Hi!
I was wondering if anyone could help me.
Me and 3 friends stayed at an Airbnb back in June 2016 whilst the euros were in paris. We were football fans and we planned to go and watch the England vs Wales game in the fan zone but the majority of the time we were sightseeing and taking in the most of paris. We are far from football "hooligans".
When we got to the property the host was doing repair work to the floor of her apartment as Paris had a lot of flooding around that time. She mentioned to my friend in a message "The flat has not been touched by the recent flooding, but some water has been seeped in the floor and I've been obliged to remove two blades of the floor cover in order to let it dry". She told us to wait another hour or so and we eventually got back and checked in about an hour or so later.
When we got to the apartment she had mentioned to one of my friends that we had to shower sitting down to avoid damaging the floor. Which she forgot to mention to the others... The 3 of us showered as normal and the vinyl floor started to rise up in the bathroom. We used the heating inside the bathroom to get the moisture out of the floor as best as we could but it was clear that there was an issue.
She went back and forward with my friend who booked the Airbnb with the host about the damages. Nothing was resolved. She mentioned in another message to my friend that she thinks that "we should present the matter to Airbnb with a united front, since there was no malice in the flooding, just a bit of carelessness, in a time when paris was extremely rainy with a lot of moisture in the atmosphere (as you know the rising of the seine took place very soon after your departure, it was raining like cats and dogs, this has certain contributed to the worsen the damage". Messages were civil and polite.
3 Years later (December 2019) the host messaged us saying that the damages weren't covered by the airbnb host guarantee and was directly seek the reimbursement from us. This is where the messages start to get hostile, even mentioning to us that the police will be getting involved if we do not pay for the damages. She gives us different figures, £3000 in one message and then £2000 in another.
Looking into the host's property since then, in 2017 the whole apartment got a revamp and complete make over (including the floor).
We spoke to Airbnb and they have said that they are still waiting for the complete documentation from the host so they can investigate the case, and advised us to not pay for the damage until she does so. (Also mentioning no payment is to be made off-site). We went back and forward but ultimately, we realised that she is trying to get us to pay for a damage that we didn't cause and is using our "football hooliganism" to paint a picture of us doing this on purpose.
Fast forward 2 more years, Jan 2021. She text my friend again, telling us that she has not forgotten about us and that we will be paying for the damages caused and that we should settle amicably whilst there's still time.
Can someone please offer some advice on what we should do? I don't want this to be hanging over our heads, especially when we haven't done anything wrong. Any advice would be brilliant!
