Ugh kids damaged car outside the house - parents say take me to court...

Associate
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Has no one mentioned thermite on-top of the engine block yet?

in all seriously you could go legal route that up to you, insurance etc. Perhaps though a better use of the money would be prevention of further problems, your neighbour seems like a dick who doesn't hold himself responsible for his childrens actions so it may get worse.
 
Sgarrista
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Court wont get you anywhere.

Your best bet would be to call the police and create a big big fuss about it (criminal damage on your pride and joy etc etc) and have an officer go around and hopefully the sight of the five-0 rocking up at the door will make them more reasonable.
 

NVP

NVP

Soldato
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Mags you do make me laugh hahaha


Think to yourself "is this really worth my energy?". Life is short, try to spend as little of it in the legal system as possible.
 
Soldato
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Can you even take a minor to court over this sort of accidental damage?

You can't take the parent on: he didn't do it

I don't think you have a case against the child or parent for damages. Not against the child because they're a child. Not against the parent because they couldn't reasonably have prevented it. The best you could do was try your luck by asking anyway, which you did and it didn't work. End of story I think.

And yet had their Dog ripped off your wing mirror you probabally would have had a good case. Police-worthy even.

Nuts that people have a legal responsibility to keep Dogs under control in public but not Children!
 
Soldato
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Pay another local scrote to crash a scooter in to his car. Tell him to **** off when questioned.

In the meantime, potato up the exhaust and poo through letterbox.
 
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Soldato
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I saw it happen from the front bedroom window. Only other witnesses were the next door kids and other kids.

Plus the kids in question from 5 houses down the road.

No hope of going to court and winning then even if you could, and I guess if you inform police he will just deny it if they bother to investigate anyway. Suck it up and move on probably the only option.
 
Associate
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No hope of going to court and winning then even if you could, and I guess if you inform police he will just deny it if they bother to investigate anyway. Suck it up and move on probably the only option.

This. Without proof -i.e. CCTV of said kids doing it, you won't win. Even if you had that, most small claims court judges are pretty poor and probably wouldn't chastise under age kids or their parents. Even if they did, it would be a token amount and wouldn't touch the sides. Fix it/don't fix it and just move on (or maybe just move to somewhere better...)
 
Soldato
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Can you even take a minor to court over this sort of accidental damage?

You can't take the parent on: he didn't do it

Yes, you can sue anyone under the age of 18, yet they won't be accountable for the debts till they are over 18.

MoneyClaim Online is a Online Small Claims court, use it fairly often in my line of work, especially in close proximity to Carillion going bust and almost taking other companies with it.

I digress, start a moneyclaim online, it's like £50, name the child/minor as the defendant as follows "<Childs_Name>, a child by <Parents_Name> their litigation friend"

Litigation Friend basically means, as a child can't make decisions themselves, their parent shall, https://www.gov.uk/litigation-friend

As part of MoneyClaim online, you may enter mediation, where you can agree a sum, if not it goes to a hearing.

Yeah it's a tiny amount of effort, but you can probably get it all logged with a witness statement and photos of the damage and a quote for repair in about 30 minutes.

He sounds like scum so I'd do it personally.
 
Associate
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East Sussex
Let see a pic of the damage. And how it looks after a good buff.

You could always go and try speaking to the Mum when Dad isn't around. If not like you are being forceful.
 
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