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Car dented by child who pays?

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Comments

  • duchy
    duchy Posts: 19,511 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker Xmas Saver!
    Must be lovely living in a quiet cul de sac with neighbours who think sounding their horn to disturb the rest of the close is preferable to going and knocking on a door. You lost any sympathy from me when he went on doing that after he knew where the driver was . Bet the neighbours weren't impressed either.
    I Would Rather Climb A Mountain Than Crawl Into A Hole

    MSE Florida wedding .....no problem
  • neilmcl
    neilmcl Posts: 19,460 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    arcon5 wrote: »
    Because cars have wing mirrors. Guessing your not a motorist or you've taken a few of these off in your time ;)
    And wing mirrors can generally be folded out the way!
  • neilmcl
    neilmcl Posts: 19,460 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    arcon5 wrote: »
    YSounds like you think it's acceptable to a) block a road and b) not take responsibility for your actions. So if you think this woman has a right to be wound up because op pipped her horn as per your post then who cares, it's her own doing.
    I don't think anyone is condoning the driver for causing an obstruction but for the OP's OH to continue to use his horn (illegally) after having discovered a, where the driver was, and b, the car had a couple of very young children sitting alone in it, was frankly out of order and contributed to the incident itself.
  • Mark_Mark
    Mark_Mark Posts: 639 Forumite
    edited 3 February 2014 at 9:21AM
    arcon5 wrote: »
    Your whole point for op to have not pipped revolves around two points of the law... Time restrictions which knocking on doors is even more ridiculous and the not using the horn whilst stationary which frankly is ridiculous also. Op didn't know where the owner was or that kids was in the car until after events started unfolding so expecting op to knock on the door.... What door!

    Sounds like you think it's acceptable to a) block a road and b) not take responsibility for your actions. So if you think this woman has a right to be wound up because op pipped her horn as per your post then who cares, it's her own doing.

    Leading back to my original point - even if it breaks the law, op pressing the horn was an appropriate way of getting attention. The Highway Code in particular often seems to take a one size fits all to driving when life doesn't always work like that.

    Can't believe your defending this silly woman on the grounds op used her horn illegally.

    Can you not see that the obstruction was caused by two vehicles?

    It would have been just as easy for the op to get the neighbour who parked on the near side to move. Then problem solved.

    Everyone else but you feels its inappropriate use of the horn and time of day gas nothing to do with it.
  • maurice28
    maurice28 Posts: 320 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    I reckon I would have given the horn a pip when coming upon that situation, but after being told which house the owner of the car was in it surely does make sense just to knock on the door and explain they are blocking the road
  • Gra76
    Gra76 Posts: 804 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker Mortgage-free Glee!
    Having been in a similar scenario (kids damaging our car) I can tell you it's really not worth the hastle of trying to get money out of the parents unless they're decent human beings (which it sounds like they're not having denied it after it happened).

    We bought a brand new S-Max in 2006 and the week after we bought it one of the kids down the street rode her bike into the rear quarter at speed, fortunately the child was ok but the handlebar impact left a dent in the panel and the brake lever left a deep scratch along the rear quarter that extended for about 2 feet in length which was down to the metal.

    We saw them do it, the childs mum saw her do it and came over to pick up her child and inspect the damage done. She promised to pay for it. When her husband got home he came round to see the damage himself and said he'd fix it himself.

    He came round at the weekend and after an hour of messing around trying to get the dent out (and failing) and attempting to T-Cut the scratch (which predictably didn't make the slightest bit of difference) he knocked on the door and proclaimed he was done.

    After inspecting it I told him that although I appreciated his efforts, I wasn't prepared to accept his 'fix' as it was still obviously damaged and that I was going to call a dent-removal company to come and give me a price for fixing it properly. I told him I'd be expecting him to foot the bill.

    He told me in no uncertain terms that unless I had footage of his daughter running her bike into the car that he'd just deny it ever happened and that if I pushed it and it went to court that he'd deny all knowledge. He wasn't planning on paying anything towards getting it properly fixed. "It's your word against ours" was the last thing he muttered at me as he wondered off down the street.

    I sent a few letters to them giving them the opportunity to change their minds which also threatened to take them to court if they didn't respond. Which predicatably they didn't respond to... In the end I footed the bill myself following a chat with a solicitor friend who told me not to waste any more of my time and effort.

    The family in question moved out of the street a couple of years later, which wasn't a bad thing as we later found out we weren't the only ones who they'd fallen out with. Some people have zero morality!
  • red_eye
    red_eye Posts: 1,211 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Mark_Mark wrote: »
    What was, 8 year olds driving?
    no parking on half the pavement or blocking someones drive. would be blocking the road otherwise.

    if you knew them well enough you could park on their drive......the good ol days
  • Stoke
    Stoke Posts: 3,182 Forumite
    Mark_Mark wrote: »
    OH needs to learn what a horn is for, it isn't to summons people out of the house. I bet this has wound them up and now they're not playing ball.

    As said you didn't check or see damage at the time so you'll struggle to prove it was them. With a loud bang heard above the noise of torrential rain on a car roof I'd have been checking.

    Don't want to get on my high horse, but this really applies in this situation.

    I hope your matter is eventually resolved.
  • Your OH opened someone's car door without being invited to and then after realising it was a child in the car you continued to use the horn. That's unacceptable behaviour in my book. You knew the door number of the house so why not go and knock on it?

    And unfortunately for you, unless the parents accept responsibility for the damage there is not much else you can do - not for minor damage anyway.
    if i had known then what i know now
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