Elderly Neighbour Car Bump Troubles

[Blown2CV]

I share a driveway with my elderly neighbour, out front of our houses. She is nice, and for the most part reasonable. She knocked my door at 7:30am last Saturday to tell me she'd scratched my car, ironically whilst manouvering her car in order to try to give me more room. I said OK don't worry I would take a look later, and went back to bed. Her parting comment was that she hoped it wouldn't be too expensive, looks like it would polish out, didn't want to go via insurance, and knew a cheap place nearby. With alarm bells gently dingling, I went to sleep.

Checked it out later and wheel arch is dented in 2 places and scraped around that area. I knew that this would be trouble really, as I don't like fixing cars cheaply, have had loads of problems in the past. I also get on with my neighbour, and as she is retired i do feel bad taking money off her full stop, especially extra money for being what other people might term precious over my car. To add an extra factor, the only way I can access the rear my house from the outside (for bins etc) is via her side driveway because of previous occupant's relaxed attitude towards practicality and extension construction. So, I do need to continue to get on with her, but I also don't want my car to look st. Above all I was in fking bed when it happened, so in a way I feel I shouldn't have to pay a fking penny... but as it isn't as simple as that, I offered to split it down the middle with her - paying half each. She was very grateful, and I felt like a good person.

I get a quote from my usual place (jag authorised place) and it came to just shy of £1000. I gingerly told my neighbour this, and she nearly keeled over. I think she was thinking it might be more like £100, of which she owes me £50. She made it clear she didn't have that kind of money (which I am not altogether convinced is the case, but I know she is retired... kind of) and asked me to get a quote from local place. Now I know not whether this place is an utter bucketshop, or is OK, but I am still worried about sacrificing paint warranty etc. I can see me getting a quote from there, telling her to pay me half of that, and then going to the fking expensive place and paying all the rest myself.

I was in bed asleep for fks sake!!

Moral maze? Help.

"is she fit?"
"set fire to her house"
"grow up, it's just a fking car"

are all responses i expect to get, but I am hoping there are some useful ones too.

[sjg]

Maybe in 1963.

She drove into your car. If she can't afford to pay for the damage herself, that's what insurance is for.

[DaveH23]

Insurance? Isnt this why you pay it?

[Mastodon2]

sjg said:

Maybe in 1963.

She drove into your car. If she can't afford to pay for the damage herself, that's what insurance is for.

Exactly. It's not WW2 anymore, we don't sleep with our doors unlocked or feel like we have to "look after our neighbors as they'd look after us" etc anymore. If she can't pay it, let her insurer foot the bill.

[Blown2CV]

I'd be happy to go via insurance, but she has said initially that she doesn't want to. I haven't yet had the conversation with her about doing it that way. I think she is still hoping that this local place will quote a hundred quid and then it will all be fine. If I say to go insurance route basically I look like a bit of a tt as I'm saying the place she recommended is st, based on nothing whatsoever, and that I am kind of railroading her into doing something. I am very conscious I don't want to come across as exploiting an old woman or making it more expensive than I need to. Probs insurance is the best bet as this st is going to probably cost me £800 otherwise.

[Liquid Tuna]

Yes a difficult one really. However, I'd take it to this place she knows. If you get a good feeling then fine, do that if you're happy and she's happy with it. If you don't get a good feeling about it, and you want to go through the insurance but she doesn't, then you need to weigh up how much it will affect your relationship with her and how important that is to you as her neighbour as to whether you still want to do that. At the end of the day she's damaged your car and she'll realise it needs to be rectified one way or another and in a way you're comfortable with.

[poing]

If you are willing to pay half the repair then offer to pay her insurance excess instead, which will likely be cheaper than £500 any way. If she's only expecting to pay £50 then that's probably what she will have to pay when her insurance goes up.

Keep in mind though your insurance will go up as well. Swines!

[itz_baseline]

Tough one. If you didn't have to use her drive to access the back of your property I would say give her the option of either paying £500 or going through insurance....but as she is doing you a favour by letting you on her property, I would say just suck it up, pay for it yourself and move on.

