Neighbours Ball in My Garden - Drama

supersaver2

I've just had my wife on the phone upset over a dispute with our neighbour over a football.

The upshot is our neighbours son's football was kicked into our garden at some point this morning and has been destroyed by my 3 dogs. Apparently this ball was signed by Wayne Rooney and valuable. My wife was out at the time and our dogs have access to the back garden via a dog flap. They are very playful and being large dogs footballs don't tend to last more than 2 minutes. Neighbour has been round to see my wife and threatened her with solicitors and small claim court unless we pay for a new ball, he has even been on ebay looking for prices of similar balls with signatures!

Now as far as I can't see we have no liability, we have 6 foot fences around our garden and the dogs are contained. I would actually quite happily pay for a replacement ball (not signed from ebay, just abhog standard one!) but seeing as he spoke to my wife in an aggressive manner which upset her I'm feeling like telling him to do one!

What would you do?

paddy's_mum

I'd say, in the most pleasant tones I could muster, see you in court then.

SpottyKnickers

If its so valuable, why is the child playing with it?

What is your relationship like with your neighbours? Any chance he is lying?

tea_lover

I'd tell him to swivel.

adouglasmhor

It would get laughed out of court.

hgotsparkle

I'd say seeing as its a ball of value, then don't allow children access to play with it, and it was kicked into YOUR property, therefore the fault lies with the child for kicking it too high.

bugslet

Can't see he'd have a leg to stand on. If it was so valuable, why kick it about with the chance of it going over the garden fence. The onus is on him to ensure the safe-keeping of his property surely?

DKLS

I would be telling next door to look after stuff next time.

If it was "valuable" he shouldnt have been playing with it.

peachyprice

You might want to point out to your neighbour that it's his own stupid fault for letting his son play football with a collectors item.

How long did these people think the signature would stay on the ball for if it was being kicked around the garden?

Person_one

Not your problem.

Its nice of you to offer to buy a replacement (ordinary) ball, but there's no obligation to buy a signed one.

I can't quite believe they were using it as an ordinary football, have you checked the 'remains' for a signature?

supersaver2

SpottyKnickers wrote: »

If its so valuable, why is the child playing with it?

What is your relationship like with your neighbours? Any chance he is lying?

That's the first thing I thought when my wife told me, surely you would keep it on a shelf and buy a cheapy ball for a kick about!

Don't know them that well to be honest, they only moved in in August and I've only seen them a handful of times.