Will you expect me to pay/replace if I accidentally break something in your house?

I wouldn’t expect it but I’d surely appreciate it.

I would not expect it, but I would appreciate the offer.

Depends on the particular set of circumstances and who it was that broke what.

If a cheap cup was broken, I wouldn’t worry about being reimbursed. Especially if it was simply an accident that could have happened to anyone.

If it was something expensive or meaningful, and especially if the person who broke it was being careless, I would want it replaced or be reimbursed for it’s value.

All situations are different though and I would gauge my expectation on those variables.

If it was a wine glass then no, if it was my TV then the offer would certainly be appreciated.

If someone accidentally broke something in my house, I would not expect them to pay for it at all. I think that most people would feel bad for breaking someone else’s possessions, I know I would, and it would make me feel worse and embarrassed, and extremely guilty if someone suggested that I pay for it, and I wouldn’t want to make someone feel like that.
Possessions are not that important to me anyway, and someone breaking something is not the end of the world.

Yes. i may not accept your offer of a replacement, but i would expect you to make the offer. i accidentally broke an antique tiffany lamp at my mothers house. needless to say, tears came into her eyes, when this happened. this was a very expensive lamp and i knew it. my mother, just because i was her son, never asked for a dime to replace the lamp. i took a photo of the lamp and notified my insurance company. the lamp was non-repairable, so we looked for a new one. total cost was around $850.00. i paid the $500 deductible and my insurance paid the remaining balance. she was happy once again.

I wouldn’t expect it, no. But an offer would be nice.

If a friend broke something in my house then I would likely not expect payment. Now if I loaned them something valuable and they broke it then yes I would likely expect something.

Now if someone broke something after I asked them not to do something that may be a bit different. An example is that my mother installed a fan in our window (just a typical box fan). I asked her several times not to worry about it and please not to break our screen. She broke the screen. I was so upset and she did end up replacing it.

If a stranger broke something in my house it would really really depend on the circumstance. It probably follows the same rules as above but I might wonder why someone who is a stranger to my house is fondling my stuff enough to break it (if that were the case). Also if stranger were drunk or otherwise inebriated I would probably do some judging and be more pissed off (since we don’t allow that in our house).

Now after said person leaves I might just have a good cry over the broken object, especially if it were sentimental to me.

No I wouldn’t. It happens. I personally think it’s kind of rude to ask someone to pay for something in a situation like this. If they wanted to pay for it of their own accord that’s fine though.

I would definitely expect it. Once, when I was younger, and my friend and I had kids of the same age, about 4, her daughter was picking up and carrying around this quite large Mexican-style pot. It was about 2 feet tall, in really nice, earthy colors. It was one of a matching set. Granted, I got it at a garage sale, but I REALLY liked them and they looked wonderful sitting at either end of the back patio. Well, the kid was trying to lug it around (it was way too heavy!) I told Mom, Mom told her to put it down and not touch it again! I moved it back to the patio corner that it belonged in. We went back in the house. When we came back out there was the pot, broken into pieces.

Mom scolded the child, I was somewhat aghast (especially since the kid blatantly went against her mothers command), but she never apologized, not really, to me. But I didn’t say much in order to preserve our friendship—that’s always more important than any material thing.

About a week later she hands me this small, gosh-awful, ugly puke yellow and green flower pot, says, “This should make up for it!”......I just choked out, “um. thanks.” It DIDN’T make up for it. I really would have preferred a very heart-felt apology (which I never got) and received nothing to “replace” something that really couldn’t be replaced.
Geez. If the replacement gift had any redeeming value I suppose that might have taken the edge of of all the insult, but…it was UGLY.

Oh. I had another friend who’s then 14 and 16 year old boys broke the ignition switch in my car. I SAW them do it! They denied it, Mom took their side…it cost $90 to fix it, and yes, I think the parents should have made the kids pay for it…..

I had to mark this question as great. I’m amazed at the answers to this one.

I agree that how close you are to the person doing the damage would make a difference.

Beyond that, how the breakage occurred would matter to me. For example, if someone were helping me wash dishes and dropped something I wouldn’t expect them to offer to pay for it, and I certainly wouldn’t let them pay for it.

If someone tripped coming over the threshhold and took out an antique, I would think it enough if they just didn’t sue.

If someone tossed a football around and hit a lamp, yeah, they should pay… unless I was playing of course.

