Neighbours painters splater car with paint.

ALBYHERE01

Hi 
Our car was parked on our drive while the painters working for our neighbour worked on the external walls of his house.
Having noticed them working I approached them and asked if the work they where doing required me to move my cars.
I was assured that it wasn't necessary.
Two days later my neighbour, not the painters knocked on my door and suggested I move my cars as the painters where now about to use the rollers on his external walls.
This turned out to be an afterthought the painters had decided to start and both our cars where now in fact covered in small spray dots of paint.
I asked the painters what kind of paint it was and was told it was water based and should wash off without any further damage needless to say this was not the case and my neighbours attempts at washing the paint of has now left the car with small minor scratches everywhere. and a large percentage of the paint splatter remains.
I have ascertained the painters do hold public liability insurance.
Any advice on how to proceed would be helpful, I will if necessary hand the matter to my car insurer but would like to avoid doing so if possible.
The car is only seven months old.

stragglebod

You obtain three quotes, go for the middle one, and present your neighbour with the invoice. Whether his painters have insurance or not is not your concern.

tired_dad

My thoughts would be to go through your insurance. Your gonna take a hit either way. Newish car. You will want it back to perfect. Trying to negotiate with 3rd party will be difficult

TELLIT01

Why should the OP claim on their own insurance?  I'm sure a good bodyshop will be able to remove the spots without too much difficulty and address any marking caused by the neighbour trying to remove them.  The painter's insurer is who should be paying to rectify the problem.

EmmyLou30

You're probably looking at a full detailing of the car with machine polishing etc to get rid of all the swirls now scratched on the car from a rough scrubbing to partially remove the paint. Get some quotes and present them to the neighbour. You can only hope he feels a moral obligation to pay up if his painters aren't insured and won't pay. Failing that the innocent party suffers yet again at the hands of the insurance.  

ALBYHERE01

Thanks to all for your comments. Emmylou30 you hit the nail on the head I have been busy today getting quotes. 
Learnt something new today there is a process after washing the car thoroughly  called clay barring that should remove all the paint without causing further damage to the paintwork then the car is machine polished. Its an expensive process but hey lets hope its a lesson to the painters. Just waiting now to see how long it takes for the painters to get back to me.
 Thanks All.