how to deal with friends and property damage?

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Recently had a friend who used my sig PC as a beermat (bonehead decision I know) and after giving it a good soaking with a spill its as dead as a dodo, I intended to just give him the bill to replace the board/anything damaged and leave it at that, but recently had a friend who said to him he should only have to pay second hand prices for the kit. Just wondering what you guys would do in this situation?
 
If you were to claim off contents insurance, you'd only get second hand prices. That's generally the legal precedent for criminal damage too. Despite the fact you want new parts, if it all got serious you'd most likely end up with second hand money.

I suggest you make him a solid argument for replacing it with new parts and hope for the best, but be willing to settle on second hand.
 
so if you crashed his new car with no previous owners and it was a write off....

he would be happy if you only gave him the money to buy a second hand one?
 
If you were to claim off contents insurance, you'd only get second hand prices.

No you wouldn't, in nearly 30 years of having home contents insurance I've never had a policy that tried to fob me off with second hand prices and I pay pretty much the bare minimum for the cheapest policies I can find every year.
 
No you wouldn't, in nearly 30 years of having home contents insurance I've never had a policy that tried to fob me off with second hand prices and I pay pretty much the bare minimum for the cheapest policies I can find every year.

You must have had some gems, as all insurance companies I know of deduct money for depreciation.
 
He should pay whatever it costs to put the the pc back to the same specification it was before it got damaged tbh :)
 
so if you crashed his new car with no previous owners and it was a write off....

he would be happy if you only gave him the money to buy a second hand one?

Thats generally how it works, yes.

Buy new car. Crash car 14 months later and write it off. You don't get the list price of a brand new car in settlement, you get the current value of a 14 month old example the same as yours*

*don't confuse this with insurers offering 'new for old' - this is a policy decision and not a legal requirement.
 
Isn't this what house contents insurance is for

Not really, it's for losing £10k's worth of stuff in a fire or robbery, not a a couple of hundred on a PC which would end up being wasted in lost no-claims bonuses if the op claimed for it.

If you were to claim off contents insurance, you'd only get second hand prices. That's generally the legal precedent for criminal damage too. Despite the fact you want new parts, if it all got serious you'd most likely end up with second hand money.

I suggest you make him a solid argument for replacing it with new parts and hope for the best, but be willing to settle on second hand.

Accidental damage is not criminal damage, there's no mens rea for a start.
 
You need to be left with a working PC of the same spec at the end of it. Take it to somewhere to get it repaired and he foots the bill. If he can find somewhere which will repair the PC to same spec with same (second hand) parts then fine. The point being you need a working PC at the end of it, not a quantity of money.
 
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