£1670 for exploding shower door at pool- please help

[Showerexplosion]

My children attended a hotel swimming pool with my mum where they all have membership. A few weeks ago a shower door exploded while they were in the changing rooms. My mother maintains that my children did not touch the door and that it simply exploded.

Neither of my children were hit by the broken glass despite both being in only swimming costumes.

Today she received an email stating:

At approximately 16:10, the glass shower door in the ladies’ changing room was found shattered. Photographic evidence is attached. You reported the damage to Reception at that time, but no explanation was provided. Given the seriousness of the situation and the safety risks posed to other guests, we immediately initiated a full and detailed investigation.

As part of this investigation, we commissioned an independent professional specialising in glass safety and installation to assess the damaged door. Their expert conclusion was clear: the door did not fail due to a defect or spontaneous breakage. The shattering was consistent with improper handling or misuse, and not with normal or appropriate use of the facility.

We also reviewed our CCTV footage covering the Spa and Wellness area. The footage confirms that only yourself, xxxxxx and xxxxxx were present in the changing facilities during the time the damage occurred. No other individuals entered the area before or during the incident. This evidence, combined with the professional assessment, leaves no doubt that the door was broken due to inappropriate use while your grandsons were in the changing room.

The cost of replacing the door is £1,674.00. A detailed breakdown of the replacement cost is attached for your review and we request that you notify your insurers of this cost as we are seeking reimbursement of the replacement of this shower door caused by your actions.

In addition, due to the seriousness of the incident, the safety implications, and the behaviour that led to the damage, we have taken the decision to cancel both xxxxx and xxxxx memberships with immediate effect.

Are we liable for this cost? Are we entitled to a refund for the cancelled memberships - we have only used one month of a 3 month membership for both of them.

I include the pictures they sent me. Any help with how to respond greatly appreciated.

Yes, and I would also state that you believe this is discrimination against your autistic child and this is against the law.

Id be raging.

Tell Chat GPT your story including your suspicions about your boy and get them to write an email for you. Personally I would never set foot in there again anyway, due to their discrimination agaisnt your boy, and I would say you want a refund on the membership, PLUS compensation for the absolute distress this has all caused, and a huge apology.

I have been in a school classroom teaching when the side panel of the door in the hallway exploded. No-one was in the hallway. The school was a year old. No damage had been reported.

Do you have legal cover on your home insurance? Call them and ask.

I don't think you are liable OP.

@Showerexplosion they are lucky you are not suing them for dangerous doors that could have seriously hurt your children.

We have had two toughened glass explosions, a conservatory window panel and the washing machine door panel. It's just something that happens to toughened glass due to invisible flaws, fortunately rare but not unknown.

@SlightlyTerrifiedButPolite

Yours sincerely

[Ms/Mrs Nice Try Assholes]

Yours sincerely

[Ms/Mrs Not Afraid of Bullies & Smarter Than You Bargained For]

This thread is Mumsnet at its finest. So many smart and clever replies, with lots of good and helpful information, and lots of support and sympathy. 💞

And also, every single last post is saying the same thing. That the place trying to fleece you out of money @Showerexplosion are full of shit, they have NO evidence that your children broke the bloody shower screen, and they are clearly trying to lay the blame on you, in the vain hope that you won't take action against THEM. (Which you absolutely should!)

It would a be a civil case so would be “balance of probabilities” (so judge believes more like than not that the DC caused it).

But given the only 3 witnesses say it spontaneously shattered and that there are many many examples of shower screens spontaneously shattering, the expert evidence would need to be pretty compelling I think for the hotel to win a case.

My cooker door exploded. Luckily there was no one in the kitchen at the time. Apparently it’s common with the cheaper models.

First, I want to be clear that I believe you.

You say nobody was near the glass door when it happened, only that you were present nearby. Their cctv shows only that you were present. The only ‘evidence’ they have is of an ‘expert’ who didn’t witness things or even see footage of it happen and has only assessed the smashed remnants and given an opinion.

Now, you know that this evidence cannot possibly be accurate as it blames people who didn’t do it. There are more witnesses to support your claim than theirs. Crucially, nobody was close enough to be hit by the glass which makes the expert’s claim it was caused by a person’s direct actions even more strange.

They should have insurance but they are trying to get you to pay, and not in a nice way, either. Not even an attempt to discuss or take more info - just blaming.

