Child damages your car....

[rockits]

I'm going to ask my kids what they would do in that hypothetical situation to make sure my parenting has been up to scratch!

 

[Dukey28]

I had this with a kid going full pelt down a hill, only young and not been riding his bike long and forgot his brakes and decided to use my car door as a way of stopping, i was not happy as the door was brand new and had only been on 2 week! Parents were apologetic and offered to pay for the damage regardless of cost as the door was 2 week old, i got the quote, gave them it and then decided they would ask their family solicitor, which obviously told them legally they dont have to pay for anything thats what car insurance is for. They came back to me with a letter explaining that they are willing to pay for half of the bill after taking advice from their solicitor...
So just be cautious taking their word for it because they can change their mind overnight once they have seen the quote...

 

[E55BOF]

Just don’t know whether to just take it on the chin as it’s an innocent mistake by a child on a bike at the end of the day or hold the parents responsible.

Personally, if I were the parent I'd pay it, but I were brought up proper and I'm a BOF....

As the Americans say, sh!t happens. You can hold them responsible all you want, I'm afraid, but if they won't play ball then you will likely achieve nothing but falling out with them. What I would do is to get a quote and tell them, apologetically, (because it will probably be more than seems reasonable...) how much it is. If they go white and say: "How much? We're not paying that!", you will have to get the job done anyway, so do so.

Go back to them when it's done, and tell them it's been done. If they offer to pay some or all, fine; if not, grind your teeth and live with it, because at the end of the day it's only a car, and not worth souring relations over.

 

[E53AMG]

Get a reasonable price for the repair, ask him to meet you halfway. As a BOF, that to me sounds fair.

On the other hand, if he refuses outright and gets gobby, go back that night and smash all his windows.

Sounds like a nice balanced view from a BOF [emoji23]

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[rockits]

It is often times like these I use as a test to find out what people are like and quickly. You can find out quite a lot out about a person without months or years of wasted pain. Are they decent, do they care, can you rely on them in an emergency situation? Can you trust them....the list goes on. I have used this in business often now mostly to my detriment I might add! I just leave myself wide open and allow someone to take advantage if they want. There are SOME decent folk out there.

I did a load of work for now large recovery company years back mainly as a favour to one of the son directors. They were in a mess IT wise. I said I couldn't as was too busy but helped them out and spent a few days there sorting them out tons. Got them in a much better place. Sent in my invoice at nearly 50% rates to what I would have normally charged. He nearly fell off his chair....how much?! We pay half this for the current guy. What the current guy who is half the price and take 4 times longer or more to do a worse job?! Also is the reason you asked me to help. I said just pay what you want to pay or not I really don't care. I can;t work any more for you if you don't value the work. Not done anything for them since.

On the flip side did tons of work and maybe 4 years working for King.com setting up all their London office and much more. They never complained about one invoice or job and were very appreciative or what I did for them over the years. I just couldn't keep up with their mental rate of growth!

Trouble is I find it hard to be in between. I'm either A or Z. I have either got time for you or I haven't. If they don't play ball take it on the chin, move on and I'm sure they won't be on your xmas card list as it were. It is a 2 way street so when they need help it will be less forthcoming unless they do the right thing regardless of the cost. For me the cost is partially irrelevant. Your actions and how you are is more important to me.

 

[neilrr]

Can somebody pls. tell me what 'BOF' stands for?

 

[Peter103]

Can somebody pls. tell me what 'BOF' stands for?

Boring old Fart!

 

[Bellow]

Do whatever will leave you feeling best about your actions in years to come.
Pursuing a particular course of action purely on principle that you later look back on with regret is a false economy.

 

[MangoMan]

Is it reasonable to ask the parents to pay for the damage?

Absolutely!

 

[Londonscottish]

One of my neighbour's kids scratched the door on my car with the handlebar of her bike. She was a nice kid, they were good neighbours so I just shrugged and thought "life's too short".

At most I'd suggest taking half the cost of a smart repair as a gesture.

 

[Petrol Pete]

This could get messy. "In full view of our camera" ? so the child was either on your property or your camera is recording everything that is going on in a public place (the road) . How old is the child ? You are 'secretly' filming children without the consent of their parents or carers ? Do you have a sign up on your house stating what the CCTV footage is for ?

Sounds far fetched I know but all of this can be thrown at you by a canny lawyer. Yes I know their are 'millions' of cameras in private hands out there filming just about everything 24/7 , but despite this the filming of pretty much anything has a rule or law attached to it.

How many times have we heard 'CCTV evidence in-admissible in court case....' Etc ? It's unlikely to ever go that far but people who immediately say "we will pay for any damage" often don't realise how expensive fixing cars (properly) can be and soon regret saying it, and then egged on by their friends and the internet knock the ball in to your court by telling you to contact YOUR insurer.

I wish you the best, let us know how it goes

 

[MangoMan]

And just you wait until some of the BOF’s on here get wind of this incident “in my day they’d have got a thick ear” and “kids should be more respectful of people’s property” etc like they were all angels when they were young boys in the 1930’s...

