One of the Irish students who destroyed a San Francisco home the group was renting for the summer has written to the landlady to apologize.
“I would like to sincerely apologize for what happened with the house,” the young man wrote in an email shared with The Irish Independent.
“We are willing to pay for the damages caused as it was our responsibility to look after the house.
Landlady Ritu Vohra, herself an immigrant from India, has said that repairing the damage caused by the students’ drunken rampage will cost “tens of thousands” of dollars.
She was renting the house to seven Irish students in San Francisco for the summer, but it has since emerged that twice as many students were living there in order to make the $5,000 monthly rent.
The tenant who wrote to Vohra explained that the most extensive damage occurred one night when the roommates went out to a club and returned with some Irish friends, who in turn invited more people over.
“It got out of hand and people began to wreck the house with one lad threatening us and swinging a golf club at the walls,” he wrote.
“We should have never let these people into the house in the first place and we are very sorry for what happened. We tried finding out who they were the next day, but when we failed to do so we panicked and we didn’t know what to do.”
The email also reveals that, at the time of the incident, the majority of the Irish students had already returned home to Ireland. The remaining tenants, afraid they would not be able to pay for the damages, left the country without notifying Vohra.
Vohra, who is five months pregnant, said the damages included smashed doors, windows and banisters, broken light fixtures and cabinets, gaping holes in the walls and plaster, and trash strewn about the house.
“How drunk, angry and violent would you have to be?” she asked in a segment for CBS News.
The Irish community in San Francisco, appalled by the story, has offered to help Vohra in any way possible – from helping to connect her with her former tenants, to providing help and services for the repairs.
The tenant who wrote to Vhora maintained that “we are not the type of people that they are making us out to be in the papers here and we hope that this issue can be resolved between us and not brought any further.
“We should never have brought the people back to the house that night and we just want to let you know that we are willing to fully cooperate with you to resolve all damages done to the house.”
Another tenant, who had left San Francisco before the incident took place, wrote in an email that the house was in “good condition” when he departed.
“We do understand that our names are on the lease as well as others, therefore I am going to contact the remaining tenants to establish the causes and responsibilities involved with this.
“I am ashamed that it has come to this, I promise we will make every effort to amend the situation as soon as possible,” he wrote.
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