Who is liable for accidental damage in house-sitting situation?

Question

I arranged for one friend (Amy) and her 11 year old daughter (Mary) to house-sit for other friends of mine (the home owners) while they were on vacation. Mary brought along another 11 year old friend (Lola) -- with the permission of the home owners.

As the shower was large, the girls decided to shower together at the end of their first day there. One of the sliding shower doors was open when they got in, but they had to "push it a little bit hard" to get it to close. Afterwards, when they tried to slide the door open again to exit, it "suddenly swung free from the bottom" and "only hung from the top".

Lola was able to exit the shower safely, but when Mary followed, the shower door suddenly collapsed & shattered. (Neither girl realized that this was a possibility, so neither had called for parental assistance before this.) The other door then fell too, though it didn't shatter.

Luckily, the doors were made of safety glass. While the children were terrified, Mary escaped unharmed. Lola had a few tiny "band-aid" cuts on one foot, which healed within a day or two.

Question: Who is liable to pay for the repairs? As I put these two friends together, I don't want to see a fight or bad feelings erupt. The girls are good, sweet girls; they wouldn't have done any damage intentionally, but they may not have had the insight an adult would about how to deal with a sticky shower door.

Are the homeowners liable for repairing their shower because the sliding doors were sticky (or perhaps even partially off track) to begin with?

Is Amy liable because she was the adult house-sitter and parent in charge?

Are both Amy and Lola's parents liable because both children were ultimately responsible -- and Amy wasn't negligent in her supervision?

I don't know if this is relevant or not, but Amy was not paid for house-sitting, nor did she have any particular duties. She was just to live in the house so it wouldn't sit empty while the home owners were gone.

I thought I was helping both families and now I wish I'd never opened my mouth in the first place!!

Answer 1

Sorry its -too-hard to comment--- -perhaps you may need qualified advice?~~on what to do?

or-(fix it-&-- be done with it)?

Answer 2

It will be the responsibility of the people(amy) doing the hosue sitting..The owners of the house met the people first and approved the situation..so no liability is on you...If the people had already left town without meeting the people first and went on your word then you may be 50% liable..however they met the people first and approved..You have no laibility here..it would be like me recommending Sears to get appliances..and you went and looked at them then purchased a "lemon' you could hold no liability on me

Answer 3

That's definitely a tricky question. Looking at it from a legal perspective, Amy would be responsible. Mary and Lola have no assets and it would therefore be pointless to sue them. They are minors, so the person in charge of them then assumes responsibility. This would be Amy, and if the homeowners were the mean-spirited type, they could sue Amy for restitution.

Given, however, that this is among friends (or at least friends of friends), and it doesn't sound like there's a lawsuit involved, other things need to be taken into account. If I were the homeowners, I would consider asking for a portion of the amount required to fix the damage from Amy, depending on her financial situation and my own. I don't think Lola's family should be involved since they assumed Amy would be supervising her, and theoretically if they had been in charge of the girls this might not have happened.

No matter the monetary arrangement, I'd definitely have a talk with the girls about personal property and caution with other people's things. Did they ask the homeowners' permission to use the shower without supervision? I think it would be unfair that the girls, given their ages, would have to pay more than a small amount towards the new glass, but it is definitely a learning experience.

Answer 4

accidents happen. wouldn't it be covered by the home owners insurance. the damage wasn't intentional and i would think the owners would be mean spiritted if they expected the house sitters to pay for the repairs - i don't envy your being in an awkward situation though.