Neighbours wheelie bin hitting the car

Daz8855

Hello, 
just looking for some advice, my neighbour put their bin out next to my car in a storm. On my property and not where they would usually place their bin. They got mixed up with the collection days so this happened to not be on collection day. (A Saturday night/ early hours Sunday)

The bin also had the glass box placed on top. The wind caused this to fall and it was full up. A bottle has smashed on my bonnet causing significant scratches to the bonnet and a loud bang. This awoke my neighbour and they went out to retrieve the bins. As they placed glass box back by their property the bin was also blown into my car, this has dented the wheel arch. This is all captured on cctv. 

The next morning some neighbours were walking past the house and they stopped by my car and were pointing towards the floor. I opened the door and they were saying about all the smashed glass. (I was unaware of the whole situation at this point) The neighbour (owner of the bins) came out after overhearing and proceeded to collect all of the glass. 

Initially I approached the neighbour after seeing the damage to my car. They were apologetic and gave me a dent suction cup to try and remove the dent. I have tried my best but due to the position of the dent I couldn’t get it out, although it does look a tad better. So I knocked again and asked if they would cover the damage or go half with me to get the car repaired. This didn’t go down well and my neighbour said this is what I have insurance for and slammed the door in my face. 

My car is on pcp. I cannot return the car in this state. I have contacted my insurance but I’m unsure of what to do My excess is £750. My insurance advised they believe that they have a case to take to court with all of the evidence, to hold her liable for being negligent. However I know this is a gamble and my insurance will remain as at fault until this claim is settled. 

I have checked the housing contract which does state the bins should be stored at the rear of the property unless it’s collection day. 

I wonder if anyone could shed any light on any similar situations or any other route I could take. 

Grumpy_chap

That's a high excess, but one you'll have to bear.
Get an estimate from a local garage to repair the vehicle.
Asses the quote against the excess value.  If it is still worth a claim, then go through your car insurance and formally share the evidence you have with them so they can properly assess the likelihood of success for a claim against the neighbour.  Even if they do think this could be successful, a claim against the neighbour may be bad for future relations and in the interest of a quiet life may not be something you wish to pursue.  Only you can weigh that up.

Sandtree

To be able to make a claim against your neighbours you would need to prove that they have been negligent; now thankfully you say you have CCTV and so proving whats actually happened isnt an issue and so it simply comes down to the question of if putting their bin where they did with the box on top is negligent or not.

For reference, negligence is defined as "doing something a reasonable person wouldn't do or failing to do something a reasonable person would do".

If you decide to claim from your insurance at least part of the claim will be allocated to a technical team who will make an assessment on their opinion on liability and write to your neighbour asking for either their admission or details of their home contents insurance if they want their insurers to deal with it for them. How things go from there would depend on the responses received.

Assuming liability was ultimately admitted your excess would become recoverable too, if you have Legal Expenses cover someone would be appointed to do this for you.

Without seeing the CCTV, looking at weather reports at the time etc its hard to judge independently if their actions were reasonable or not... I dont think the fact they got muddled with the days makes any difference.

princeofpounds

I'd go the route of small claims court. As you say, with an insurance claim your excess won't cover most of it, and future premiums will be higher. Of course you may want their legal services to handle the claim etc. as Sandtee suggests if you have legal protection, so in that instance it may be worthwhile to turn it over to them.

This is a lay opinion, but it doesn't sound terribly hard to indicate negligence based on what you say. They placed a heavy object in an unstable position, unsecured, next to your property in advance of a storm. Then they bungled their recovery operation. It's great you have CCTV.

No idea why you offered to go halves with them... that looks weak.

Collection day, housing contract... not so relevant. You can always mention it in your case but it's rather tangential to the real issue.

Herzlos

The contract could be used to reinforce a claim of negligence - a reasonable person would have put the bin out when required to.
I guess it comes down the cost of the damage, how likely it'll be for your neighbour to pay up (there's no point winning, say, £1000 in damages if they can only pay £1/week towards it) and how much you care about making an enemy of a neighbour.

facade

I would have thought that putting out a bin, with a glass box teetering on top, in a storm, on someone else's property, right next to their car is not the action of a reasonably careful person.

Whether you will get a brass farthing out of the neighbour is another matter.

As your excess is £750, it will be cheaper getting a mobile dent removal specialist out to sort it, or it might still be cheaper to just pay the fee when you hand the car back, some financiers publish a list of prices.

williamgriffin

It must have been some wind to blow over a wheelie bin that's anything other than empty. 

DiddyDavies

williamgriffin said:

It must have been some wind to blow over a wheelie bin that's anything other than empty. 

As the OP stated that it happened on a Saturday night/Sunday morning, it could well have been the 26th December, a night when there were widespread storms around the UK with extremely high winds in some areas.
The forecast below was for my area.

Cloudy with patchy light rain and drizzle before becoming dry with bright or sunny spells developing. Overnight heavy rain arrives, and becoming very windy with widespread gales, coastal severe gales. Maximum temperature 11 °C.

Daz8855

Thank you for all your replies. It was the night 26th of December. My area had a yellow weather warning forecast. The bin was placed directly next to my car (you wouldn’t have been able to open the door without moving the bin) these weren’t placed out until 11pm and we were asleep by this point. Said neighbour has no vehicles and a double parking space directly outside their property. Providing ample space for them to place their bin. 

With regards to making an enemy with the neighbours, to be quite honest they’ve been nothing but trouble since they moved in, there has been multiple disputes between different households and this particular neighbour. After our last encounter when the door was slammed in my face. I have been blocked on social media. So assuming all neighbourly relations are cut already, I would be happy to take this further. 

My cover does include legal expenses thankfully. 

I have had a look into the charges for returning the car with the damage. It states a bonnet paint repair charge is £260 however if the damage is extensive (which i would say so, the scratches are in multiple locations and some are down to the metal) as this is not the only damage I don’t think it’s in my best interest to return the car in this condition. 

Daz8855

Herzlos said:

The contract could be used to reinforce a claim of negligence - a reasonable person would have put the bin out when required to.
I guess it comes down the cost of the damage, how likely it'll be for your neighbour to pay up (there's no point winning, say, £1000 in damages if they can only pay £1/week towards it) and how much you care about making an enemy of a neighbour.

This is my concern going through insurance as the claim will be seen as at fault until it has been settled with the final payment. 

I had the dent assessed by two independent garages and both have given the same quote of £250. However I’m unsure how much the paint damage is going to cost on top of this. Going through insurance, they will use a Mercedes approved repairer only. So assuming this is going to be more costly.  

bartelbe

If you intend to live in the area long term I would think long and hard about taking legal action against a neighbour, even if you are in the right. These things have a nasty habit of spiraling out of control and could cost you more in the long run than the costs of fixing that dent.