WIBTA if i refused to fully reimburse my roommates for their kitchen appliances?
I (24f) live in a 2 story townhouse with 3 roommates who I met last year in my grad school classes (24f, 25f, and 23m). Two of my roommates, Alice and Jamie, (24f and 23m) are in a long term relationship and brought a lot of shared items from their former home (which they lived in alone) to our current place.
This morning, I left for class after my roommates and used the restroom right before leaving. Jamie works from home full time and texted all of the roommates about a leak in the kitchen ceiling about 15 minutes after I left. In that time, my toilet overflowed and leaked through the floor and into the ceiling. It was an ungodly amount of water. I had no idea what to do. I had to stay in a mandatory class for two hours, but got home as soon as I could. By the time I arrived home, my roommates had thrown out a toaster oven and instant pot because they got wet. They later sat down with me and asked that I pay them back full price for the original retail value of the appliances even after acknowledging that the leak was “technically nobodies fault”.
I researched the prices of the two appliances, and the current retail value is nearly $500. I am a work study student with no additional support, so this is not a small amount of money by any means. My roommates said they would understand a payment plan and I fully intend to help offset the costs in some way, but I feel as though paying full retail price by myself would not be fair for a few reasons:
Jamie and Alice owned these items for over a year before we ever shared them.
Jamie and Alice had the ability to add on personal item protection to our renter insurance, but chose not to do so.
Jamie works full time.
So, WIBTA if I offered to pay only some of the retail price or to buy comparable replacements, rather than settling on paying the full price?