Accident advise please. Neighbour hit my parked car.

Atari

Atari

Atari

Soldato
Joined
31 Jul 2003
Posts
3,678
Location
Somewhere far.
Hi all,

Over the weekend, someone hit my parked car outside my house and did some damage to the side of the rear bumper, and it's sort of wrapped around to the rear.

I didn't notice it until Monday morning when I got to work as the damage was to the passenger side of the car. It appears that the person who hit the car then went to work to remove their paint off the massive scratches they've left behind as there's a clean patch in that area and there's very little of their paint left behind.

My neighbours car (who parks behind me when I've left my car on the road) came back last night after being missing for the past 4 days, with a fresh dent down the n/s rear quarter, and scratches to the rub strips (car is a Saxo).

I've got pics of the damage, and I've measured from the ground to the rub strip, and then from the ground to the point on my rear bumper where the damage is, and both are about 22" off the ground. I'm 99% certain it was the neighbour who's caused the damage, likely by pulling in too close. They've also wiped my paint off their car too :mad:

Neighbour is now refusing she had anything to do with it. I'm tempted to pop head back there and try and call her bluff by saying there's CCTV footage and that it's an offense to hit a vehicle without leaving details but I'm not sure if this will work.

I've taken the car to a few bodyshops and been quoted £250-300 for a bumper respray - I've not yet been given a quote for them to try and blow it in (if it's even possible).

What would you guys do in this instance? I don't really care about cutting ties with the neighbour as she's been a nightmare for years.

Cheers.
 
Long term the last thing you need in your life is a Neighbor who has a grudge against you.

I would put up a CCTV camera, get the car fixed myself and forget about it.
 
You could always take photos etc and send them to your insurer, maybe they will come to a conclusion and open a claim against them. Worth a try :P
 
Cheers for the advise, I'm gonna try the CCTV route, there is a camera up outside my house but it's not been working for a few months so hopefully that'll work.

I'm honestly not bothered if she does hold a grudge against me, she's been a royal pain the backside for the 10 or so years she's been living there.

If she'd hit it and told me, I honestly would have just accepted it as one of this things and carried on with life, but it's wound me up that the damage has been done and they've gone to the effort of wiping the paint off my car.

Would the police be able to do anything given there's no CCTV or witnesses about? I feel they'll likely tell me to politely do one :p
 
Pictures of both cars to her insurance, (take with the tape measure showing the height also) let them work it out.
 
police will tell you to contact your insurer :)

do the CCTV if she's a pita..

my neighbour scraped against my car when pulling out of a space but I simply polished it off and left it, he had no balls to tell me or didn't realise - it was a very small scrape I'll be honest but seeing both cars parked back in the same spot you could see a mark on his front bumper and my rear.

glad it polished out otherwise I'd have spoken to him.

I do have a CCTV camera pointed at both my cars incase he does it again.
 
grudas said:
police will tell you to contact your insurer :)

do the CCTV if she's a pita..

my neighbour scraped against my car when pulling out of a space but I simply polished it off and left it, he had no balls to tell me or didn't realise - it was a very small scrape I'll be honest but seeing both cars parked back in the same spot you could see a mark on his front bumper and my rear.

glad it polished out otherwise I'd have spoken to him.

I do have a CCTV camera pointed at both my cars incase he does it again.
Click to expand...

Yeah I was hoping I'd be able to buff the damage out when I first saw it but what's left has gone through the paint and is now basically primer :(

I'll get some pics up of the damage, I was hoping it'd be £150 tops to blow it in but the garages I've been to all think it's going to be a full bumper respray.

Edit: Pic of the damage, I'd have thought that could be blown in but I honestly don't know:

uGQLwme.jpg

HjJmtOv.jpg
 
Last edited:
Guy at my work was accused of hitting a car in a shared car park as he had an existing dent in the same place that would be if he had hit the car in the car park.
As he didnt have any evidence of the bump before that date the insurance companies both sided with the other guy and he got a claim against him.
So I would think the insurance companies would side with you.
 
Rybo89 said:
And that bump on her car wasn't there before?

Can't see how the 2 match up tbh. but im no expert.
Click to expand...

The dent looks a lot worse under my phone's camera flash. Because the damage to my car wraps around the curvature of my bumper, I'm wondering if shes hit it with the rub strip of the door, then continued turning into it as it's passed the door and caused the dent.

I fear it's gonna come out of my own pocket tbh, I'll try mentioning CCTV and getting the police involved and hoping it forces her to admit she did it. Oddly enough, she's been ducking and diving from us ever since :p
 
Atari said:
Oddly enough, she's been ducking and diving from us ever since :p
Click to expand...

She might just be avoiding you because she doesn't want another confrontation. Not necessarily due to guilt etc.

As said above, I'm not quite sure how the bumps can be related. If the OP car was parked other way round to the picture provided, the Saxo must have been driven forward into the space and she's massively misjudged the turn??

The bumps don't match if she was reverse parking. Maybe.
 
EddScott said:
She might just be avoiding you because she doesn't want another confrontation. Not necessarily due to guilt etc.

As said above, I'm not quite sure how the bumps can be related. If the OP car was parked other way round to the picture provided, the Saxo must have been driven forward into the space and she's massively misjudged the turn??

The bumps don't match if she was reverse parking. Maybe.
Click to expand...

Nah I've never seen her reverse park, she goes down to the end of the road, does a three point turn and then pulls in forward into the spot.
 
meandu229 said:
Guy at my work was accused of hitting a car in a shared car park as he had an existing dent in the same place that would be if he had hit the car in the car park.
As he didnt have any evidence of the bump before that date the insurance companies both sided with the other guy and he got a claim against him.
So I would think the insurance companies would side with you.
Click to expand...

Wow...

So basically we need to take photos of any damage on our cars, just in case some insurer just ASSUMES you hit someone? :/

Anyway, when you get it fixed maybe stick something like these on the corners to prevent it in future: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Front-Rea...633260?hash=item3aac1c366c:g:RIUAAOSw~OdVfbGX :D
 
Last edited:
We had this years back with a neighbour, drove into my brothers car whilst it was on the drive and then the silly bint hid her car in her garage and didn't say anything. My brothers friend is a policeman and happened to be visiting at the time, so we sent him over to ask if she'd seen anything and she broke down and confessed all.

Scumbags will be scumbags.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom