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A few weeks ago I reversed into my neighbour's passenger door (old S reg renault worth about £500) whilst getting out of a tight parking spot and left a dent. I popped a note on their windscreen fessing up, and said to them that as the damage was minor if they wanted to get it repaired I'd pay the bill.  Seemed like the best way of dealing with it, rather than losing my no-claims.

Anyway, last week they turned up on the doorstep and said that the car was off being repaired, and was going to cost £400.  This was obviously a bit of a shock as they hadn't come back to us after getting quotes or anything, and obviously would have gone through the insurers if I'd known they were going to try to sting me for that kind of money, which I simply don't have at the moment.

Anyway, Matt went to see them and asked them to ask the garage not to go ahead pending getting some more quotes. They said it was too late, work had started. We were also told that the work was getting done cheaply as he'd put it through his mate's garage to keep the costs down.  We said that given the money involved we'd expect to see a full breakdown, and a VAT receipt.  Neighbour just come back round with a barely legible hand scrawled note saying saying something like 'renault door fixed, £400 paid cash'.  Apparently neighbour feeling guilty as he now realises we can't afford it and has said that it was keeping him up and night and he's prepared to absorb £150 if we pay £250.  Says he also not happy that we are considering contacting insurance company to see if we can get it sorted that way as he 'would have taken it to an expensive garage and got it fixed properly' if that were the case.

I'm pretty sure I'm being done over here. Have I just left myself up shit creek and need to find the money to cough up? I presume the insurance company won't touch it with a barge poll now. Any other recourse?

when they knock on the door say: "fuck off, take us to court".

Also please dont leave notes on peoples cars after you've hit them if they dont know about it.

failing that i'll come round for a drink then knock on the door :)

yeah I know I'm too fecking honest for my own good some times.  I'd still leave a note if I did it again (although maybe not if it was that particular car)

Women drivers, eh?

How much does it actually cost to undent a car door?

£400

Leave note every time, tell them to GTFO with their £400. Not payin £150 either once they've tried to shaft me.

Just don't reverse into cars.

Simples.

Failing that, just pay up or go round to see your neighbours about it and sort it with them rather than telling them to sort it and let me know.

Too lates now.
Insurance company wont take that receipt.

All depends on the dent and how they had it fixed.

Fair play for leaving the note but you prob should have said that they should speak to you before doing anything.

If you can see that work has actually been done and the dent is gone then the £250 deal is probably ok IMO. If no work has been done or its obviously a quick botch job then i would tell em to do one for the rip off attempt

How much were you expecting to pay when you left the note? No car repair is going to be much less than that.

time to negotiate is when you did it not now. pay the £250, it's not horrendous at all.

I don't know what I was expecting to be honest, but not much more than £150. I guess I've just left myself up shit creek with my own naivety, I did the neighbourly thing by letting them know I'd done the damage, and I would have expected them to show the same courtesy in return if they got a quote that was for a lot more than to be expected to fix a small dent in a door. I'll know better in future.

I think you're right and I'm just going to have to pay up. It might not seem like much, but that's pretty much a months' income to me just now.

Make sure you get a receipt of some kind from your neighbours when you do pay up!

so no one else is for chucking a brick through someones window?

smash their car up then knock on the door and give them £250

And so you should Claire.

Ask for copy of the "bill", if it's not got an address on it ask for one and explain that you will visit the garage to check the bill was genuine and had went through the books.

As they are umming and erring..........offer £150

Geo

then say to them: "PISS ON THIS BILL YOU FUCKERS" then go buy a mini fridge from argos and chuck it through their window.

 ;D

yes it's got an address on it, but it's bloody miles away.

I've not been well lately, and I don't want to drag it out as the stress of the situation has had an adverse impact on my health.  I'm sending Matt over there in a bit to see if they'll accept £200 in cash tomorrow.

