Someone else broke furniture in shared house

amother

Mon, May 04 2009, 9:04 am

We share a Shabbos house with a few other families for work. The last time we were there, we noticed that an expensive chair was broken...the wood back was ripped off! We were just up there, following the same familiy as a month ago, and noticed the following..the dining room table had been carved into with something in numerous places and very deep (they covered it up with siddurim and yarmulkas), another chair was broken (we only noticed because dh was taking out the trash and found the broken piece amongst the garbage!, some blinds were ruined, and to a lesser degree, but still annoying....a closet door was taken right off the track and one of my kid's toys was broken. Also, some wood chairs not meant for outside, were left in the backyard...any amount of rain would really damage this stuff.
An organization bought the furniture, however dh is in charge of it, so one of us must speak to these other families. I'm pretty sure which family did, but I should call both, I'm assuming.

I'm really not sure what to say. Do you think they should be obligated to pay for this broken stuff? Dh is really annoyed because instead of just apologizing and being upfront about it, they covered it up! (I should mention that the 1st chair that was broken, they had put the piece back in it's place broken, without saying anything. When we were there this time, we noticed that piece was gone so there is no chance of even fixing it now!)

Please haelp me figure out what to do/say? Since I think I know which family it was, should I call both? Any ideas are greatly appreciated!

greenfire

Mon, May 04 2009, 9:18 am

well the furniture will not repair itself ... and if it's 3 families and it's not yours it's gotta be one of them ... even if you know which family you think it is - you should speak to both of them so that everybody knows "if you break it - you fix it" rule applies to each of you ...

and if this continues happening - they would be scratched from my list ...