NSW Malicious damage by a minor

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pinkturtle

Member
1 March 2021
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Hi there,

We have had an instance of local teenagers doing a 'knock and run' where they have smashed a window at my parents' place. We have the incident on security camera, which shows the person, and the school and police have helped us to identify the child (approx 14 years old) in the footage. This kid has even written a letter apologising, after he was suspended from school over the incident. However, the parents have now decided that they don't want to pay for the damage, even though at first they did agree to pay.

We have written a letter of demand which we intend to serve to them at the local police station. But if this does have to go to small claims court, are the kid's parents still liable to pay for their child's destruction of property?
The parents are trying to say our door was broken before the kid got there - which simply isn't true. This is for my elderly parents and I am really upset that the whole incident has happened, let alone that the kid's parents are trying to get out of paying, and leaving the payment of the repair (which isn't optional, it must be done for security reasons) to come out of my parents' pension.

I obtained so many quotes, over a dozen, because I felt sorry for the parents initially. We went with the cheapest quote - but it's still a bit expensive, as the window pane was a leadlight window in a front door - which isn't cheap to fix.

Any thoughts would be appreciated, thanks.