On this basis, I’d ask for the expert’s evidence and tell them you contest this fully and will do so in small claims if necessary.

This is insanity - even if your son did break the door, the hotel would be massively liable for having GLASS doors on their premises which are so fragile they could be broken by a 6 year old child!!
You should be taking them to court!

Not read the full thread, but searched for shattering glass shower door on YT: It absolutely happens.

My oven did aswell

I had a pyrex jug that was simply sat on the counter and it disintegrated by itself into hundreds of cube-shaped pieces.

My glass shower door did. No one was even upstairs when it went bang .

Apparently it’s down to minuscule air bubbles caught during production of the glass and it can spontaneously combust. Who knew?

Lucky no one in this case was injured. It makes a right mess when it blows.

Haven’t had time to read the full thread, so apologies if this point has already been made, but if they have CCTV (dodgy in itself), why not ask to see the CCTV evidence of one of your DC being responsible for the breakage?

They were keen to mention CCTV as supporting evidence, so it would be perfectly reasonable to ask to view it, if this is what they are basing their claim on.

Of course, they won’t have direct footage of your child shattering the glass, at which point they’ll have no claim to pursue.

Isn't an important point that even if it didn't explode spontaneously (which it did of course), it wouldn't be a very safe shower door if a six year old could cause so much damage. If this post is real, I would have thought that they have gone into full attack mode to distract you from the fact that you could sue them.

However, it seems a bit of a coincidence that it exploded at the time a child you suspect they wanted to ban from the pool was there. There's a lot of engagement on this post from people keen to tell you about their exploding oven door/window etc. Almost like it's been engineered that way.

I think the letter is fairly clear they have evidence looking at CCTV of entries and exits that they were the only ones in there, not that they have CCTV of the actual event.

Basically they are saying “we have an expert that says this didn’t shatter spontaneously, and you were the only people present, therefore you must have caused it”.

The shower door in our holiday cottage spontaneously shattered once. It was exceptionally hot in there. We weren't charged or found guilty of anything! Seems very heavy handed.

It’s rubbish about the “expert” though isn’t it. Because nobody touched the door.

They are either totally ignorant and just see a kid and think the kid broke it - or they are chancing their arm to avoid paying their own bills.

I suspect the 'expert' is someone from the company that supplied/fitted the doors who was called out to do a safety assessment after the incident.

I have seen similar doors shatter when slammed, or forced beyond their opening angle, which warps them.

I'm not calling OPs mother a liar, liar, pants on fire...but we don't know that nobody touched the door, that's just what she says happened.

I'd say it's more likely that a glass door would shatter due to some kind of misuse (perhaps at the hands of a couple of kids mucking around who got out of Grandma's line of site for a minute) that a spontaneous shattering.

From the venue's point of view, something has been broken, a professional has told them it looks like the kind of thing that would only happen if someone was misusing it, and they know that the only person there at the time was OPs family.

If that's all the information they have (keep in mind we don't know what OPs mum said to them or how that conversation went), I don't think they're being entirely unreasonable.

OP,
Lots of posters are suggesting rather long winded and defensive emails and some are suggesting you ask for the CCTV, I don’t think any of that is necessary. Keep it super short and stick to the facts. Neither your kids or Mum were anywhere near the door when it spontaneously exploded and they weren’t responsible for the damage. Also ask for the outstanding balance for the membership fee.

You don’t need to pad it out being cross or defensive or asking for more details.

Is there any way that you can make enquiries about them cancelling your little boys membership because of his repetitive sound making? That being the case they are on a very sticky wicket in terms of discrimination and exclusion.

It does worry me that it's so easy to get ChatGPT to write a long message that we will increasingly see people just lobbing generated communications back and forth with nobody actually reading them.

Definitely, I'd keep it brief. Not their responsibility, please refund / reinstate membership and confirm matter closed by X date. If you start bringing in complications like wanting your own expert to see the report or getting your solicitor involved prematurely, you're just adding to your own costs and stress.

Why do they have CCTV of an area where people are showering & therefore likely naked?

Absolutely it's possible for glass to shatter on it's own - particularly safety glass. I'd be telling them to do one.

Overall I agree short and succinct

if they want to take it further let them make another move

Dear sir/madam

we we’re not responsible or made any damage. Reimburse us for the cancellation of membership.

king regards