Neighbour's Wheelie Bin Damaged my Car

SeduLOUs

MercOwner wrote: »

The law's an !!!!

Maybe sometimes yes, but it does serve to protect people from being sued left, right and centre for things that aren't their fault.

MercOwner

But it's more their fault than mine.

SeduLOUs

MercOwner wrote: »

But it's more their fault than mine.

I don't see how.

If it was obvious to the neighbour the bin was likely to fall and damage your car (as it would need to be for you to win a case), then it would have been equally obvious to you and you wouldn't have parked your car so close to the bin in the first place.

silverwhistle

True, but you're not at primary school anymore!

For the future you could write to them asking not to leave the bin there etc etc, so that you may have some recourse if it happens again, and they've has written warning of the danger.

Ozzuk

MercOwner wrote: »

But it's more their fault than mine.

I think you've had the answers here, the fact that is isn't fair (on you, your neighbours would likely argue if the case went the other way it's not fair on them) is a shame but that's life.

Did you warn them the gap may cause the wind to blow their bin over? No. Could they have foreseen in? Maybe, but good luck proving negligence.

I would say garage your car or put a better fence up - but with your luck a tile would blow off their roof onto your car. And no, unless they had let their roof fall into disrepair they wouldn't be liable then either!

Get it fixed and either look at getting a cheaper car, accept the risk that things can happen, or garage it. Sorry!

magpiecottage

MercOwner wrote: »

The law's an !!!!

If you take your neighbour to court over this, I think it will find you to be the donkey.

G_M

IT'S NOT FAAAAIIIIIIRR! aAAAAAAGH! I WANT MY CAR FIXED!

SOMEONE BANGED MY CAR IT'S sOOOOOOOOOOOOO UNFAIR!

That's how it comes across.

Look - sometimes sh*t happens. The wind blows. Things fall over. If you want to blame someone, blame god. Or the butterfly in Japan that started the wind blowing.

And claim on your insurance - that's what it's for.

Aretnap

MercOwner wrote: »

But it's more their fault than mine.

I'd suggest that it's not really the fault of either of you. Some things are just bad luck and nobody's fault in particular. If you want to be protected against them you have to take out insurance of your own. You can't expect someone else to pay for every bit of misfortune that befalls you in life.

Claim on your own insurance- it's what it's there for. Or if it's too little damage to be worth making a claim, get it fixed yourself. Either way it's not worth falling out with your neighbour over, and it's not a battle you'd be likely to win anyway.

magpiecottage

fierystormcloud wrote: »

This was our small plastic 'cardboard crate,' that was on top of our 4 ft wheelie bin behind our 6 and a half ft high back gate...

I remember back in 1997, the morning after Jacqueline Du Pre died and the morning after Michael Fish said there would not be a hurricane.

We found somebody else's dustbin in our garden and went to every house in the road asking people if it was theirs but nobody claimed it.

Beyond the end of the road there was a couple of miles of open countryside before the next village - we reckon it must have come from there.

fierystormcloud

Funnily enough, we had a neighbour knocking on our door, (a few years ago) holding our recycling crate that holds the cardboard (it had just been emptied the day before and had nothing in it.) It's a sort of a 2 x 1 x 2 ft in size box.. Well, she said - with a dark and angry look on her face - 'I found THIS on my car this morning: the wind has blown it onto my car, and put a crack in the windscreen glass and it's bent my windscreen wiper, and put a big dent in my bonnet.

It was only a small plastic crate with NOTHING in it, but nevertheless, the wind appeared to blow it over the 6 and a half foot high gate, and it conveniently flew approximately 30-35 feet, and landed EXACTLY on her windscreen and put a crack in the window, and then broke her windscreen wiper, and then put a dent in her bonnet. To try and convince us this tiny plastic crate had done all that damage to her car was ludicrous.

I said 'I'm sorry, but if by some miracle, the wind blew this over our back gate and took it around 35 feet across the driveways, and onto your car, I don't really see how we are responsible for any damage: plus I can't believe all this that happened to your car, was down to this little plastic crate.'

She said she will see how much the damage will cost. I said 'you can if you like, but we won't be paying anything, because I don't believe our little crate did this; you will have to claim on the insurance.' She was very disgruntled and peed off, but I stood firm, and basically said 'see you in court.'

Never heard another thing about it. Cheeky mare: trying to tap us for money towards her damaged car.

Another thing is, there was ZERO damage to our crate!

The OP's story reminds me of the old neighbour. Just trying it on to get someone to pay for the damage to their car.