Transfered to Complaints forum for a broader audience.

Mark

If you havent signed anything that states you have to pay for accidental damage then you should be fine. Is there anything on the booking form or are they holding any deposit.

Which company did you book are they based her or in Lanzarote ?

if legal action is threatened I would imagine a letter threatening a counter action due to the poor health and safety of a glass top not being secure.

Would also question the amount.

maybe this should also be in private lettings or is this where it came from as the people there with there own properties maybe able to advise.

Kind regards
Stewart

I would get proper legal advice -

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Peter

How scary that must have been Amanda, and I am glad your son was unhurt.

Good advice from stewart and Peter. I would like to think that the owners of the property had insurance to cover this type of thing, they certainly should have.

One thing, in your post, you say your son was sat ON the glass dining table, do you mean AT the table? It could make a difference.

The owners may have insurance for this, but it wasnt them who broke it so why should they claim against their insurance ?

Sue, She said eating his breakfast on a glass topped table. Those tables are a nightmare. I remember when my kids were small visiting a friend who had a coffee table like that. My daughter just leaned on it and the whole top lifted and started to fall. Luckily I was beside her and caught it.

mrnkar, there is, perhaps, a big difference between a coffee table and a dining table, that's why I asked.

Well funnyboy, I believe that if owners are renting their properties out, through letting agents, there are particular insurance requirements.

Myself, I would expect renters to pay for wanton destruction of property, but this is NOT the case in this instance.

NEVER said it was the case.

But if you break it you should pay for it accident or not.

The answer as always lies in our old friend Terms & Conditions - what do they say?

As usual we get personal opinions, and they could be right - but then again, if the T&Cs say you pay for any damages you pay up.

fwh

I agree, check the terms and conditions. As you mention a letting agent then this will probably stand you in good stead because this wasn't purely a private arrangement with the owner for you to rent their apartment.

I presume a deposit was paid? This normally covers small breakages but it may also have something to do with insurance excess for larger breakages or accidents. Either way if the owner is using a letting agent I am sure that an agent would insist that insurance was in place (it might even be part of the agreement with the agent). I would speak to the agent and see if you can get anything out of them.

Also, as above, ring Ros for advice - but firstly you need to get hold of terms and conditions of rental which the agent has to provide.

I think there is a health and safety issue here and contacting Ros would seem to be the best move.

Ignoring ownership and damage for a minute, there is an isssue over the fact that this table was quite clearly unsafe to be used by a family with young children, so the owners should accept responsibilty for the use of inappropriate furnishings. It would seem that had serious injury occured they could be facing action themselves, since they must to a certain extent have a duty of care to provide a safe environment for their guests.

Hopefully this will all be easily resolved. If they are running the rental as a business they must have some form of insurance. It's just good that no-one was seriously hurt.

Good luck in getting it sorted

Pam

I have just brought up health and safety in another topic about the
over occupancy of adults in a studio on a package holiday, as i thought it was unsafe. But i was informed that different countries have different H S rules and the ones at home do not apply abroad.

I must admit, I did think about that as I was writing it Wendy, which I suppose makes the situation all the more difficult. Even if the laws are different to ours though, you would have thought there would be something that is applicable. It will be interesting to see what Ros has to say if Amanda goes that route.

I guess none of us goes into our holiday accomodation and does a risk assessment- you check the main things like locks and balconies, but it's left on trust that a furniture is suitable for normal family use.

Pam

Hi Pam

It does seem strange that a glass table top was not fixed in any way. It also should have been stable enough for one little boy to eat breakfast at.

As you say we will have to wait and see what Ros says about the situation.

Many Thanks for your help and advice everyone

The apartment was rented by us through a Property Management company and we had no direct contact with the property owners

The table in question was a dining table which seats 4 adults,

We have just checked our terms and conditions which we recieved and there is no mention of liabilty re damages , it only stages " we appreciate that accidents and damages do happen, we would be pleased if you could contact us to enable the items to be fixed/replaced" which we did within 10 minutes of the incident occuring.

I have emailed property mangement company to request that they email us the relevant paperwork which confirms that we are liable for any damages due as we intend to seek legal advice. We received a reply stating that the Property Management company had passed the email onto the Property Owner for them to deal with.

I am pretty sure that there was never any mention re liabilty re damages in the paperwor we signed and the actions of the Property Management company in not sending us the relevant paperwork tend to back up my assumption

I would have thought that any responsible renter would be concerned about the potential harm that a glass topped table could do to one of their clients and be grateful that no harm was done rather than worry about the cost of replacement.