It has nothing to do with being a "Boring Old Fart" as you so eloquently put it - it has to do with teaching one's child respect for other people's property, (which is severely lacking in these modern snowflake times).

And going by your unprovoked comment regarding having respect quite clearly shows that you were one of those that received a number of said "thich ears"!

 

[MangoMan]

This could get messy. "In full view of our camera" ? so the child was either on your property or your camera is recording everything that is going on in a public place (the road) . How old is the child ? You are 'secretly' filming children without the consent of their parents or carers ? Do you have a sign up on your house stating what the CCTV footage is for ?

Sounds far fetched I know but all of this can be thrown at you by a canny lawyer. Yes I know their are 'millions' of cameras in private hands out there filming just about everything 24/7 , but despite this the filming of pretty much anything has a rule or law attached to it.

How many times have we heard 'CCTV evidence in-admissible in court case....' Etc ? It's unlikely to ever go that far but people who immediately say "we will pay for any damage" often don't realise how expensive fixing cars (properly) can be and soon regret saying it, and then egged on by their friends and the internet knock the ball in to your court by telling you to contact YOUR insurer.

I wish you the best, let us know how it goes

If this is the case why do the Police ask for any such video evidence and use it to prosecute defendants??? And going even further, what about Dashcam footage, is that not used as evidence in court?

And your quote stating that CCTV Evidence is inadmissible is incorrect, it is used all the time!

 

[Deleted member 126251]

One of my neighbour's kids scratched the door on my car with the handlebar of her bike. She was a nice kid, they were good neighbours so I just shrugged and thought "life's too short".

At most I'd suggest taking half the cost of a smart repair as a gesture.

If they were "good neighbours", they would have offered to pay.

 

[Deleted member 37751]

It has nothing to do with being a "Boring Old Fart" as you so eloquently put it - it has to do with teaching one's child respect for other people's property

I know it’s probably a very long time ago, but did you never have an accident when you were a child? Maybe kicked a ball a bit too hard and it hit a neighbours window? Or are you one of those saints that did nothing wrong when you were a child?

And going by your unprovoked comment regarding having respect quite clearly shows that you were one of those that received a number of said "thich ears"!

Your assumption is wrong I’m afraid, no “thich” ear for me; I was brought brought up in a home where discipline, hard work and respect were taught from birth so I’ve never had the pleasure of being assaulted by a fully grown man when I was a bairn...

 

[clk320x]

I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect the parents to pay for the repair, but if they were in financial hardship/struggling then I wouldn’t ask for any sort of contribution.

 

[Crazyfool]

I had the same situation. Our neighbours at the other end of the close we’re going for a walk and their kids were on bikes. As they passed me I said hello and asked how they were, so they turned around. Unfortunately so did their son and as he headed back towards the house he lost control of his bike scratching the front wing of my car with his brake lever.

The parents were very apologetic and said they would pay for the repair, although I could see in his dads eyes the pound signs drowning his thoughts!

Anyhow I never got round to resolving the issue because of other problems like engine rebuilds, worn out shocks, etc,etc so eventually the car was part exed with the deep scratch still on it.

 

[kianok]

Thanks for the comments.

Had a quote today of £160 which seems a bit excessive.

Having slept on it and read the comments on here I’ve decided to leave it where it is as far as the neighbour is concerned.

Ive not told them that I’ve had a quote and I’ll leave it up to them to decide whether to follow it up or not.

I’ll call it a little test of their decency!

Don’t want to be seen as the mean man on the corner who punishes wobbly five year old cyclists!

 

[poormansporsche]

I came home from work a few months ago and there was a large dent on my garage door. I have a 20 foot sloping drive. Wife was adamant it wasn't her that did it but I was still suspicious

A few days later I saw one of my neighbours and they asked if everything was ok. I said fine, why's that ?

"Oh that kiddie that got taken away by ambulance the other day at your house"

WTF !!!!!

Upon further investigation with other neighbours it turns out the kiddie lived 30 doors down, was riding a bike lost control, shot down my drive, crashed into my garage, breaking his arm and fracturing his skull !

The wife wanted me to go round there but I thought it would be a bit petty considering the injuries.

Would have nice to have been told though !

 

[E53AMG]

I came home from work a few months ago and there was a large dent on my garage door. I have a 20 foot sloping drive. Wife was adamant it wasn't her that did it but I was still suspicious

A few days later I saw one of my neighbours and they asked if everything was ok. I said fine, why's that ?

"Oh that kiddie that got taken away by ambulance the other day at your house"

WTF !!!!!

Upon further investigation with other neighbours it turns out the kiddie lived 30 doors down, was riding a bike lost control, shot down my drive, crashed into my garage, breaking his arm and fracturing his skull !

The wife wanted me to go round there but I thought it would be a bit petty considering the injuries.

Would have nice to have been told though !

Pop round just to see how the little feller is doing, it will seem neighbourly and let them know you are aware of the incident....

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