1) break into their house, go through their pants drawer and nick the note that you left
2) now deny everything. ask when you agreed to pay. ask to see the note

next time use that special vanishing ink so that after a few days they just have a blank sheet of paper

When you caused the damage your opinion was that the damage was minor, and your offer was to pay for the repair of minor damage. However, if the car is worth £500 and the quote to repair it is £400 then it's not minor damage at all, that's like almost a complete right off. So check it out, you were the thoroughly decent and honourable neighbour here, not naive at all imo, just a stand up person, so you've got nothing to feel bad about. Yo neighbour on the other hand takes your offer to pay for a minor repair and abuses it by commissioning his mate to spend 80% of the car's value tarting it up without consulting you first. The neighbour can't just spend your money willy nilly without checking it's ok first. That's not decent. Get a couple of quotes from friendly garages as to what £'s you could expect to pay for this minor dent...then when your skanky neighbour comes calling show him your quote, pay him that amount, and tell him you're really really sorry that his friend is not really his friend at all.

trouble is there's now no evidence as to the extent of the damage. It didn't cross my mind to take a picture or anything. Neighbour is claiming door frame was buckled and needed repairing etc (it wasn't), but I can't now prove otherwise.

Why don't people just take a picture of the damage they cause? It drives me nuts..MrsB had the same thing a while ago and didn't take a picture..ended up costing her a lot more than it should have. And I hear more and more stories about people that don't do it (funnily enough almost all of them women)

It's such an easy thing to do now that almost everyone has a camera on their mobile. It's a bit of common sense really, no?

Oh and pay up obv. £250 to get a door done is nothing.

meh, 5 years ago I was paying £100+VAT per panel working for a huge dealership dishing out as much work as they could handle to small bodyshops as ours was busy with customer's cars, no difference if it's a rolls royce or an S reg renault you still do the same thing to fix it, if I wanted work done privately it was £150 cash in hand. unless this is a tiny dink not a proper dent I think £250 is fine.

I'm with bolt ... Pay up then smash the granny out of the car with a lump hammer.
























Ps.  Dont leave a bloody note after this !!

Lol deffo getting shafted here, if its a dent take the panel off and simply push it out. If its creased get a door from the scrappers for £30 and get the monkey to fit it. Thats if your honest obv id let it go personally.

Claire, your offer was to pay for minor damage. If the damage was not minor your neighbour should be decent and consult with you first. That is the point. He can't use that offer to hold you to ransom. I remember this story about some guys who finished their meal at some dotty curry house and ordered 5 glasses of the restaurant's best brandy to finish. The brandy was like £200 a shot...so the final bill was well over a grand. The waiter has a moral obligation to inform the patrons of the hefty price imo, especially if the guys live next door.

actually, I'm almost certain my note was 're the dent in your passenger door'.  I could argue I suppose that if the damage was more widespread than that he should have run it by me first.

this is totally O/T but reminds me of something read in the daily mail about 8 years ago(i think it was the mail) they would do a section where they would document a random case at court from the week, this one was about a guy that had owned his own business and become very well off, things had then gone wrong for him and he had lost everything, he lived in a little flat and was on the dole.
Anyway this guy missed so much his life(particularly dining in fine restaraunts) that he would get dressed up in his best suit and go out to the best hotels or resteraunts in london, order the most expensive food and champagne and have a great meal for a few hours.
When it came time to pay he never tried to make a run for it or cause a fuss, he's quietly ask them to call the police and very politely inform them that he had no money to pay as was the case being recorded this time, they said that he'd done it about 20 times always doing the same thing and follwing the same pattern, they'd sent him to prison twice but he still carried on and this time they gave him 6 months.

I'll never forget that story and just thought it great/ funny how the guy went about it, very matter of factly informing them to call the police etc :D

I do wonder if he's still at it.

Scanned through the thread but didn't see the answer....

How on earth did you crash into a parked car?

 ::)

yeah that's pretty much the answer. 

I was parked in a space with my front bumper to the kerb, and the two cars that were parked either side had parked really close to me, making it difficult to reverse out of the spot.  The car I hit was parked parallel to the kerb behind, and I was so busy concentrating on not hitting the cars on either side, that I didn't realise how far back I'd reversed until I'd hit it.

Matt was in the car with me at the time, so I'm pushing off some of the blame on to him too. As a bloke he should have been aware it was going to happen and warned me imo - I was moving at approximately half a mile an hour!

hmm, that last post kinda puts the blame on matt tbh. as he doesn't drink there is no reason why he should ever put his life at risk by being a passenger in a car driven by a woman

My boss's wife dented the side of a car recently, I asked him about it and he said (a) they tried to claim £400 for it, (b) they looked up a firm called Dentmaster who say as long as it's a little dent with no paint broken they can fix it for about £70

I think that second figure is more like the one you had in mind when you left the note wasn't it?

