To not replace the bottle of wine?

[foreveralmost]

I live with two other housemates, one stored a bottle of wine in side door of the fridge. As I opened the fridge it fell out and smashed.

I didn’t open the fridge roughly, I opened it normally, She saw me do it. I obviously cleaned it up and apologised - but I was just the unlucky one who happened to open the fridge.

She has now text me to say could I pick her up a new bottle on the way home ..

Op you are continuing to post, why? You don't have any intention of replacing the wine, as I asked before, why bother asking if YABU if you're so sure you're not?

Our fridge is shit for this. I can see how this would happen.

It was an accident, just one of those things,not your fault at all.

I suppose Id offer a fiver towards a replacement in the moment then probably regret offering so I don't think yabu

Maybe get yourself a bottle, have a glass, then say she can have the rest, if that's not good enough for her then tough titties.

We have a Beko fridge in the garage. If we put bottles in the bottom shelf in the door they fall out. Obviously not all shelves are deep enough. As Beko is the the only brand that I know of that you can put in a cold building, we just stick with it and don’t put bottles in the door, it is an overflow fridge anyway.

Maybe it wasn’t your fault. But it certainly wasn’t hers. Storing wine in the fridge door is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. They don’t usually fall out. But when YOU opened it, it did. Just buy the replacement.

Yeah you should replace it. As to why, my answer would be because it's often more important to be kind (especially in house share situations) than to be right.

So how much is the wine @foreveralmost ?

I'd replace, if only to maintain harmony and peace with the people I share a house with.

Do you want to be in the right or do you want to get along with your housemates? If the bottle was under £15 you suck it up in the name of harmony.

I agree with this ^^

TBH you sound rather petty and immature.

Law textbook example - sorry, hon, there is clear causation and damage and your duty of care (be careful with your flatmates' items) - you have to restore the bottle owner to her original position (intact bottle).

I think it’s mad that your housemate would watch it happened and still ask you to pay. Clearly an accident and not even your fault. I understand why you aren’t going to replace it, even though I would just replace it after that text, but then just think she’s weird lol

OP, I'm with you... I have a fridge that has a low bottoms shelf and everyone in the house knows not to put anything tall there because it just falls out when opening the fridge very normally.

Has this happened in the house before this? Was she aware she shouldn't have put a bottle there?

Strange you won't discuss the cost of it as that would screw the feedback... £5 bottle then just replace it for the sake of peace and say you won't be doing it again. £30 bottle, she should have know better and I wouldn't be replacing.

Op why are so defensive about the cost of the wine?

To the average Brit a bottle of wine is usually between £5 and £10 so those saying for the sake of a low amount of money they would just replace it for the sake of flat sharing harmony, is a valid point which you appear to be missing.

Of course of it's a fancy bottle worth £50 then that may change people's opinions. So in that case you could have said it was expensive wine in the Op!
Why be so defensive when someone guesses it may be £6?

Seems like a reasonable response but other than out of courtesy why should the OP replace it
The housemate was a bit cheeky to request that she replace it, she is implying that it was the OPs fault when she knows it probably wasn’t. It seems to have been nobody’s fault and just one of those things.
I’m not sure I would be so courteous to someone like that
It’s the principal of the whole thing.

I would, surely it's not worth falling out over a few penny.

The childish thing is that she didn't ask you to your face.

OP you clearly have nothing better to do..... your flatmate was there and feels you opened it in away that caused it to break, own it and replace. If it is too expensive to replace then apologise and own that you can't.... stop being rude to all the people who are trying to give you an opinion that you asked for.

I agree, if it was stored where it could potentially fall out I'd look at it as a 50/50. Accidents happen, if it was my wine I wouldn't make a big thing about it

Why on earth did you post here op. You clearly have 100% made up your mind not to replace the wine regardless of what anyone else thinks so not sure what you hoped to gain by posting here in aibu.

How can you possibly think you shouldn't replace it?

Why come on a forum to canvass opinions and then just argue with every single person that says you're in the wrong?
Replacing the wine is the nice thing to do, and avoids creating an atmosphere in your home.

Based on your initial post and your unwillingness to listen to anyone (77%) of people who think you are wrong, combined with your snarky replies I suspect your housemate's post would paint a different picture...

I concur. The ‘but for’ test applies here in the flatmate’s favour.

My judgment might be different if there was a known history (to the flatmate) that wine bottles in the door had a high likelihood of falling out when the door was opened and so were not routinely placed there.

This. it’s the obvious and sensible response.

If all the shelves were full she might not have had a choice. Stick a note on the fridge so everyone can see it and then if it happens again she can’t say she wasn’t aware of the risk.

This was an accident waiting to happen. I did something similar the other day and DP cleared up the mess because he was the one to open the fridge. But I think it was my fault.
But I don't think it's worth falling out over in a flat share. I'd buy your housemate a cheap bottle of white wine and say Here you go, but please don't put bottles in that position again because the shelf is not high enough to keep them safe.
Then if it happens again she'll be clear that it's her responsibility.

OP why are you so cagey about the price of the wine? Was it even cheaper than £5 is that the issue, was it lambrini?

If the person who put it there didn’t check it was secure, I’d say it’s more on them than the person who opened the fridge not expecting it to fall out. Maybe a solution could be to get an under shelf wine rack to prevent it happening again?