My Partners housemate destroyed her clothes

mossy95

So recently my partner was involved in a bit of  incident involving one of her housemates.She is a College student and lives in a student house with 3 other people.. The 2 guys are quiet and she has little to no issues with them but the girl she lives with has had a history of throwing partys with out making sure its ok with other roomates and has even stole items from my partners room. 
Last weekend was a rag week at her college and knowing this she removed some of her belongings from her room in anticipation that she might go into her room, Long story short my partner was out the night before and came home Tuesday morning to her clothes outside in the back garden covered in oil. From what she heard her roomate and her freind threw her drawer out of her window and it hit the oil tank cracking it open and causing it to leak. They then proceeded to throw the rest of her clothes out of her room and onto the oil patches on the grass. 90% of her clothes are now completely ruined and she will have to buy all new clothes. She is also pretty shook from the whole incident and is having trouble sleeping. 
She asked her roommate about the incident and she keeps changing her story saying she was sleeping to she wasnt even there. One of the roomates freinds came forward and told my partner that it was the roommate and 2 of the roomates freinds that helped throw the clothes out the window. 
We are wondering is it worth bringing this case to court? While it really does suck and we are furious at the housemate we think that it could take a lot of time and money to prosecute and we are not 100% sure who did it all we know it was her and a group of her friends that we have no names for. If we do take it to court will it be easy to proscute? Could it take a very long time?

Pete Tong

How much oil leaked out? - If a significant quantity of that leaked out it could cause quite an expensive amount of damage!

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This post has been deleted.

.red.

I know someone who had over €200k of damage done to their home due to an oil leak. It seeped into and under the foundations and the smell seeped up into the house. The floors and foundations had to be dug up and replaced. Between insurance and builders it took over a year to sort out.
That's the biggest issue so contact the landlord, he/she needs to know asap.
Next up, I won't say what my next step would be for fear of a ban, but see what the landlord has to say and see if his insurance covers your damaged property, if not maybe a trip to the local Garda station is needed.
Good luck!

Are Am Eye

That girl exceeded her right to be in the property by going in to someone elses room. Tressassing for the purpose of destroying your clothes. Is a burglary.

ED E

Are Am Eye wrote: »

That girl exceeded her right to be in the property by going in to someone elses room. Tressassing for the purpose of destroying your clothes. Is a burglary.

I highly doubt entering another room in a dwelling that you're rightly entitled to be in is tantamount to trespass.

Go straight to the landlord and Gardai. Don't wait around, you're responsible for reporting issues like this promptly to the landlord or their agent.

Samuel T. Cogley

ED E wrote: »

I highly doubt entering another room in a dwelling that you're rightly entitled to be in is tantamount to trespass.

Go straight to the landlord and Gardai. Don't wait around, you're responsible for reporting issues like this promptly to the landlord or their agent.

For the purposes of a theoretical legal discussion I'm with Are Am Eye here. Simply going behind the till in a shop, with the requisite intent of course, changed a theft in to a burglary. Here though you'd have an issue proving intent IMHO.

Damien360

The clothes are the least of her problems. Getting oil out of the soil and proving it is gone is expensive. Soil usually has to be dug out, oil eating microbes added and then lab testing to prove its gone. Company in Wicklow I used to visit specialized in this. The neighbors won't be happy with the smell and impact on their property. Not sure what recourse the landlord has to recover costs but your partner would be advised to inform the landlord and clear herself of blame. All depends on the amount of oil. Good luck, nasty thing to happen.

fritzelly

Is this a roomshare?
No better advice to offer than above but from what you've said she should have left a long time ago.

Dev84

Could you get you hands on some of her belongings and get revenge that way?

endacl

Dev84 wrote: »

Could you get you hands on some of her belongings and get revenge that way?

More likely that a grownup solution would be more appropriate.

LuckyLoki

You need to tell that landlord straight away. Something like that happened to a friend of mine and it destroyed the foundations of her house and the neighbour's house. She finds it upsetting to talk about it even now, it cost so much to deal with.

Wheety

Dev84 wrote: »

Could you get you hands on some of her belongings and get revenge that way?

What will that achieve? Use whatever legal means to get her to pay for the clothes.

As has been mentioned, the Landlord has to be informed about the oil.

Samuel T. Cogley

Dev84 wrote: »

Could you get you hands on some of her belongings and get revenge that way?

Fantastic so the OP ends up with the clothes on her back and a criminal record.

shenanagans

I assume they are both students in the same college. Threaten to report her anti-social behaviour to the college, they take it seriously. Anti-social complaints from residents never go down well with deciplinary committees in colleges. Flatmate will get a fine and possibly worse if neighbours and landlord are willing to put their names to the complaint.

The flatmate may offer to pay your partner some compensation or something rather than get into trouble with college authorities. Might be worth it before going to Gardai. Give her a deadline...pay up or face the consequences!

Dev84

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

Fantastic so the OP ends up with the clothes on her back and a criminal record.

Keep you nickers on.....

Lmklad

Regarding her clothing, get prices for everything. Give her a date soon to repay or make a complaint of criminal damage to Gardai

The landlord needs to be informed immediately. The oil tank has a leak which is potentially life threatening. The other house mates should go too to make it abundantly clear this was caused by the one house mate. Landlord is entitled to make their own complaint if criminal damage, as well as recouping the cost or repairs and clean up. This will not be cheap.

fritzelly

Dev84 wrote: »

Keep you nickers on.....

If only she had any left not covered in oil