You asked who was responsible, I told you. No need to get sarcastic.
Your friend should have put in a better effort to find the keys.
You're missing the boat here. Obviously I'm responsible to my mother. I just think my friend should take some of the responsibility for losing the key. Even a simple "I'm sorry" would have gone a long way to helping fix the situation, you know?
edit: If somehow you thought that my question about responsibility was who was responsible to my mother, then I didn't phrase it properly. There was and is no doubt in my mind that the buck stops with me. It's her car and she lent it to me as a favor so I could get home after dropping my car off near her house. If I lend something (mine or someone else's) to a third party, then obviously there's going to be no one else but me to be responsible if something goes wrong. Underneath that umbrella of responsibility to my mother, I was specifically asking if my friend was responsible to me for something happening to something I lent him (regardless of who I would be responsible to).
So, again, if I was unclear I'm sorry. And there was no need for the sarcasm on my part either.
There is no effing way he is responsible for the keys if he put them on a key rack in your home. I don't see why your friend should be responsible for paying a dime to have the keys replaced if they were put back where they belong....if someone stole them, or took them by mistake, how is this his problem? Would you be saying the same thing if borrowed your car, returned it to the driveway and it was stolen? Is he responsible simply because he was the last person driving it?
Jesus man, the only reason I feel you think he is responsible is because you don't believe him that he put the keys where he said he did.
No, I definitely believe that he put them back there. He's a responsible guy and I've known him for nearly 18 years.
I do not think he's fully responsible. I think that he bears some of the responsibility simply because the keys would have never been there if he hadn't needed to move the car for his friend, for his friend's party, at our house. I do not leave my keys on the key rack during parties.
The car being hypothetically stolen is completely irrelevant, unless my friend left the keys in the ignition, in the front door, or somewhere else that made stealing the car all-too easy. I'm glad that the car is still in our driveway and I'll leave it at that.
My stance regarding the key is basically that I took it out of my pocket to give to him. In an ideal world, he would have returned it to me after he moved it instead of just placing it somewhere else. We do leave keys on the key rack, so it isn't completely his fault (as opposed to if he'd simply left them in the basement or on a table somewhere) and, probably, he could convince himself that he did nothing wrong at all. If I was in his shoes, I'd be paying half, apologizing profusely, and have searched the whole house without being prompted.
Again, lesson learned on my part.
I don't get why your friend put the key on the rack. He should have handed it back to you when he finished moving the car, since you gave him the key in the first place. Yes, it might be a common area for keys - but he should have put the key back where he got it (back to you directly).
Agreed, but the key rack is a common spot for our keys. I just never put them there during parties. I should have asked him to give them back to me directly. Lesson learned.
You are responsible for the car and its keys, which your mom lent to you.
Your buddy is sub-responsible to you. You need to get a new key, and you need to get your buddy to pay you back.
Your mom shouldn't have to wait for BS between your buddy and you, thus pay up, then take it out of his ass at a later date.
No argument. I'm replacing the key for my mom asap. If my friend decides to not be a douche and pay half, that's great. Otherwise, I'd rather be out $250 than lose a friend over something like this.
edit: also, my mom has her own set of keys. This was just the spare key for the car, so it's not like she's unable to use it normally or anything. She obviously still needs the spare back asap, but it won't affect her day-to-day schedule or anything if I can't get over to the dealer for a couple of days.
The way I see it, since you gave him the key, he should have returned the key to you. The only exception would be if you had told him to leave the key somewhere else which you didn't do.
Based on your description, there were no other keys on the rack, is that correct? So the best case scenario is that your buddy, instead of returning the key to where he got it from, got lazy and left the key in a non-secure location during a party. And why would anyone else at the party take the key?
It seems to me the more likely situation is that he lost the key. He probably didn't return the key right away, forgot about it during the course of the party, and now can't find it.
If I was in his situation, and you asked me to help look for the key, I would bust my butt trying to find them because I would feel responsible. From what you have said, your buddy is a asshat.
All that being said, I would not have let anyone drive a car that was not mine but that I was responsible for. I believe you made a mistake doing that. At the same time, If I was the guy that last had the key, I would feel responsible for loosing them. It seems like a 50-50 split on the replacement costs would be reasonable.
-KeithP
No, there were no other keys there last night. My other friends had their keys on them or in their bedrooms.
To his credit, he just scoured the whole house for about 45 minutes. My other friends did, too.
Like I said above, I'll pay the whole thing. It's not worth losing a friend or turning this into some serious tiff over $250.