Please don’t visit me. Thank you.

I can’t say I’d ever really expect to be paid for it but the value of it does play a role to some extent as does the situation. drop a soapy plate while helping with the dishes don’t worry about it, break my 55” LED LCD because you were drunk and tossing a football around my living room, yeah, pony up.

Largely though I’m pretty easy going about stuff, accidents happen, but I will remember those who offer to take care of it vs. those who don’t and the amount of stupidity and genuine apology involved in the accident goes a long way.

About guilt, not so much. Regret, only if it’s irreplaceable and even then usually I can get over it if the person is genuinely sorry.

It’s entirely hypothetical since I don’t have guests. The offer would be appreciated, but as most of the items in the house are antiques, it’s unlikely that a guest could afford to reimburse anyway. I’d let the insurance cover it. That’s what I pay premiums for.

Let me offer this related situation (which truly happened about 30 years ago):

I visited a friend, and invited another huge, clumsy friend who was known to be a bull in a china shop. Huge clumsy friend broke something.

Should I be responsible since I essentially carried a loaded weapon to my pal’s house?

I think the situation would play a big part. If someone was being careless I would expect the item to at least be replaced. Most of the people that I have in my home though wouldn’t behave in such a manner. If they broke something on accident, I would appreciate the offer to pay for it, but certainly wouldn’t accept.

No I don’t judge. I wouldn’t expect them to replace it, although I would appreciate it. It would also depend on if it was something I had said be careful not to break though or something that you should obviously be careful not to break like a TV.

@frdelrosario What did huge clumsy friend break? And was it just because he was a clumsy oaf or some other circumstance?

first of all, i rarely have strangers in my house.
but realistically, regardless of who it is, i usually don’t fully expect them to pay me, but i do think they should offer to at least replace it, or seem awfully sorry. if it’s something small, like a cup, then an apology will pretty much suffice. but i mean, if they broke my computer or something, they should at least offer to pay you or replace it.

@frdelrosario No, your big clumsy friend should pay for it, if it’s something worth paying for.

@RedPowerLady

One of the points of this entire thread is whether the value of the broken object matters, right? In this instance it was a valuable and functional antique (but I don’t think that’s relevant).

And the circumstance was that because it was a functional item, our host let huge clumsy friend use it. So in this case one could say that our host should’ve known the risk he was taking.

@Val123

That must’ve one seriously ugly flowerpot.

@frdelrosario I think the nature of the circumstances including what the object is matters. In fact most people have said as much in their responses thus my reasoning for asking.

I do not think you would be responsible for payment. However if your friend doesn’t offer to pay then it would be courteous of you to do so.

Where I really get mucked up is the financials to be honest. If breaker is obviously low income and it was a true accident I would feel quite guilty for expecting payment especially if the person who owns said object is financial stable enough to replace the object themself. I know that sounds horrible but well that is my honest feeling.

No of course not, but if it was gluable I would ask them to help me piece it back together. I would be more focused on them not feeling bad for breaking it.

It would depend on what was broken, if it was a dish I wouldn’t really care. if they broke something my grandmother gave me they would have hell to pay for it because it’s irreplacable not only would they get a piece of my mind but a boot out the door. And the only way they would break something like that is if they were snooping around through my room which I would never allow a stranger to do. If it was something valuable yes I would expect them to pay for it, and I wouldn’t feel guilty. If the person was going to pay for say a broken cup then I’d tell them not to worry about it. I wouldn’t judge the person the only way a stranger would get judged on the spot like that is if they broke something in my room which would mean they were snooping and I’d check to see if anything else was touched before they left.

Since I live with a bipolar son, I’m used to everything I care about getting broken. So no, I wouldn’t expect reimbursement or replacement.

However, if you were behaving the way my son does I might suggest counseling and medication.

How the hell did a stranger get in my house? When you come visit me you sign a waiver… at the front door… stating any injury or death wile on my property is your own fault, anything you break wile on my property will be replaced at your expense. and so on so ya, don’t break anything at my place.

