I love my neighbours NOT

[richie500]

My brakes on my Jeep TJ keep binding so i was planning to fit new calipers on Monday. I am very lucky (hard work) to have a double garage (man cave), however its crammed full of tools motorbikes and my baby (77 Vette). So in order to access all the tools i needed for the job I have to get the Vette out on the drive. I live at the bottom of a small cul de sac of 4 houses, we each have two parking spaces outside our houses which is accessed by a shared drive. Well yesterday I was very lucky/unlucky depending on how you look at it, I moved my vette out of my garage onto my drive shut the garage door, turned on my music in the garage and proceeded to get the tools together ( jack, brake bleeder axle stands etc) as i was getting all the tools together i came across an abrasive disc i had bought for cleaning the chassis of the jeep. Well i am easily distracted so i attached it to my 18v angle grinder and thought i would try it out. So i am at rear of my jeep trying out my new toy when i hear a loud crunch. I look up and my neighbours father has just reversed his bmw x1 over the front of my vette. I was absolutely mortified , I shouted out as it looked like he was just going to drive off. He got out of the car to inspect the damage to which i said how the hell can you do that you have got reversing beepers. His daughter came over to tell me to calm down as (as she put it "its not life and death") to which i replied this is a classic car and its going to be hard to match the paint. The father then had the cheek to say theres no damage to his car and he couldn't see any damage to mine. ( not only are you deef your blind as well i thought - should you be driving) I showed him the damage and then demanded his insurance details. His daughter kept saying calm down, knowing full well that i was very upset - ( i never swore or at any stage got confrontational or in his personal space ) I have trained in conflict management so i know being 6' - 4" and rather big it can be intimidating so i kept my distance at least 14' away so not to make him feel threatened. Well this particular neighbour (daughter) has annoyed me in the past, several years ago my new golf gt was legally parked on the road and her builder reversed his truck into my golf at such force it moved it 20' up the road ripping the whole left hand side off. So i told her its always something to do with you and your never sorry, your builder wrote off my golf and you never once said anything like sorry to hear about your car etc. and now your dad drives into my car God knows how? and was about to drive off. Well firstly she said it was nothing to do with her the builder crash to which i replied well common neighbourly curtesy you should have said something and gave an example of when my courier drove over a neighbours shrub and i straight away I went over to apologise to which she sarcastically said "good for you". well now i am done being a nice neighbour.
Most of my cars have been nice company cars, and in 20 years living here i would say my cars must have been hit more than a dozen times as scratches and scuffs would mysteriously appear, not once has any of my neighbours owned up.
So i know it was :
a) lucky i was there to witness it happen
b) lucky i wasn't under the car when it happened as it would have been life and death
c) unlucky i now have to find someone to repair it properly
So question time now if you have paid attention
Firstly I know i sound fussy but i want the front clip to be taken off before spraying as i don't want a spray line, does this sound unreasonable.
Secondly I was brought up to respect people, so if someone working for you damaged your neighbours property would you say something or totally ignore your neighbour as if nothing had happened
Thirdly is there anything i can do as this person is not a good driver etc. and next time it could be a child instead of a car.

 

[Chuffer]

Sue that bastards , I cannot tolerate people like that ! If it also happened on the public highway if your Vette was parked outside your house report it to the Police as they failed to provide insurance details . I admire your self control , I would have totally lost it ! . I worked in a young offernders institition and had training in dealing with violence and aggression . My approch to that subject is - " Don`t piss me off and I won`t get violent and agreesive " As for your Jeep , is it a Grand Cherokee ?
I have had several instances of binding brakes on mine . Eventually replaced front calipers . Also rear hand brake pads are renowned for the linings delaminating off the shoes and jamming up the drums . It happened to me and stopped the thing dead in its tracks despite V8 power !

 

[James Vette]

