A large group of us went on a villa holiday and hired a number of cars between us to get to & from the airport / supermarket trips etc. The majority of the group were staying for a week and then some of us (including me and my husband) were just staying for a long weekend.
Those staying for the full week sorted out their car hire between them. Me and my husband hired a car separately for those of us just staying the weekend. We split the cost with those travelling in our car. We paid extra for the full insurance cover so that we wouldn’t have to worry about forking out for any accidents.
The people staying for the week didn’t get this insurance on their cars and one of them ended up having a minor accident (through no fault of his own) that caused some minor damage to the car whilst doing a supermarket run.
A few weeks after the trip, the driver of this car requested money from everyone to cover the cost of the damage in the group WhatsApp. I presumed this was just to be paid by the people who stayed for the week, as they had all booked & split their car costs together equally as a group, So I ignored the message.
A few weeks later, I was out with these friends when they reminded me I hadn’t paid them yet. I was a bit surprised and explained I hadn’t realised the “weekenders” were meant to be paying. I then explained that we had paid extra for our car to have full insurance, so it wouldn’t be fair to also be shelling out for their damages when they hadn’t bothered to get that extra insurance.
It turned into a bit of an awkward discussion as my friend wouldn’t back down on the fact that me and my husband should each contribute and pay so that she wasn’t out of pocket.
In the end, we sort of agreed we didn’t want to fall out about it and would just leave it, but I could tell they were very annoyed at me and still seem quite off with me.
I think I did the right thing by standing my ground, but can’t help but wonder if Im being mean and should have just paid?!?