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

[The Running Man]

Hi all, fairly new one on me. 2 kids riding a scooter down the street came off and crashed into my car parked outside my house.

I got up went outside and took one of the children home who was crying and in pain.

I went back to look at my car and there some paint scuff just after the door and on the sill.

I went back to the house and asked to speak to his parents. Dad came to door and said;

"What do you want me to do"

I replied

"If I get a quote to fix it can I send it over "

He said;

"Just take me to court"

I said, "okay is that it?"

He said yep and closed the door.

What's my next step chaps??

 

[The Running Man]

I'd take them to small claims court out of principle.

Its s principle thing now. If he'd reacted reasonably and apologised etc and said he was really hard up etc I could have offered 50/50 or accepted even an apology or promise the kids would be grounded / not allowed to play near my car etc

But to just come out and say, "take me to court"

I mean

 

[The Running Man]

Would taking to court work? Do you have any evidence or could he just deny everything?

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.

 

[The Running Man]

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.

Sounds like a plan. As I do t know them how does one get their names ?

 

[The Running Man]

Electoral Roll, or perhaps https://t2a.io/products/people/see-who-lives-at-an-address

Seems to work for neighbours of mine

e; I believe that the above searches the public list, but you can invest a small amount of time and contact your council and view the electoral register, you'll probably have to forage around at your library, but handily, it's listed by address not name so you'll easily find them providing their registered.

If not, good old fashion neighbours should know

Says I've exceeded my number of uses although I only tried to use it once.