Yeah, u've been done. I got my g/f a second hand MG in Jan. Got if for a good price. It had been in a crash however and had been poorly repaired. There was a big dent in the passengers door and the wing mirror was smashed. I took it to a friend of a friends garage and he said he'd usually repair the dent for £30-£40 but as the dent actually now stuck out the way (original dent poorly beaten) we would need a new door panel. All in all i paid £130 for a new door panel AND wing mirror

That sucks.  Does sound like you're paying a premium, especially if he got 'mate's rates'.  Sadly I think you'll have to chalk it up to experience and pay the £250, offer £200 though.   The value of the car doesn't really reflect the cost in getting repairs done.   My Missus' car is worth about a fiver yet we painfully fork out a few hundred each year to get it though the MOT.

Don't leave a note next time!

WTF

If you order anything without knowing the price how can you complain?

Same really goes for what Claw did, she should have said Ill pay upto £100 to get it fixed or it needs to go throught the insurance.

Matt's going to give the guy a call today and see if he'll take the £200 (they were out last night when he went over).  they're off on holiday on Friday (mbsfn) and want the money sorted by then, so hopefully they'll accept it.

Anyone know the going rate for a hand job?

You may want to reword that lol

sigh, no, it's exactly as it reads unfortunately. I am in real dire straits at the moment, no income and lots of debts to pay. I can see how easy it is to end up going down that road.

If he says it cost £400, why would he be willing to accept £250?

Ask him this, and give him £150 or £200 and tell him to stop taking the piss. Then chalk it down to experience.

What they really going to do if they say no?? Are they big bad people? Tell them it was a wee bump, hand them a crisp £100 and tell them u own 20% of their car

£30
















So I'm told.......................................  ;marks;

Offer him £245 and a handjob then

think i have got to this thread a little late.

The reality is that you will have an excess on your insurance which is prob circa £250 - then there is the knock on effect of a claim.

It stinks - but i'd prob stump up the £250 and be done with it. He could have made you go through your insurance.

who need`s neighbours like this ,by the sound`s of it you have just paid towards there holiday .

tell them to fuck off.

and deny hitting their car. and deny leaving a note.

and if they want to try proving otherwise in court then good luck.

What if they have the note?

yeah they do have the note.  Just because they want to play at being dishonest, doesn't mean i'm going to stoop to that level.  They're not happy with the offer of £200, so I've agreed to pay the £250.

If anything like this happens again I'll be a lot more careful about taking pics, getting quotes etc.

Tell them you need to think about it for a bit longer, or if they come round looking for you before Friday ignore the door.  Surefire way to ruin their holiday imo.  Would consider paying them the £250 once they're back.

Stu, if me and you were good neighbours and you offered to pay for a meal for my birthday I would treat your offer with decency. I would order a reasonable meal because that is in the spirit of the offer. If on the other hand I abs raped the menu and left you with a hefty bill I doubt you'd be pleased. If I then said "listen clown WTF you said you'd pay" you wouldn't see things that way. I haven't taken your offer in the spirit in which it was intended and me saying it's your fault you should have stipulated an amount doesn't really change that. Not if me and you want to be decent neighbours with one another anyway.

Are you serious? If you go into a pub do you always insist on seeing the displayed price list before ordering a drink the extra 10 minutes it takes is worth it just in case some xxxx is trying to xxxx you over!

WTF that's left field even for you.

Claire you broke it you pay it, simple as.

I still cant get how you can hit a stationary object!

yeah hitting something thats parked is pretty redic but it doesnt cost £400 to fix and old bangers door, give them a ceni note and tell them to shhh

this obv

If you don't get that point it must be common for you to take advantage of people. You see 90% of people wouldn't leave a note at all, lots of posters on here wouldn't leave a note, so 9 times out of 10 the guy doesn't get his car fixed at all. Yet Claire has shown some integrity by admitting it. I would appreciate that and show integrity in return by getting a genuine price. Instead it's clear the guy is wanting to make money out of Claire's honesty with his inflated garage bill grim. I mean, when Claire mentions claiming on the insurance his beef is he would've lavished as much money as possible tarting up his nail at some expensive garage if he knew that. Why doesn't he just want the dent fixed?