My brakes on my Jeep TJ keep binding so i was planning to fit new calipers on Monday. I am very lucky (hard work) to have a double garage (man cave), however its crammed full of tools motorbikes and my baby (77 Vette). So in order to access all the tools i needed for the job I have to get the Vette out on the drive. I live at the bottom of a small cul de sac of 4 houses, we each have two parking spaces outside our houses which is accessed by a shared drive. Well yesterday I was very lucky/unlucky depending on how you look at it, I moved my vette out of my garage onto my drive shut the garage door, turned on my music in the garage and proceeded to get the tools together ( jack, brake bleeder axle stands etc) as i was getting all the tools together i came across an abrasive disc i had bought for cleaning the chassis of the jeep. Well i am easily distracted so i attached it to my 18v angle grinder and thought i would try it out. So i am at rear of my jeep trying out my new toy when i hear a loud crunch. I look up and my neighbours father has just reversed his bmw x1 over the front of my vette. I was absolutely mortified , I shouted out as it looked like he was just going to drive off. He got out of the car to inspect the damage to which i said how the hell can you do that you have got reversing beepers. His daughter came over to tell me to calm down as (as she put it "its not life and death") to which i replied this is a classic car and its going to be hard to match the paint. The father then had the cheek to say theres no damage to his car and he couldn't see any damage to mine. ( not only are you deef your blind as well i thought - should you be driving) I showed him the damage and then demanded his insurance details. His daughter kept saying calm down, knowing full well that i was very upset - ( i never swore or at any stage got confrontational or in his personal space ) I have trained in conflict management so i know being 6' - 4" and rather big it can be intimidating so i kept my distance at least 14' away so not to make him feel threatened. Well this particular neighbour (daughter) has annoyed me in the past, several years ago my new golf gt was legally parked on the road and her builder reversed his truck into my golf at such force it moved it 20' up the road ripping the whole left hand side off. So i told her its always something to do with you and your never sorry, your builder wrote off my golf and you never once said anything like sorry to hear about your car etc. and now your dad drives into my car God knows how? and was about to drive off. Well firstly she said it was nothing to do with her the builder crash to which i replied well common neighbourly curtesy you should have said something and gave an example of when my courier drove over a neighbours shrub and i straight away I went over to apologise to which she sarcastically said "good for you". well now i am done being a nice neighbour.
Most of my cars have been nice company cars, and in 20 years living here i would say my cars must have been hit more than a dozen times as scratches and scuffs would mysteriously appear, not once has any of my neighbours owned up.
So i know it was :
a) lucky i was there to witness it happen
b) lucky i wasn't under the car when it happened as it would have been life and death
c) unlucky i now have to find someone to repair it properly
So question time now if you have paid attention
Firstly I know i sound fussy but i want the front clip to be taken off before spraying as i don't want a spray line, does this sound unreasonable.
Secondly I was brought up to respect people, so if someone working for you damaged your neighbours property would you say something or totally ignore your neighbour as if nothing had happened
Thirdly is there anything i can do as this person is not a good driver etc. and next time it could be a child instead of a car.

View attachment 13572

I'm sorry to hear about this especially on a sunday.

 

[Roscobbc]

When you say "drive over the front of your Vette" do you literally mean just that? - the image shown doesn't look as though a vehicle has gone over it? - front clip usually relates to complete front suspension & cross member, steering rack etc. Just trying to understand the damage.
Sue the people - well, you'll only do that if you don't get an acknowledgement from the neighbour relating to the incident. Presumably this was 'off the road' so contacting the police and perhaps mentioning that the driver of the BMW appeared possibly to have been drinking or under medication won't help. Small claims court for cost of repairs to your vehicle might be the best outcome.....?

 

[richie500]

Jeep is a 1997 wrangler (always wanted one as a kid) bought it because it was low mileage 44000 and was very cheap and easy to work on, so replacing the front calipers should be easy.
As for the vette, sorry i meant front bumper. The drive slopes slightly down so his rear end went over the top of the bumper pushing down the front end , just stoping short of the bonnet, I made a loud crunching noise when he went over it, it only looks like minor paint work no cracks, however i have not really checked over properly as i put the car straight back in the garage as i was too upset. I am now going to be installing cctv and if not too expensive putting up a couple of pop up posts.
20 years the nicest neighbour you could wish for, lending them tools/ladders etc, not starting my car before 10am , no revving up the engine on the drive, keep my garage doors shut when i have the radio on in the garage, I am done, i must have mug on my forehead, as my wife says they dont like us anyway why be nice....
Once it is resolved i will look into how i can report him as not seeing a bright white car on a sunny day and not hearing your reversing bleeper (it must have been screaming at him) so no excuse.

