To expect Mum to pay up after 4YO child scratched every panel on our car

[LupoLoopy]

Context: My wife works at a nursery school as an assistant.. Her car was parked in the staff car park, which the kids egress though when they leave, under parental supervision.

During lunch time pick-up, one of the departing 4 year old's took a rock and scratched every panel and light fixture on her car, all whilst his Mum was standing within 6M of the car, chatting to a friend.

The incident was captured on CCTV.

The cost of a proper repair is so close to the value of the car, I fear it being written off, which is something we could afford but would hurt us a lot financially.

Although the damage is only cosmetic, the car was pristine before the incident (I'm a fussy sod who takes good care of his stuff) and I don't see why we should tolerate driving a 'shed' around 'for the children'.

We're trying to seek restitution from the School's insurance (if it will cover it) but to cover our butts, we've reported the incident to the police (so and official record exists) and reported it to our insurer.

If we have to use our car insurance AND we're fortunate enough to not have the car written off, it's going to tank my partners insurance premiums.

Frankly, I want to encourage the police to be fully involved and start proceedings immediately for civil action via the small claims court. I just dont think I can have confidence that Mum is going to be wired in the same way I am - i.e. it's her liability and don't see why we should be financially crippled by her parental inattention.

AIBU?

I don't think it's reasonable to expect people to drive around in shit cars just in case some little shit takes a rock to it.

BonnieBackJefferson I do love when people only see part of a post... did you not see the "seemingly few seconds...

I am not under playing anything, haven't even remotely even suggested this, other than I could understand how this could have happened, as Ds's collection point is in the teachers car park!

Just curious as to how the school's insurance would pay for this? The school is not to blame.

why are children in the staff car park anyway?

without seeing pictures, you have would normally have some options depending on the severity of the damage. I doubt a 4 year old had enough strength to require any panels being replaced so i doubt that will be necessary. a full respray would only be necessary if they have gone really deep with the scratches. There are companies that can fix scratches and some of the specialist car detailing places can work wonders.

but why worry about any of it, leave it for your insurance company to deal with. youve already told them about it so let them deal with it. if they can recover the costs off the mum then let them, if they can't, your insurance premium will take a hit.

it would be worth yourself getting a few prices for full respray, scratchaway type companies and a good detailing so you can make an informed decision about what to do in case of a possible write off and if its worth buying it back or not. the insurance company will base their decision on a full respray probably, but you might be able to fix it a lot cheaper

I was quoted £2k minimum for a full body (scratches to every panel) respray by a smart garage to my flat red Mini Cooper.

A bigger car? Metallic? Pearl? I can well believe it to be £5-8k

The mother absolutely needs pay and claim on her home insurance

I can't believe people are defending this mum!

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news There is no way a small claims court will award you more than the insurance excess and you would be lucky to get that.This is the reason you have insurance!

Redtoothbrush
The 4 year wont be liable but the mother is because , she should have been supervising him.
I insurance company paid out because my dd scratched a car with her bike . My ds was ahead of her, but she was a little way in front of me. She stopped to let the car owner by and the bike fell scratching the car.

@MsJamieFraiser - It's still criminal damage whether a child did it or not. But the parent is held responsible by law, not the child.

I agree that morally the mum is liable here as she was responsible for the child at the time (how can she have been standing 6m away and not even have noticed?), but I'm not sure where you stand legally. Also practically you may have to accept that she may well not have the money to pay immediately in one lump sump or even at all. I suspect you may have to hope that someone's insurance pays out (maybe her personal liability insurance on her contents insurance)? I doubt that the damage will be as much as 8k though. DB had 3 panels badly damaged a couple of years ago after another car hit him (and it wasn't a cheap car) and the repair bill was about 2k. I suspect you are looking at more like £5k but obviously that's still a lot of money.