"you broke it you pay" means that you would instantly thumb out the 400 notes when your neighbour came calling. And that would make you a dick.

My Dad's friend came back to his car in a multi story car park once to find that someone had hit the back corner of it. He was pleased to see that a note had been left under his windscreen wiper. It read:

"Everyone here thinks I'm leaving my name and address but I'm not."

people seem to be forgetting the inconvenience and time involved in getting estimates, being without a car while it is being repaired, getting lifts there and back, petrol etc. I think it's more than reasonable to charge for all that tbh. If you don't want to pay for it go through the insurance and let them sort it out, but you still prob have a near £250 excess to pay and you lose your no claims as well.

some muppet wrote my car off a while ago and I was happy with what he offered me not to go through insurance but I didn't realise just how much hassle it is to have to travel around looking for a new car when you don't have one to go in. if it happened again I would add on a grand to pay for a hire car for a couple of weeks

lol happy to smash your door in and give you £50 to sort it

 ;gobsmacked;

wrong side of bed?

Lolz you obviously dont know me, if this happened I would probably stop you and say shit you have cheap taste, lets go here they have better wine.

What youve said though imo is pretty different to the brandy story no? These guys have probably thought 'hey were in a shit curry house, whats the worst that could happen, lets be balla' they got stung.' Would they have said it if they were in a posh restaurant, er no.

There is a difference between saying Ill have the 'finest........ and offering to take a neighbour out for dinner.

Yes, if i order a pint of Guinness in a pub i expect it to be between £2-50 and £4-00

If I walk in somewhere and the guy says £12-80 please mate, I cant really argue can I?

I assumed the price would be the same as everywhere else.

The only person at fault is me, we all know what assuming does......

No, your naivety of leaving him a blank cheque makes you a dick.
(No offence Claw  ;) )

I crashed my car last Thursday, it was my fault but hadn't done a lot of damage to my car (their car spun twice and hit a lampost and bin) so when I collected it yesterday thinking BMW were just going to replace the bumper that had got bashed I was stunned to get a bill for £1650+VAT! Obv paid through my insurance but the charges were ridic, said they had to replace lights & internal fiittings, etc! I am pretty sure garages can be robbing bast**ds given the chance so maybe his mate screwed him over for the repair? £250 seems like a cracking deal considering you are not losing your no claims and not paying excess...

It makes an ass out of  u and ming ?  :dontask:

(http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:73HwoqQKhuw8NM:http://manginamonologues.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/ming-the-merciless.jpg)

Bit of difference between spinning a BMW and crashing into a lampost and dinging a door on an old banger don't you think?

I honestly had no damage to my bumper I was stationary turning right onto a main road and a boy racer flew down the road and lightly caught my car, his car spun not mine but honestly they listed 12 repairs when the car was in perfect condition, lights n all! Old bangers still cost money to be fixed but my point was maybe the garage was screwing him?

I was at the O2 in the VIP bar and it cost me about £20 for 3 drinks.

[ X ] I argued/complained

[  ] It went well

Personally I think you should pay the £250.  Somebody bumped my car and left the details, it was all sorted through the insurance but it was still a load of hassle.  If he has had you away by getting a mate to do the work then so be it, however just because he has a shit car doesnt mean the work will cost less.  I mean he's not going to go into the garage and say 'i know my cars a heap of shit, knock the dent out with that rusty hammer and i will ask the kind lady for £50'.  If the work was done properly it is expensive (mine cost the insurance company about £1k + the hirecar), and even if it wasnt, you left a note saying you would pay.  

I think you did the right thing leaving the note, big mistake saying you'd pay for the damage without quotes first.

nice work jon

[  ] You asked the price before you ordered
[X] If you thought about it you knew it was coming
[  ] It was their fault

sigh, was in no condition to think

lol proves the point even more

gg graham!

the big question is though, what had u been to see? that will decide whether the round was acceptable or not

you obviously don't get out in london much

I would've been keeping my mouth shut and trying to sneak away before they noticed they'd undercharged me

intrigued. how was that your fault then. were you just sat in the middle of the road?