 

[James Vette]

Jeep is a 1997 wrangler (always wanted one as a kid) bought it because it was low mileage 44000 and was very cheap and easy to work on, so replacing the front calipers should be easy.
As for the vette, sorry i meant front bumper. The drive slopes slightly down so his rear end went over the top of the bumper pushing down the front end , just stoping short of the bonnet, I made a loud crunching noise when he went over it, it only looks like minor paint work no cracks, however i have not really checked over properly as i put the car straight back in the garage as i was too upset. I am now going to be installing cctv and if not too expensive putting up a couple of pop up posts.
20 years the nicest neighbour you could wish for, lending them tools/ladders etc, not starting my car before 10am , no revving up the engine on the drive, keep my garage doors shut when i have the radio on in the garage, I am done, i must have mug on my forehead, as my wife says they dont like us anyway why be nice....
Once it is resolved i will look into how i can report him as not seeing a bright white car on a sunny day and not hearing your reversing bleeper (it must have been screaming at him) so no excuse.

I'm sure the other neighbours appreciate you.

 

[richie500]

I'm sure the other neighbours appreciate you.

Unfortunately James they all drive Bmw's and Range Rovers and think their s**t don't smell and look down on me and my wife. However it just means i don't have to be nice to them anymore.

 

[Chuffer]

rimonious Unfortunately James they all drive Bmw's and Range Rovers and think their s**t don't smell and look down on me and my wife. However it just means i don't have to be nice to them anymore.

I wouldn`t waste my breath on the likes of them , I cannot stand people with an over inflated sense of their own importance . It cannot be a nice environment to live in though , surrounded by a***holes Just start the Vette up very early on Sundays , blast through the neighbourhood and stick two fingers up .
On a serious note , I am trying to understand the circumstances of your neighbour hitting your car . You said you have a shared drive and two parking bays outside your house , are the bays on the public highway or on your property ? Where we live the houses have shared drives and our side of the quiet cul de sac has parking bays in front of our houses but are part of the highway , not private property . If your Vette was on the highway it is a police matter , if on your property then go the Small Claims Court route as Roscobb suggested . Get a quote for the repairs , put it in writing to your neighbour explaining that you expect full recompense from him or you will put the matter in the hands of the Small Claims Court within 30 days of the date of the letter . That might frighten him into coughing up . If not you have civil law on your side so take him to court . Also contact Citizens Advice , they will advise you may well record it and give you a Case Number for referrence if it all gets acrimonious . Good luck and don`t give in !

 

[CaptainK]

As everyone else has said, sorry to hear about the crash. I can relate to you with your drive, as my driveway slopes downwards from the road to the garage. So when the Vette is parked on it then it does look like some silly bugger could drive over the bonnet quite easily. So most of the time I leave the nose sticking out over the top of the driveway so its more visible to people. I live at the end of a cul de sac, so no passing cars etc should be going by.

Good luck getting the car fixed and getting a result from the neighbours. But yeah, they sound like the kind of people you don't need to make friends with, so don't bother being the good neighbour with them.

 

[curious bystander]

Small Claims Court will take 18 months minimum and loads of faffing.
I know it's totally unfair, but if the damage is only superficial couldn't you get a matching rattle can from a decent car spares? I've done bits on mine and you can hardly see the join.

 

[Chuffer]

Small Claims Court will take 18 months minimum and loads of faffing.
I know it's totally unfair, but if the damage is only superficial couldn't you get a matching rattle can from a decent car spares? I've done bits on mine and you can hardly see the join.

So roll over and get shat on ???? Certainly not my way of doing things ! An eye for eye is my mantra , I like to treat other people fairly and with respect and expect nothing less in return .

 

[Redlevel]

I would have taken loads of photys and called the police if insurance details weren't forthcoming.
Even though its a shared and private road, its still public access and subject to the same rules as the main highway as my mate discovered when he was teaching his daughter to drive on the 'private' road outside his house here in our wee hamlet of 11 houses (unadopted by local authority) without her having a licence or insurance. It cost him 6 points and a £600 fine.
If private access roads are public accessible by visitors or residents, its regarded as a normal public access road, same as driving in large carparks and insurance covers it.

 

[Carlie@Howden]

So sorry to hear this has happened, I also have a neighbour like this, luckily only caused a small scuff which did buff out and a scratch on one of the alloys I take it with the talk of suing and small claims court that the Vette is SORN and uninsured?
If it is insured then obviously you have that choice and with a vehicle registration they should be able to locate his insurance fairly easily. If not, then a good panel beater and sprayer should be able to paint match - my uncle is over 20 years in the business and I've seen him hand mix colours to a perfect match before.
I know hindsight is a wonderful thing but as you are talking about future protection, it would be worth looking at laid up cover (no road risk) as this is a fraction of the price of full insurance and still covers for fire, theft and accidental damage. We can help with this cover if needed.

Hope you get it back to it's beautiful self.