Trampolines can be dangerous…even when people aren’t jumping on them!

This story revolves around a trampoline that went for a wild ride and did some serious damage to a neighbor’s property.

Is this homeowner wrong for asking their neighbor to pay up?

Let’s see what’s going on here…

AITA for asking my neighbor to pay for damages his trampoline caused?

“Today around 5 pm I got text messages from our great next door neighbor who said that a trampoline came flying in a storm and damaged our fence/barn behind our house.

I accessed our security system via my cell phone and found out the trampoline came from the neighbors across the street (NAS).

We are not friends with NAS but up to this point have had no problems with them.

There was some damage…

I inspected the damage, our fence was destroyed, almost knocked flat. The trampoline hit the barn so hard it dented the metal walls and broke two panels on the garage door. There were all sorts of other minor scraping along the sides of the barn.

As I was surveilling the damage, the husband NAS came walking up the driveway. He did not appear concerned and more annoyed than anything.

I held our broken gate open for him to enter the yard and look at the damage with me.

After reviewing the damage together he asked me what I wanted to do about the damages.

I was still a little shocked and said well your trampoline caused the damages, you are responsible.

Actually, A LOT of damage.

I’m guessing the damages between 5-10 thousand dollars. The fence was decorative aluminum to appear like wrought iron and the damaged section was 4-5 panels and cost us approximately 4 grand three years ago.

The garage door was insulated was around 3 grand two years ago. I have no idea how to estimate the cost to repair the dented, scraped, and damage metal walls of the barn which again is only 2 years old.

NAS said well it’s all damage to your property you should put all the damage through your insurance.

I was again shocked and incredulous at the audacity of this person.

Listen, pal…

I told him, I’m an attorney (I actually am in my state). Your failure to secure the trampoline caused it to fly into my yard and destroy my fence and damage my barn. I’m not putting a claim on my insurance (I don’t want my premiums to increase).

I have great insurance and an umbrella due to the ponds on the property, and have a separate rider for the barn just to be safe.

Due to my profession I made sure I have great insurance.

I told him I can either get quotes to fix the damage that you can pay or you can make a claim against your homeowners insurance.

Hmmm…

He said “Well I’m not paying cash and not making a claim against my insurance. This was an act of God.”

I said to him, ok, I’m sorry you see it that way. My firm sues around 200 cases per week (not a brag, a fact). Suing one more next week will not be difficult.

That is when NAS finally agreed to put his homeowners on notice and exchanged his phone number with me.

Several colleges and my mentor said he probably never put the trampoline on his insurance and an unreported trampoline can lead to cancelation of NAS homeowners insurance.

AITA for insisting NAS pay for the damage caused by their trampoline flying onto my property, one way or the other?”

The trampoline did cause the damage. It seems like NAS is responsible.

Let’s see what folks had to say on Reddit.

This person had a lot to say.

Another individual shared their thoughts.

This Reddit user said they’re NTA.

Another reader agreed.

And this individual weighed in.

This guy better pay up…or else…

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.