Neighbor + theft situation. WWYD?

[Anonymous]

Parties: Neighbor A and Neighbor B. They live in fenced townhomes

Neighbor A asks Neighbor B to borrow their ladder. Neighbor B says "no problem, you can go in the back gate to get it from the shed and use it as needed."

Neighbor A takes ladder, and uses it to do some outside work. Neighbor B goes to sleep early, and did not get Neighbor A's text on "where should I put it when I am finished?" Neighbor A thus leaves the ladder leaning, but outside the townhome fences, which face an alleyway.

Ladder gets stolen.

Should Neighbor B accept this as "things happen" since they missed a return placement message, or should Neighbor A compensate for the ladder that was taken from the exterior?

[Anonymous]

Why was neighbor A confused about where they had retrieved the ladder?

[Anonymous]

Neighbor A should compensate. When you borrow something you are responsible until a handoff. Here there was no handoff.

[Anonymous]

Neighbor A needs to pay.

[Anonymous]

Neighbor A should absolutely buy neighbor B a new fence. I don’t understand why they didn’t return it to the shed where they got it.

[Anonymous]

If I was Neighbor A, I would offer to pay for the ladder. If I was neighbor B, I would only accept half of the cost.

[Anonymous]

Neighbor A should have put it back where it came from (the shed?). It got stolen because Neighbor A left it out, so Neighbor A should replace it.

[Anonymous]

OP here: the fence has a weird locking mechanism, and was locked (does not open from exterior) when Neighbor A went to return the ladder. So they left it outside.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here: the fence has a weird locking mechanism, and was locked (does not open from exterior) when Neighbor A went to return the ladder. So they left it outside.

Neighbor A should have safely stored it, not left it out. Your new fact does not change a thing. When you borrow something, you are responsible for it until it’s returned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If I was Neighbor A, I would offer to pay for the ladder. If I was neighbor B, I would only accept half of the cost.

+1
Or A should insist at all costs to pay and B should adamantly refuse to take a dime and they should argue about it for a while (at least that's how things work in my community)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here: the fence has a weird locking mechanism, and was locked (does not open from exterior) when Neighbor A went to return the ladder. So they left it outside.

Neighbor A should have safely stored it, not left it out. Your new fact does not change a thing. When you borrow something, you are responsible for it until it’s returned.

+1 OP you are Neighbor A and YATA

[Anonymous]

Neighbor A replaces/pays to replace the ladder. No question.

[Anonymous]

Neighbor A should have taken it back home and kept it somewhere safe until they could confirm with B what to do with it. A left it outside and it got stolen. How is this not A’s fault?

[Anonymous]

Neighbor who borrowed it should replace it. It should have been returned to the shed and not left outside. This is why I stopped lending out stuff.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, all. I am actually neighbor B!

I think neighbor should have kept my ladder inside their fence backyard, or scaled it over our shared fence so it would be on the inside of my fence.

We live in a safe neighborhood where people aren't going to break into our fenced yards, but I think they should have known better that stuff left outside facing the alley can be considered a free-for-all. I'm a bit pissed that they were this negligent and I'm out my ladder.