He was sticking out on to the main road?

Was the NHL Ice Hockey last year (year before?), very good day out.

I came out of a lane got flashed to go crawled over the yellow box stopped looked left as I turn to look right boy racer in his Seat FR back wheel hits my bumper and he loses control. My fault as I shouldn't of been so far out in the road! Still if he wasn't driving like a mad man then never would of happened!

Your naivety is leaving him a blank cheque? Is that right? Don't forget this guy wanted £400 to start with. Now if a neighbour pranged my stationary car to the tune of £400, and it cost me £400, I wouldn't be accepting no £250. Who would? So it's clear the guy is trying to take advantage of Claire's honesty. Being honest isn't being naive. Claire's note said she would pay for the dink. And she will. But the guy isn't asking Claire for what it cost him, and that's why he'll drop the price. So it is just a question of arriving at a realistic figure for the actual cost. Claire has already written the note so nothing can be done about that. She is asking for advice now. The real naivety is thinking your honesty has put you in a position where you have written a blank cheque. Because then you would be shelling out £400 to your grimming neighbour. And that would indeed make you a dick.

Go into a genuine garage, ask what they would charge so u have a figure and tell ur neughbour that u'll pay what they say

lol that's what i was thinking!

Wow

So what your saying is what happened hasnt happened and Claires honesty hasnt but her in a situation where her neighbour can ask for any figure for his car repair even though he has.

Where as if you were shrewd you would say Ill get someone to fix that for you mate, sorry.

I have no problem with the honesty or leaving the note I just think its a dangerous way to go about things. Your obviously assuming the guy is a thief? Why? She drove into the door, all be it lightly, how do you know the extent of the damage?

Of course the neighbour is at it.  Why say the cost of the repair was £400, but then say you'll be happy with just £250?

Eh?

in response to claire saying she couldnt afford it, being nice?

I agree she puts herself in a exploitable position. And I'm not suggesting people wont try and take advantage of you in life if you do. But whether you actually allow that to happen is a different matter. Am I suggesting the guy is a thief? No. I'm not suggesting anything. I'm actually saying he's a thief. He wouldn't spend a big £400 without speaking to Claire first and then ask for £250 if he wasn't a thief. A bit more pressure from Claire haggles the thief down to an acceptable £140 before the weekend is through imo.

lol

I'd have her in small claims court faster than a fast thing on fast day asking to cough up the entire £400 if someone kept dicking about and haggling after I "kindly" agree to drop the cost to £250 and had the balls to go for £140...and I'd win.

This

Were happy that Claire is nice enough to fess up and offer to pay

But we cant comprehend the guy may have thought, 'It was more than I thought it was going to be, I expected it to be about £250, ill be happy to accept £250 thats fair, after all she didnt have to tell me at all did she'

LOL. 

You sure believe what you've just written there is what he's thinking.

Defendant requested a full breakdown and VAT receipt and was provided with a hand written note on a scrap of paper your honour. Can the prosecution show where this £400 was put through the till/is on the books?

£150 to settle out of court thief?

even if a dodgy mate who owns a garage had fixed it I'd get a  reciept for £400 off him...just to F you over.

£250 is a perfectly reasonable amount for fixing a car door...and the hassle you've caused for running into it in the first place.

You offered to pay up without having any idea as to what you were offering and you can't  prove that there was only minor damage.

I would pwn you completely.

Small claims court sure works like that

Transcript of Claw vs Neighbour:

Judge: So you crashed into the car
Claw: Yes
Judge: And you left a note offering to pay for the damage
Claw: Yes
Judge: And your neighbour had it repaired
Claw: Yes
Judge: And bought you a receipt
Claw: Yes but..................
Judge: GG Prosecution

[ ] so glad I started this thread.

he's got his £250 now, case closed.

Good result imo.

/end thread

Any advice? Yes

Dont crash

Going back to the whisky story, a tale from the local paper here a few years ago told of a guy trying to impress his new girlfriend at Hotel du Vin in Bristol. He was being rude and obnoxious to the staff and waiters and asked for the most expensive bottle of wine . The waiter tried to tell the customer the cost, but the customer shooed him away in an off-hand manner. The bottle was £800. He'd taken £100 out with him.

quality!