Made a little chip in the paint on neighbour's car when I was reversing out! Gutted and not sure what I need to do next.

[Anendlessseriesofunfortunateevents]

I'm so gutted. 11 years of no claims on my car insurance. Today as I was slowly reversing out of my parking space I clipped my neighbours car when I was trying to check that a small passenger's mum had got their seatbelt on. 😢

I was going so slowly I didn't think there would be a mark but when I got home they pointed out a small paint chip right in the middle of the front of their car.

I've apologised and said to let me know how they want to proceed.

Went back out to the cars half later to take some photos and they've gone out so can't for now!

What do I need to do here? I've never had anything like this before as a driver.

I'm having a rough time emotionally in other areas of life and my anxiety is terrible. This feels like the icing on the cake but I know rationally that it's sortable.

I want it all to be sorted in a way me and neighbour are both happy with. And ideally doesn't cost me my no claims discount. But if it does, it does!

I agree, looks like a stone chip. Are they having you on?

i’d be reversing my car near to theirs in the same position as it was when you allegedly chipped it to see if any part of your car actually aligns with that chip. it looks like a stone did it. be interesting to see if any bit of your car has a scrape at the corresponding height.

I agree with the last couple of posts, but also, if a neighbour came to me saying they'd caused a chip that small, I'd be saying don't worry about it.

Very unconvinced that you have caused that tiny chip by hitting the car!

Oh god you've got me wondering now!

I had not even considered that it might be from something else.

I had actually spotted their other vehicle (which is very easy to spot) down a road that had been resurfaced with chips recently too. A stone chip hadnt even crossed my mind.

I will have a look again tomorrow in the daylight at the height of it, and the height of the outer parts of the back of my car.

We park with my car in front of theirs both facing the same direction so you parrellel park into the space and then do thee reverse I suppose to get out of that makes sense. Sometimes I have to do a bit of a two point sort of thing to get out if there's not much space as I have another car in front of mine which is the neighbours on the other side of my house. (We all have an assigned parking spot behind our houses.)

I've not pulled my rear cam footage yet to look at it but the damage is so small on size that I'm not sure if be able to see if it was there before then or not. I'll have a check though.

Definitely look at the camera but also think about the physics, how could a moving car make any kind of contact that results in only a tiny paint chip

Unless you've got some kind of retractable James Bond type mods exactly how could that have happened?

Local to me there's been quite a lot of hoohah about loose road chippings recently, that seems much more likely

That looks exactly like a stone chip - there's no way your car nudging it would have caused such a tiny chip like that, there would have been more of a scrape or a wider dent around it. Ask me how I know.

Do they actually have footage? I'm really struggling to understand how they think you caused something that is obviously not the result of a nudge from a car.

Settle it privately. I 'nudged' a car parked opposite the end of my drive - sensors are useless because they pick up the camber on the road anyway and visually there were deep shadows from the trees. It flexed the car wing and broke a clip behind it.

It cost me £10 for a new clip plus a bottle of wine and a box of chocolates. It did not damage neighbourly relations. Strangely, if anything, it improved them.