I don't personally think the nursery insurance should pay. The incident was no fault of theirs that I can tell.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news There is no way a small claims court will award you more than the insurance excess and you would be lucky to get that.This is the reason you have insurance!

is this a legally qualified opinion? because it doesnt seem right to me. even if it is correct, the insurance company would then also sue for the amount they paid out

I wish there was a 'like' button on here - RedToothBrush I completely agree

A long time ago my 2yo pearlescent golf was vandalised - every panel except the roof and bumpers was keyed. Respray quote was 3k 10 yrs ago.

Chips away wouldn't touch it. I just filled it the scratches with filler, then used VW touch up paint and lived with it. Cost me a fortune though when I traded it in as it was otherwise a very well looked after car.

I don't have a car anymore but WTF should people not be allowed to have a nice car in case other people damage it and shock horror are expected to bear the costs of their i attention/actions.

I just can't get over how much damage the child odd without the mother noticing!

Solvendie
Redtoothbrush is talking nonsense

@Redtoothbrush - Sorry you got that vibe from my posts. To be fair, I posted multiple times that I know the child isn't morally or criminally responsible, but I guess you must have skimmed past those posts? There are a lot of comments.

Well, as for 'my attitude towards my wife'? Well, maybe I'm coming off a bit harsh in the heat of the moment. I certainly wouldn't ever even ask her to leave the job (let alone demand as you seem to be thinking) because of car woes alone, that's for sure. That said, it's already something we were discussing anyway, by her choice and I think the outcome of this incident is relevant, as it's part of the 'cost of employment' analysis.

She's finding the long commute grueling and looking at her take home pay vs petrol costs. Now if we have to allow for vandalism risk on top, the numbers need looking at. This is another part of an ongoing conversation she's having with me (off her own bat).

I can understand why you are angry with the Mum but surely the best way forward is to claim on your insurance then leave your insurance company to pursue her. They should know what if any liability she has, leave it to them.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news There is no way a small claims court will award you more than the insurance excess and you would be lucky to get that. This is the reason you have insurance!
Why just the excess? Either she's liable or she isn't.
Although if he's paid an excess then obviously the insurer dealt with the write off or repair and the insurers would be reimbursed for what they paid. The op wouldn't get a total loss payment from insurer and repair costs as that would be double recovery.

Wow. Shocked that damage could be £8,000 for scratches. I had to get bonnet and hatchback door resprayed on a six year old Audi A3, the old paint had started peeling off in patches so needed sanding down first, pearlescent paint, and it cost about £300 five years ago. And looked perfect.
Admittedly my family is in car trade so we know who to ask but that was still not far off of price to public.
Do think you'll get huge variations in cost depending on where you go and smaller garages won't necessarily be worse quality.

YANBU

And cosmetic scratches can easily reach several thousand pounds bitter experience My DH recently collided with a deer which damaged 2 panels on my car and the bonnet. The re spray plus new grille was 6k. And I lost my NCB.

Bruffin I don't think so - I think redToothbrush has a reasonable take on it. We pay insurance because shit happens. We may not like that someone hasn't supervised their 4 year old but it happens.

Lupoloopy has rather a large (and superior) say over their partner's choice of job.

Hi OP, what a rubbish situation to be in. I feel your pain re: the damage- if the scratches won't buff out and the paint is metallic the the whole panel has to be sanded down and re-sprayed. Even if you came to an out-of-insurance settlement and had the work done privately you would be looking at an absolute minimum of £250 per bumper, £300+ per door (personal experience but even that was a few years ago now) plus however much it costs to hire a car as many small body shops who are more competitive price wise just don't have courtesy cars to offer.

If you do go to small claims and win, yet the mum cries poverty, she will be made to arrange a payment plan so you would get the money, just a case of when (again, personal experience but a different scenario, won a small claims case but was drip fed the award 😡)
Let us know how you get on.

You can drive around in whatever car you like

But yeah, in my opinion you're bonkers if your paintwork is worth more than an around-the-world cruise. It's just silly. Cars are practical machines.

Solvedene, the mother is liable. I was involved in a similar case and my case was an accident,