catio previously,
Though the way OP carries on would say its only a matter of time until her new neighbours install a new patio.

I can totally understand your neighbours, they are trying to get their home perfect for them and if they have had a painted in who has done a good job but it is ruined before they even move in they want it putting back to how it was.

I think you need to start a thread on the legal board, then check your home insurance.

Is home insurance not the same as car insurance though in that your insurer will then pursue a third party if it believes it is warranted? Like car insurance, the costs an insurer will pursue are much higher than if you paid in the first place, plus insurers have their own legal that costs nothing and a third party like OP will generally not.

The insurer may be prepared to wear a cat coming in and pissing and causing cosmetic damage, but I can’t see them not pursuing a known party who lobs crab sticks and water through windows and stuffs ham in vents.

Presumably you did not have a crazy cat lady shoving meat down your air vent?

Damage caused by you I would pay but not damage caused by the cat. They should have properly secured their home. How could an insurance company sue your cat?
Tbh can't see how crab sticks and ice could damage a window sill? Was the paint wet or did food dye stain it?

The damage caused by you is very little just the air vent, possibly the window sill. Maybe the (malfunctioning) cat flap, if you meddled with it.
Any small creature could have got in and weed on a rug, left mud. Squirrels can cause a lot of damage.
If an insurance company would not pay out for the cats damage, neither should you. Highly doubt they would pay out as your neighbours left an empty property unsecured.

This is extremely excessive - and tbh pretty sad they are demanding this from you and not a great way to kick off being your new neighbour - you need to negotiate greatly - I feel for you - also as they left their car flap access open and the house empty what would they think if an urban fox had got inside ?? Completely possible - they should have made their house secure if it was being left empty

I would be livid if I were them. Damage to a brand new house after all the stress of house purchasing and renovating. I wouldn't be happy at all. And no amount of of professional cleaning will get cat piss smell out of rugs or floorboards. It's insidious that smell and it never fully goes unless you rip out and start again.
But I would also recognise that my cat flap had been part of the issue (I assume they don't know your cat has form for this?) I would claim on the insurance and request you pay the excess which is fair. The insurance when they look in to it probs won't pay for the vent which you damaged-that can't be explained as being the cat-so if they didn't I'd offer to pay for that as well.

And if I were you I'd get my car insured and keep it in going forwards.

WRT to crab sticks damaging paintwork

They are basically orange food dye plus some kind of fish-adjacent material

My friend's work-top and fridge were 'ruined' by orange stains from them which were resistant to removal by bleach etc

Thread is hilarious. 🤣
Trouble as in a menace ham and crab sticks poster? Get real. Neighbours are obviously taking the Michael, OP has offered to pay more than I would.

I would be fuming as well if I was them. They are paying to have their new home redecorated why should they have to pay out more because your cat and you decided to cause damage?

You seem to think it’s funny that your cat terrorises the neighbours as you mentioned before in previous threads, maybe now you will take some responsibility as a pet owner and stop your cat from going outside or put the cat wire on top of your fence to stop your cat going over them.

I hope you found some nice properties on your embarrassed house search the other night, OP. Or that you have a thick skin as your relationship, probably with all of your neighbours, will be mud by the time you’ve finished.

I had sympathy at first (I have cats myself) but your attempts to deny as much accountability as possible in such a dismissive way just make you look like biggest CF given you know your cat has form!!

And now you want to print out evidence of your lack of culpability and just post it through their letterbox?? How passive aggressive!

So they are having the house renovated but even though that would be dirty work and they wisely kept all their other belongings out of the way, they simply couldn't bear to visit to check on progress unless their fancy rug was laid out to welcome them? The smell of BS from this story is even stronger than the smell from the mythical crab sticks.

As an experiment why don’t you borrow op’s cat and let it shit and piss all over your brand new house then come back and tell us how hilarious it is.

If my cat had damaged anything I would pay but only after I'd seen the damage myself and received several quotes. He did go through a stage of stealing the neighbours pond plants and when we realised where they came from (we'd only just moved in so didn't know) we immediately offered to pay. They said no thankfully!

We cat proofed our garden to keep him safe and to stop other cats coming in. I didn't want a catio as I don't like the look of them so cat proofing was the best of both worlds - he was safe and could wander around his garden and I didn't have to have a wooden cage in the garden.

While I think the costs are excessive, I wouldn't be willing to claim on my home insurance either.

I've got a 10 years no claims bonus (or at least I did until I was burgled at Christmas) and wouldn't want to pay higher premiums for several years by claiming for damage caused by a neighbour's cat.

I don't think that's a reasonable ask and not everyone has accidental damage on their policy (I don't). Although I know MN is quite blasé about claiming on insurance.

No, it takes 5 minutes of the owners time? You don’t need to hire a decorator to paint a wall, it’s not exactly rocket science.

I have a feeling that people who grew up with social media can’t quite distinguish between its cartoon-like world (have a look at TikTok) and the very real consequences for others of actions by people/pranksters like op. A lot of people on this thread now seem to have a fan-like devotion to op and her cat so in their minds the owners of the house are villains who won’t join in with their fun. It’s the way sm works. With sm you are on one side or the other; there is no nuance or grey area, no feeling for those who aren’t on your side. This is why some on here are able to so easily dismiss the owners and even express a desire to make things harder for them (mocking them/ calling them uptight etc).

All these people bashing the OP seem to be ignoring that fact that she has apologised, offered a fair amount to clean and pay for damages, just not the ridiculous amounts they are coming up with.
They also left a window open so either way they left their property was left unsecured, the only thing op should be liable for is the food and ice cubes she put in their home but there’s no way it costs anywhere near what the neighbours want to repaint a windowsill and clean a vent!

To think most of the posters getting so exercised on this thread are parents is quite disturbing 😂

This!

You aren’t legally responsible OP except for the damage you caused, but you know that. Offering anything towards cat damage is generous.

My neighbours cat was stuck in my home overnight when I was away and I felt awful! I wouldn’t have asked them to repay the scratch damage and I don’t even have a cat…

(he had a habit of running in through open windows or doors, I thoroughly checked every time I left the house after that. Plus the little sod once jumped into my car when I was unloading shopping and helped himself to my fillet steak)

This! I have read multiple posts saying the OP is failing to take responsibility despite being culpable (paraphrasing here but you get my point!) I think the majority haven’t RTFT 🤦‍♀️

The OP has offered to pay something. I did think the level of CF ery on the part of the neighbours is truly shocking! It does not cost the best part of 2 grand to fix a bit of cosmetic damage and it’s probably money the OP doesn’t have! I’d be looking for every excuse in the book not to be paying the full amount requested also!

sadly I have also dealt with people in my life like the OPs neighbours…. :( hopefully karma will defeat them very soon as I highly doubt the cat piss rug was originally £800!!