to ask neighbour for payment to fix my car?

[youarekidding]

I genuinely have no idea if IABU or not - please help!

Neighbours bought house off plan - never lived there and now it's sold. Have not met them for this reason.

Now - you may have noticed! - it's been very windy the past 2 days. Neighbours fence has come lose and this morning it blew off chipping my windscreen and scratching my car.

Windscreen fixed free (autoglass type deal) and doesn't affect NCB so not a problem. Thing is the scratch will rust if not fixed and I do not want to claim on my insurance if possible. I cannot afford to fix it.

Now - my car has it MOT due next month and if it's really expensive to fix I may not keep it.

So AIBU to contact my neighbour through the agent (I would drop a note through the door but do not think they and haven't seen then enter the property so may not get it) explaining the situation and asking them that IF the car passes the MOT and stays on the road that they pay to get the scratch fixed.

So far suggestions from friends have been:

1. get them to pay for scratch. If car goes use the cash for something else.
2. get them to pay for the scratch and fix it because it may start to rust and car may be kept on the road.

Neither of these sit comfortably with me.

TIA.

If you put your car in for its MOT early and it fails, the old one is still valid until it expires, so it won't instantly put your car off the road. It just gives you longer to work out what to do about it.

I'm not sure whether that applies to a dangerous fail, but if it was dangerous, you really wouldn't want to be driving your DC around in it anyway, would you?

You can MOT your car a month ahead of when it's due, that's true - good idea zonkedout.

I'm not convinced you can drive your car if it fails an early MOT, not now it is all computerised. I couldn't find any proof of this though.

Ok, seems like it is a grey area. From a blog where they investigated exactly this question:

Although you?re not breaking the law by not having an MOT (because your old certificate is still valid, remember) you could be prosecuted for driving a defective vehicle, if stopped by the police.

Whether it?s a broken lightbulb or brake failure, you?d be guilty of driving a car that has known faults.

So, your best bet is to get it fixed ASAP and not to drive it in the meantime.

A VOSA spokesperson confirms: ?Should you present your vehicle early and the vehicle fails the test, your original certificate still remains valid until its expiry date.

"But this does not mean that you are entitled to continue to use a defective vehicle.

?However, once the defects are repaired you can continue to use the vehicle until either it is retested or the original test certificate expires.

"Remember a current test certificate does not allow continued use of a defective vehicle on a public road.?

this happened a friend with a roof and their car, but it came off their house insurance. i know a fence is different but maybe their house insurance would pay?

JUST A QUITE UPDATE AS IT'S A LOVELY ONE

As you may all know it's been a tad windy for a few days (and still is!).

My neighbours visited their house today to check fencing as the agents had passed on my message that it had blown down and chipped the paint on the car. I'd simply said to agents what had happened and could they ask their clients to sort fence as wind forecast was not good.

So anyway, I had a friend round and the intercom goes for the 100th time today and I thought it was the kids again!

I let them in and then the doorbell goes - the kids usually just wade in!

My neighbours were there with a bottle on wine, some chocolates and their cheque book asking how much damage to the car was. I explained it was probably superficial and I was just going to do a Halfords Paint jobby for £15 maximum but I would wait until MOT in July. He wanted to give me the money and let me have it for paint job or to keep if I didn't keep the car.

I politely declined but they really wanted to pay for it so I have said I'd contact the agents when MOT is complete. (I probably won't tbh).

They were so nice and apologetic, turns out they are selling the house because the DH got reloctaed for work and is now staying where he was relocated as better money, good office, collegues etc.

It's made me feel a bit guilty about starting this thread - It was mostly because of the repeated fencing issues - as they've been so nice.

Thanks for all the lovely advice and replies.