Falling Into Fence

[dustynh]

I was recently on vacation in San Diego, CA. I was out front of the beach house I was renting and I slipped on a loose brick where I was standing on the edge of my rental's property. I fell backwards across the sidewalk between the houses and fell into the neighbor's fence. The wooden fence broke and the owners of the house came out quite upset. Clearly this was a total accident as I did not intentionally fall into the fence. They wanted to call the police, but my wife calmed everything down and we decided to talk in the morning. The next day they said that we owed them $250 for their fence as they were going to have to hire someone to fix it. I would normally refuse to pay and tell them have their propoerty insurance company contact my insurance company, and I would assume, their propoerty insurance would have to pay for it. Am I right?

 

[xylene]

They wanted to call the police

Tell them to call the police. That is almost comical.

Tel them to file a lawsuit or an insurance claim against you.

This is why you have insurance.

 

[FlyingRon]

They should pursue it with their property insurance obviously. It's up to the insurer to decide if they wish to subrogate against you or the owner of the property you rented.

 

[ecmst12]

You can report the incident to your insurance company as well to prepare them for a possible claim. If the damage is only $250 they most likely won't be able to use their own insurance since their deductible is probably higher. Let them file with your insurance if they want, your ins will pay or defend as appropriate.