I'm a guest, we caused some water damage, looking for advice!

[Kathryn244]

Hi hosts,

I was staying in a pet-friendly airbnb this weekend with some family and my cat. Sometime after 6AM the first night we were there he somehow turned on the kitchen faucet and the owner had the drains plugged. It ran full blast for about a half hour, spilling over onto the floor, into the cabinet under the sink, and leaking through into the basement! We cleaned up the water and called the hosts. They were out of town and sent their cleaning lady over to take pictures. It looked like there were 2 panels of wet insulation in the basement, and 2 caved in ceiling tiles. The cabinet under the sink was obviously damp, as well as the floor in the basement. Then the guy that does some of her handy work came by and said it didn't look too bad, that he would wait a week, spray for mold, put up the new insulation and tiles, and no harm done. Phew. Apparently later that day they had their insurance agent (not a claims adjuster, just an agent) come over while we were out to take a peak. This morning she texts us saying they think they need to replace the cabinets that got wet, insulation, ceiling tiles, dry wall, and flooring, and that she is submitting an insurance claim, would like $1000 for the deductible, and would like to keep the $300 security deposit for time of her cleaning lady and handy man. My initial thoughts were this:

1. Wow, that changed a lot from 2 days ago.

2. We were still in the house, everything was totally dry, and we could see no visible damage other than insulation and ceiling tiles.

3. Shouldn't we wait and see what the damages are before we provide $1000 dollars?

4. Her cleaning lady and handy man were here for about 2 hours each. $300 for that would mean they were being paid $75 an hour. That seems potentially excessive.

I do absolutely want to reimburse her for the damage that was caused, but I am worried that she is using this to make other repairs to her house that were not caused by this incident, and I don't know how to make sure that the damage she charges us for is actually related to the incident that took place. I've never been in a situation like this and I'm not sure where to go from here. Can anyone provide any advice on where to go from here or things we should consider? Thank you all in advance!

[Letti0]

@Kathryn244  Decline the request and let AirBnB get her actual receipts for repairing the damage. You also take photo's of everything to counter her claim. Her insuarance agent is not a claim adjuster that has been certified. I'm thinking he's a personal friend and she's trying to take advantage of you. If the cabinets are not warped by now they are not going to be, same with the floor. Document it all in the AirBnB system what the handyman stated and how much time both were there. Then her over the top request. I had something similar happen in my own home 2 acoustical ceiling tiles (which she probably has extra from the install) are cheap, insulation is cheap, the mold agent is cheap and the labor cost is minimal. So long as the cabinets or floor are not damaged or the wood warp. Your $300 deposit should be more than enough to cover it. My wood flooring and cabinets were fine also and this water issue in the kitchen happened while we were at a party all day and half the night the facuet level for turning the water on and off took a crap and starting letting water pour out into the sink and the drain stop on the side it was facing was closed. We knew it needed to be replaced and procrastinated it keep slipping on by itself, but never this badly. Also unless she has a commerical policy (most don't) her home owners policy will not and should not cover anything for an AirBnB guest, just an FYI. 

[いずみ荘--Izumisou-0]

No one knows the exact fair price.

By the way, is it 100% your fault?

[John1080]

@Kathryn244, take @Letti0's advice, as she has a lot of experience. It sounds like you want to do the right thing and the host most likely will want to do the right thing too, not trying to extort you for a wild amount.

Let the host get an estimate for the damages and then when it's presented to you, you should pay that amount.  

How and why did the host have the drains plugged? That part seems a bit odd, and perhaps you may be able to haggle on the price of the estimates based on that, but I'm not sure.

[Victoria567]

Hi everyone

an honest guest is prized above all.

Best way to get an honest estimate of costs, is for the host to call their insurance company to get an assessor report.

Its all above board with neither party feeling hard done by in allocating costs.

[Quincy]

Hi @Kathryn244,

Welcome to the Community!

I'm so sorry to hear that this has happened! Could you keep us updated on this?

Quincy