[Meths]

If you want to be "nice" you could offer to go down the insurance line but pay her excess? (unless it's extortionate)


Really, if she claims, her increase in insurance is going to be minimal.




I went the "don't deal with insurance" route with first bus. It's been fk up, after fk up.

Edited by Meths on Saturday 16th March 21:59

[Blown2CV]

poing said:

If you are willing to pay half the repair then offer to pay her insurance excess instead, which will likely be cheaper than £500 any way. If she's only expecting to pay £50 then that's probably what she will have to pay when her insurance goes up.

Keep in mind though your insurance will go up as well. Swines!

sounds like a winner. This is the second time someone else has crashed into me in 6 months!!

[danjama]

Blown2CV said:

I'd be happy to go via insurance, but she has said initially that she doesn't want to. I haven't yet had the conversation with her about doing it that way. I think she is still hoping that this local place will quote a hundred quid and then it will all be fine. If I say to go insurance route basically I look like a bit of a tt as I'm saying the place she recommended is st, based on nothing whatsoever, and that I am kind of railroading her into doing something. I am very conscious I don't want to come across as exploiting an old woman or making it more expensive than I need to. Probs insurance is the best bet as this st is going to probably cost me £800 otherwise.

Sounds like she's exploiting you mate. Tell her it's the £500 or the insurers. You've been more than reasonable even offering to pay half.

[Beyond Rational]

Go with the cheap and dodgy body shop. The paint only has to last until she inevitably hits it again.

[blank]

She won't have to pay her excess to get your car fixed.

She'll only have to pay it to get her own car fixed.

[Blown2CV]

danjama said:

Blown2CV said:

I'd be happy to go via insurance, but she has said initially that she doesn't want to. I haven't yet had the conversation with her about doing it that way. I think she is still hoping that this local place will quote a hundred quid and then it will all be fine. If I say to go insurance route basically I look like a bit of a tt as I'm saying the place she recommended is st, based on nothing whatsoever, and that I am kind of railroading her into doing something. I am very conscious I don't want to come across as exploiting an old woman or making it more expensive than I need to. Probs insurance is the best bet as this st is going to probably cost me £800 otherwise.

Sounds like she's exploiting you mate. Tell her it's the £500 or the insurers. You've been more than reasonable even offering to pay half.

i think she's a bit old to be playing me. I just think she's a bit scared to go that route. Maybe she's had a few bumps and is worried that they might really hike the premium or even take her license off her (even though you basically have to double barrel roll into someone's living room in a single car accident before they'd consider doing that). She does want me to fix it on the cheap though, and I'm not having that.

[Mastodon2]

Blown2CV said:

i think she's a bit old to be playing me.

Don't think she is too old to consider it. Quite the contrary, she's just had more years experience taking people for mugs.

[Blown2CV]

Mastodon2 said:

Blown2CV said:

i think she's a bit old to be playing me.

Don't think she is too old to consider it. Quite the contrary, she's just had more years experience taking people for mugs.

i think if she was going to do that, then she may as well not have bothered knocking my door in the first place!

[Pablo Escobar]

She's trying the little old lady routine, drag her through the courts and have her thrown in the street. Knock the house town and built a 200ft tall statute of yourself there.

[Squiggs]

A £1K repair bill for 2 small dents and a scuff to an arch
What's your car made from .... Gold?

[David87]

Squiggs said:

A £1K repair bill for 2 small dents and a scuff to an arch
What's your car made from .... Gold?

When did you last see a proper repair bill for damage to a car? 1976?

I hit a rabbit in my Ford Focus and it cost over £2k to fix it.

[Squiggs]

David87 said:

Squiggs said:

A £1K repair bill for 2 small dents and a scuff to an arch
What's your car made from .... Gold?

When did you last see a proper repair bill for damage to a car? 1976?

I hit a rabbit in my Ford Focus and it cost over £2k to fix it.

Today
I happen to be in the repair industry

Edited by Squiggs on Saturday 16th March 23:40