Hey everyone,
I live in a private student dorm, and today I noticed a crack in the bathroom sink in my personal room (not in the shared bathroom). I had used it normally. I recently washed my lightweight running shoes in it.

I have FRIDAY liability insurance, but I’m not sure what to do now. Should I inform the landlord first or contact FRIDAY directly? Will the landlord expect me to pay, or does insurance usually cover this kind of damage?

If anyone had a similar experience, I’d really appreciate your advice.
Thanks in advance.

by Top-Comfort-8047

10 comments

  2. I had two of those. One on my last, one in my current flat. If there is no impact of something heavy it’s probably stress induced and your insurance won’t even pay for it. At least that was the case for both sinks.

    So take a look if there is an impact somewhere and if not, your landlord has to swap it

  3. The first step is informing your landlord. If they expect you to pay for a new sink, then you can contact your insurance. Legally, the landlord has to pay for everything that can be attributed to “normal wear”. Depending on the age of the sink, it might just be that.

  4. If you noticed it and didn’t create it, it’s the landlords responsibility to pay for it. Given that it’s a crack, the sink is probably old and not something bashed, I’d say chances are good that you don’t have to cover it.

  5. It happened to me, once the caretaker came for fire alarm inspection and he saw the sink with a crack , he immediately went back and brought a new one and changed it even without me asking him. He didn’t charge me anything. I live in student dorm too and this happened many times when ever he comes for inspection if he sees something broken he immediately fixes it and never charged me a penny.

  6. Never use personal liability insurance to pay for something you can afford. This insurance is for existential problems. Sinks break even without anyone being at fault. It’s the landlord’s sink. So you may want to talk to him about it.

  7. Even if you were responsible you would only have to pay the “Zeitwert” of the sink.

  8. This is something you tell your landlord, and they will have to fix it.

    Even if you *had* damaged it – and it would be up to your landlord to prove that – you’d only be responsible for the residual value of that sink, which is quite literally zero. Even new, this was the cheapest sink one could buy, you can get [a replacement for 25 € at OBI](https://www.obi.de/p/5771753/standard-waschbecken-60-cm-rund-weiss).

  9. As someone who just had this happen to us – honestly I would just change it yourself. It takes less that 70€ for a new sink, and super easy to do yourself. Just two bolts, and some new calking. You’ll spend more time arguing with landlords or insurance…

  10. If you did not break it like you said, it is normal wear and landlord has to repair it.

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