Need Advice: Neighbour Hit My Parked Car

[roystonvasey]

I need some advice.

My car has been parked outside my house all of this week as a result of the bad weather and we have walked everywhere in the snow. During the week, at 7.30am in the dark, a neighbour was seen digging out snow with his car "diagonally" directed towards my car for about 20 minutes. His son was seen removing snow from the front of my car, then they drove off. Not long later, I went out to see a big dent on the front driver wing of my car, the very area where his son was seen wiping the snow.

We asked him the morning after when he was home if he hit the car, he said he did not hit the car. Later in the evening, he called around to say his son "may have" used my car to stop his own car from hitting mine and he'd hire a "suction machine" to try to take the dent out.

Today, the neighbour called in and said "I didn't do it, my conscience is clear, a truck must have hit it, my car is too low down to have done that" (even though he said his son may have accidentally made the dent). He brought it around to "that could have been there for weeks for all I know". In other words, he saw the size of the damage and decided he wasn't going to pay for it.

What are my choices? I'm not working and I'm not paying for the damage. Thanks.

 

[Romulan]

Get his insurance details from his disc and notify your insurance company.

Confirm to them the statements he made to you.

Tell him the good news!

 

[sam h]

Or do a little detective work - find out if his car really is too low to do the damage - just use a stick to measure how far off the ground your dent is & see if his bumper matches.

A friend of a friend accused another lady in a carpark of hitting her car & breaking her light. Big arguement in car park, cops called & almost an hour later they arrived. The officer took one quick look & realised it would have been impossible for it to happen as the bumper of the micra never could have reached the Rav4 light.

Apoligies & flowers were the next step!

 

[Mommah]

Any paint left in the dent?
Colour of paint may be a clue.

 

[roystonvasey]

Thanks for responses.

No, no paintwork was taken off or left, just a sizeable dent. If a truck had hit it like he is trying to claim now must have happened, paintwork would most likely have been stripped off.

He stated his car was "too low" but had already admitted his son may have used his body weight to stop his car damaging mine in the ice and snow. I tested this tonight, it does fit a particular body part suspiciously well....

 

[Billo]

It's your word against his.

 

[Crugers]

...it does fit a particular body part suspiciously well....

It's terrible that your car has been damaged.

But if the above was a human body part then you would be on thin ice if you claim that the neighbour's CAR had damaged yours.

I suspect you would have to go after the person that did the damage as opposed to claiming against someones vehicle insurance.

 

[Staples]

Did you tell him you witnessed all the snow digging and his car pointing towards yours at an angle and ask why that might have occurred?

Is he saying that in trying to prevent a car from hitting yours, the son accidently damageed your car? If so, it sounds like he's trying to prevent a claim against his insurance (in that his car wasn't involved). In that scenario, you's have to sue the son personally. If you made clear that you'd be prepared to do so (having established that the "might have" was a definite "yes"), they might be more prepared to come clean and stop playing silly buggers.

 

[Yorrick]

" His son was seen removing snow from the front of my car, then they drove off."

Hint. Come back when you have evidence

 

[roystonvasey]

No need for hints thanks Yorrick, I'm having the fork out for the damage myself and left with a bad feeling for my neighbour (or the alleged "an other" thoughtful person who drove off leaving a human-body-style indent on the wing of my car). That's life and people.