Holiday cottage - Booting family out, AIBU?

[HolidayCottageAnnoyance]

I have a holiday cottage which does not allow children under 12. This is for health and safety reasons (think steep stairs, pond, open and functioning fireplace etc). It says on the listing at three different points on the listing page that children under 12 are not allowed. This includes babes in arms. It also makes it clear when you book (i.e. once you've selected dates and you get through to payment) that children are not allowed. There is literally no way this can be missed.

I had a phone call from a neighbour this morning as they had seen a toddler in the garden and had noticed that the car that the 'couple' arrived in has a baby-seat in it. I rang the cottage company before lunch and received a rather passive response that made it clear they didn't want the grief of turfing the family out. I was very firm and said I wanted them out by the end of the day. Long story short they are still there (I have texted said neighbour to check).

So here is my AIBU: would I be completely unreasonable to send a relative tomorrow to boot them out if they are still there? As it's all done through the cottage company I have no way of getting in touch with them myself, so either relying on the ineffectual cottage company or sending a relative are my only choices.

YABU: Let it go, the child hasn't been injured so far and it's only four more nights.
YANBU: They're cheeky fucks and you should boot them out even if the holiday cottage company isn't going to help. Then you should find a new holiday cottage company to list through.

I’d just leave them be.
I’m guessing there’s a busy road near the house somewhere but no one is freaking out about that, even though plenty of children get run over every year.
And does the house have a bath? Check out how many kids drown in baths!
And you say they drove to your house … that’s pretty dangerous, could get in a car accident!
parents need to watch kids, that’s life

This.

I would write to the cottage company making it clear you accept no liability for anything that happens, and you want them to check the property and have it cleaned at their expense if it is necessary before the next guests arrive.

Thats illegal

Thank you for thinking of children's safety even when their parents are willing to risk it. You're a good person.

Not about lia ility insurance, a out how insurance companies operate when it comes to paying out large claims. They examine the owner's actions.

Why on earth are you banning kids? The “steep stairs, pond, open and functioning fireplace” are ridiculous reasons. Horrible unfriendly difficult pointless rules like this have ruined society

@ArmchairPanic it's a holiday let. Nobody was forcing the family to stay there.

Dramatic much? 😂

I bet you'd be the first to sue if your kid fell down the stone steps and cracked their skull. Have litigation happy parents also ruined society?

I’d just leave it this time. They know the risks and will be careful with their own child

She's likely asked the neighbour to beak over at all the new tenants on arrival to be honest.. She sounds like she obsessively worries about her property imo

Escalate with the company. To remove them if you must.. Don't go sending random people round you obviously can't do that...

Plenty of kids have been in gardens and near fireplaces.

111 ÷ 3,913,953 × 100 = 0.002836%

That’s 0.284 per 100,000 under-5s per year (or 2.84 per million per year).

≈ 1 in 35,261 under-5 children.

Risk, is very low.

Booting them out now is completely over the top. However, a communication should be issued that any damaged items or accidents caused by children will need to be covered by the parents ie. You’re not liable if said child falls in the pond.

I honestly don't care what your statistics are . . . I would NEVER let my toddler play in an area with a garden pond. Having experienced a tragedy locally when a pond death occurred, I will never, ever forget the grief that the toddlers family went through. Appallingly sad and avoidable

I posted the statistics as I don't think people generally realise how many toddler deaths are from drowning in ponds . . . if more people knew that 111 small children have drowned in garden ponds in England during the past 10 years, perhaps they would take a different view on how dangerous they can be

It's OP's OWN HOUSE. It's very much OP's business!

In Australia, any body of water, such as pools including ponds, capable of being filled to a depth of 300mm (30 centimetres or almost 12 inches/almost one foot) or more must be fenced in. Before then there were far too many kids drowning.

My toddler also doesn't play near ponds.

And is supervised. I was just putting your statistics into perspective.
Take care

Yes. I don't play fast and loose with my children's safety. But I also don't let them play near bodies of water. If we stayed at a property with a body of water, personally my own under 12s would be strictly supervised..

I was just clarifying statistics as they were brought into it 🙏

Not to do with drowning, but I’ll never forget going to a session with a paramedic about the main child safety issues when one of my kids was little. What that guy had seen. Children choking before his eyes. Most of us are far too blasé about these things. I stopped letting my kids eat in the back of the car that day (until the were a lot older).

I think the low statistics for children drowning in ponds is largely because the public is well aware of the risk and very few children have access to unfenced ponds these days.
OP is very well aware of the risk and needs to protect herself legally, to show that she has done everything in her power to keep that child safe.
Personally, I think that banning young children from the property and contacting the holiday letting agent to inform them that a family are breaking the rules, covers her, but legally? I'm not so sure.

Agreed. Not all parents are crap, most actually look after their children and keep them safe!

Also I cannot imagine having so little in my life as to spy on the house next door like this neighbour, deary me they need to get a life!

If I happened to look out an upstairs window and saw a small child, unaccompanied, near a pond I would definitely react very quickly

The saying "better safe than sorry" springs to mind . . .

I think people have been extremely harsh about a neighbour who has acted swiftly and correctly and for all the right reasons

Your stats are a bit basic. For the general public going about day to day the risk is ‘low’. As soon as you introduce your toddler to an environment with water the risk will significantly increase and the odds of them drowning go up.

Yabu. I'd leave it. You've made it very clear all over the booking. We had steep stairs and a pond growing up, none of us were injured.

None of this is relevant when it's in the house's terms and conditions that under-12s are not permitted.