@frdelrosario It was horrible. It was…more like an insult than anything. Like, “Well, Mary broke a pot so take this. It’s a pot. A pot is a pot.” (PS…I didn’t ASK her to replace it because it couldn’t be replaced, and I certainly didn’t ask her to pay for it, for the same reason. I couldn’t just go out and buy a new one, and it didn’t have that much value anyway. She just gave me the gosh-awful ugly pot as a way to assuage her guilt over the fact that her kid was such a brat! It was worse than doing nothing….) Anyway….this friend of mine didn’t have the greatest taste so maybe she really couldn’t see the difference, or maybe she thought it really didn’t matter….but…O well. That’s water under the bridge, and I made sure that it didn’t go any further than that.

I’m going to a basketball game. Try not to break anything while I’m gone.

Our flatmate/my S/O’s best friend was staying in our part of the house (the upstairs) while we were away on a holiday. We told him he could hang out there if he wished as we have cable and a nice place figuring he would enjoy it in addition to having someone watch over the house in our absence.

He ended up trying to work our gas oven and not really knowing how. Instead of phoning us to check, he ended up breaking the knob on one of the burners. The oven is 5 months old and quite expensive. He decided to fix it and not tell us by gluing the plastic knob onto the metal piece which holds the knob. It didn’t work very well and looked terrible.

Upon our return he showed us the damage and apologised saying he would pay for a replacement knob. When I turned the knob, it broke off leaving plastic fragments on the metal. Come to find out, they slide back on without issue so the gluing actually messed it all up. Anyway, unable to get a knob – manufacturer no longer supplies the knobs for this model etc etc (I know silly huh considering we only bought it recently).

We are now having to pay top dollar to get a plastics company to mold and make a new knob. He is now paying us off at $20.00 a week.

I don’t remember inviting you. :P
na you can come over but you have to wear those booties on your feet

@Rachienz Aw! Poor kid! At least he’s paying for it, and I’m sure he learned something, quite to his embarassment!

only if it broken purposely.

I would not expect payment from the majority of people.

But then again, there is people I know who are very very very stingy. I remember I didn’t have some change for the bus and I asked my friend for a favour and lend me some change. He did so. So then the following night we were out and I returned the favour by buying him a drink, which was about 3 times the price of the bus.

The following day he asks me for the bus change back…. I didn’t know what to say.

So if he ever broke anything in my house, then he’d have to have it within a week or else interest applies.

@LeotCol – Wow, your friend sounds pretty full on!

Depends on what broke. I’m pretty much a minimalist .. so I’m most likely to just buy another one.

I wouldn’t expect them to pay for it. If it were me that broke something, I’d immediately offer to pay for it.

Depends on the situation, if it is an accident, I would expect an offer, that I would turn down.

If I had said multiple times “don’t run in the house”, and on your 14th trip running through the house you broke something, I would expect you to apologize, replace it, and not come back till you learn better manners.

Let’s put it this way: If I broke something at your house (and it was something that I broke, and not just something that happened to wear out while I was the last one to use it), then I would certainly offer compensation, before you even had a chance to ask, if you were so inclined.

I would expect visitors to my home to do the same. And I probably wouldn’t take them up on the offer.

Three true stories: l. My son’s best friend is a very large person. While he was using a chair in our house, the legs broke off. We were glad he didn’t hurt himself. There was no mention of the value of the chair, but for Christmas, he gave us a gift card for a furniture store.

2. A friend of an invited guest got drunk and decided to throw his glass at a fake fireplace we had for the holidays. The glass was part of a matched set worth $150. We politely asked him to please replace with a similar set, and he did.

3. A member of a club, at a club meeting, announced he was a vegetarian, and swung his arm so that it accidentally knocked my meat casserole on the floor, breaking it. I sent a notice to the club for reimbursement (which I received) and he was billed for the price of the replacement.

@YARNLADY I’m sorry he broke your meat casserole! You probably could have still eaten it if it hadn’t broke, huh!

@Val123 Maybe I cooked it too long.

Thank you so much for all of you who choose to tolerate other people’s misfortune,for sharing your personal experience,and for being honest!. I really appreciate all your answer,from that we can definitely see different point of view,level of toleration and,kindness from different kind of person nowadays.

No I wouldn’t expect it. but I would hate you!!!! ( damn !”$%$% the ming dinasty vase!!) .. but no I definately wouldn’t..
=)

Depends on what they broke, and how much of a stranger they were, and the circumstances of the breakage. I’m tolerant of accidents; they are, after all, accidents. But if you start smashing things on purpose, you’ll be expected to pay for the damage.