Neighbours ds scratched my car.

[ShirtRipper]

This happened yesterday, I saw it happen and I haven't been round yet for a few reasons.

My baby was asleep when it happened, hence not running down to mention it promptly. I only saw because the child in question was riding his bike in a wobbly manner around my car, no others were being circled, just mine.

I asked him to please be careful around my car, We haven't had it long. I think I may have jinxed him because a few moments later he collided with my rear drivers side door and now I have a very deep scratch that goes through all the layers of paint right down to below the primer and it is too deep to polish or t cut out. Immediately after this he took his bike home and went back in his house.

I do feel a bit intimidated about the idea of mentioning this to his mum, I wouldn't want him to be smacked or shouted at for what was a mistake, albeit a predictable one. I also don't want to cause any sort of friction.
I also want to try to avoid claiming through my insurance.

Any suggestions about what I should do?

So you have 2 options - pay for the repair yourself, say nothing to neighbours, and fume silently, or complain to neighbours and hope they offer to pay for damage. The kid knows what he did and will be expecting the knock on the door. Maybe he's already 'fessed up to his Mum? you told him to be careful, he didn't stop what he was doing, he caused some significant damage as a result - no-brainer for me - consequences.

Just to add, if my kid did that I would expect a call from neighbours, would PayPal and give my kid a serious talking to, maybe withhold treats/ pocket money etc and expect them to apologise to neighbour in person.

Not PAypal, pay up!

I'm with musomaths - if one of the dses did this, I would want to know, I would be exceedingly apologetic (as would the boy in question), and we would pay for the repairs, then get the ds to earn back that money.

Thank you for your replies Musomathsci and SDTGisAnOlympicWolefGenius.

My son threw a stick which hit a neighbour's car (by accident) and although there was no damage I took him round and made him own up and apologise, as a deterrent and to bring it home how he had to respect other people's property. If his parents are anything like me, they will be really apologetic and sort it out for you.

My ndn ex girlfriends dd scratched my car,I saw her doing it and she saw me watching through the window,I went round and asked them not to play on my drive and she never even apologised.
I would go round,you never know they might offer to pay.

My neighbour's (from hell!) kids were doing their usual throwing stones at each other in the street and they dinked opposite's car (I saw it happen). Opp came round and complained and NFH apologised profusely, saying she couldn't afford to pay for repair. Opp accepted it and walked off.

Less than a week later, same thing happened again. Again, I saw it happen. Opp went round again and this time scuttled off with his tail between his legs after being screamed at to F--- off!

They're still throwing stones and damaging cars - no one else will approach her because she goes psycho.

If you do go round, don't go without backup.