Lending property to family can seem like an act of love, but it often ends with regret when relatives don’t treat it with care.

When one aunt discovered her niece had trashed the yard of the family home, leaving her with a massive repair bill, she wondered just how far she was willing to go to hold her niece accountable.

Read on for the full story.

WIBTA if I make my niece pay for damages

My niece (22) just moved out of a house that belongs to the family.

She left the place a mess and completely destroyed the yard.

There are ruts in the yard caused by her boyfriend’s truck, trash everywhere, holes where she put up a fence for animals, and random piles of wood.

Now the landlord is left to deal with the headache on her own.

I had planned to just let it go and clean it up and fix all the holes and ruts.

My sister was supposed to help but is mad about something unrelated, so now she’s refusing to do anything to help.

She contemplates billing her niece directly for her negligence.

It will likely cost $5,000+ to get the yard fixed.

AITA if I sent my niece the bill since they are refusing to help get it fixed?

Someone’s gotta front this money, and it kind of seems like it’s the niece’s responsibility.

Did Redditors agree with this assessment?

In theory, this homeowner isn’t in the wrong, but legally, it’s more complicated than that.

If the homeowner did choose to take this to court, it would likely be an uphill battle.

Just because she’s family doesn’t mean she should get to totally escape accountability.

This niece better clean up her act before she rents with any other landlord.

If her niece made the mess, then she should be the one to clean it up.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.