Neighbour creosotes car...

[CSLchappie]

Long story short, neighbours' did a bit of DIY, inadvertently covered one side of my partner's car (white) plus our garage brickwork and garage door (also white…) in brown water based fence paint

Been amicable so far, in person they admitted liability and verbally agreed to pay costs to clean and polish car (c £350, which was agreed up front, and I've now paid for)… However they've had a change heart (or rather his wife has…) and are refusing to pay now I've presented them with the bill.

After doing a bit of research this is my plan of attack -

No further verbal contact, instead I'll send them a letter with the following contents -

Still want to remain on good terms so am willing to accept original agreement of paying for damage to car.
If this is not agreeable then please provide details of their home insurance so we can claim for costs on that.
If not willing to provide either of the above within X days then we will proceed to recover all costs via small claims court, and if we go down this route we'll also look to recover costs for having all other paint damage rectified (garage brickwork and door)
I was also going to state that a copy of this letter will be given to the local police purely to cover ourselves should any further issues arise (there have been a number of petty incidents that we haven't made a big issue of before - parking on our drive, their kids chucking stones into our garden, not handing over mis-delivered mail, crap parking on their part that has lead to our fence being damaged on four separate occasions by other residents on the private access drive we share)

First question, does this sound a reasonable plan of attack? Have I missed anything out?
Second, should I bother with having the letter delivered via recorded delivery? Does handing it to them in person amount to the same?
Third, I don't know the husband's actual name, only the nickname he goes by, I assume I'll need his full name if I go down the small claims route, any tips for how I can find this out? (already spoken to other neighbours, nobody knows as they keep themselves to themselves)

Finally, I'm pretty certain that they are both GP's is there any pressure / wording I can make use of that will appear to their better nature?

[CSLchappie]

Yes, thanks its a good read, some of my plan has been formulated by the contents of that thread.

[CSLchappie]

Cheers, the postie was an idea, I'll have to wait till the weekend to catch him though.

The car is one year old so we took it to the supplying dealer's bodyshop, that was their quote upon seeing the car which I didn't think was too bad to be honest having had minor scuffs and scrapes fixed in the past. I have quite a few detailing products and it took a lot of elbow grease to shift the marks, it definitely needed a professional with the right tools to sort it out. And the car was literally splattered from one end to the other, across the roof, bonnet, plus all the rubber trims.

The Spruce goose said:

192.com can give you electrical roll name and details, just ask postie last name.

how did the figure of 350 come about, i guess water based is fairly easy to remove permanently..

[CSLchappie]

Just saying that they won't pay for it as it was more than they expected, at the time I said the quote for the work was £285 +VAT which would be 350ish - in reality it turned out to be £290 + VAT, £348.

I've not spoken to them yet and have no desire to, he is actually a nice chap but the wife is a very abrasive character and obviously wears the trousers, however in the past she's played the 'I not understand english' card when trying to discuss other issues with her. It transpires that the neighbour on the other side of them has had a lot of trouble in the past, mainly around parking.

NiceCupOfTea said:

Can't offer any practical advice, but similar happened to me when neighbour's cowboy handyman sprayed their fence with my car on the other side. I was livid and spent about 3 or 4 hours washing, claying, and polishing the car that evening. It had even pooled on the roof I still find spots on the rubber trim and in shuts from time to time.

In retrospect I would have gone round and asked for their insurance details.

What a total ahole though, going back on his work to sort his damage. What are they doing, just saying "No" or denying it?

[CSLchappie]

Forgot to ask, in my very, very basic understanding of the law, is there any merit in stating the letter as 'without prejudice' given the likely chance of going to the small claims court over the matter?

[CSLchappie]

NiceCupOfTea said:

Will they give you insurance details

That's what I'm going to ask for in my initial letter to them as an alternative to paying up out of their own pocket, I'm not going to waste my time calling on them again in person, in the past they've ignored us when we've been around (knowing full well they are in) and I doubt they are keen to speak to us now.

Sad really as I guess we'll both have to declare this if either of us sell our house.

[CSLchappie]

Thanks for all the replies folks, they've had another change of heart and posted a cheque for the full amount through our door this morning, I've not spoken to them yet as this happened while I was at work but I plan on popping around this evening to say thank you and hopefully mitigate any ill feeling.

FWIW this was the state of the car -





This was all down one side, on the roof, bonnet, glass, seals... was not a job for the feint hearted