Neighbour splattering my car while washing their own

[Ghostoast]

I know this sounds petty, but my neighbour is a bit of a petty person who seems to do lots of little things to irritate me.
There's a family of 6 adults living next door, they have 4 cars, 1 parked on their drive and 3 elsewhere. We both park in a bit outside our houses, there's a diagram below.
Basically their cars surround my car, when i wash my car i use a bucket. My car is quite new and i take really good care of it. They've been washing their cars suddenly since lockdown and they use a hose and don't do it on their drive, they do it surrounding my car and my car is getting splattered with muddy water and it looks rubbish.
They do it as a family and run about being silly and I've seen them aim it at my car a few times. They've now washed them 3 times in 5 weeks and my car looks stupid as one side is filthy and one is clean and waxed.
I won't say anything, i imagine its partly on purpose, they're the type who do things like move their car very close to mine to wind me up, slam doors when my children make a sound outside, so its not worth the aggro.
But i just need to know I'm not being unreasonable and they're being idiots.
Btw i can't park elsewhere, I've got 3 toddlers and need to be next to the front door to get them in together.

(I'm reading it back now and I know sound petty )

Well, you can say that but I'm just recounting what I've seen. It's surely not surprising that somebody who spends a lot of money on a nice car would be more keen to look after it than somebody who buys a banger to get them from A to B.

I park next to nice cars when I can and I've never once had a door ding in this situation.

OP it would annoy me, but you’ll have to park it in your brain in the box for things that are not fixable. They may be doing it to annoy you and if you bring it up in any way, it might escalate.
@RabidChinchilla you sound very obsessed with your car. It looks like it causes more stress and worry than pleasure. It’s not your colleague’s fault that she parks close, she’s not to know you are needs all that extra space. Your own fault kicking off the leather bit with your shoe. Also just because it is a gravel yard doesn’t mean ppl can park all over the place, you still try to make best use of the space so everyone can fit in.

I’ve never understood why people wash cars. They get rained on and you can go through a car wash if they’re so dusty that you can’t see. You neighbour has probably done you a favour, your car most likely looks less silly now than it would be constantly being cleaned and waxed.

@RabidChinchilla what about women with children in expensive cars? I had a merc where the doors were just slightly awkward for doing car seats and I’d often accidentally hit cars/bushes/poles etc. In all fairness the paint was excellent and I never had any chips or scratches. I was still careful around other people’s cars because I’m not an arsehole but I didn’t think twice about whacking the door into a bush because I knew that it wouldn’t do any harm.

My car is waterproof.

No, you're not being petty but I'd definitely not do the same. Have a word or just ignore, they sound like people you don't want to get into petty war with.

Well my car is absolutely filthy becuase I don't give a toss and I'm lazy but I actually think OP has a point. If she takes the time to wax her car and make it look nice (not something I'd ever do personally) it's pretty shit of her neighbours to splatter it with muddy water. They sound like arseholes OP.

I wonder if they want to claim your parking space and think by being cunts you will think it's easier to find somewhere else to park than put up with it. I get that it's outside your house but that might not be of concern to them if, say, they are thinking about getting (yet) another vehicle.

YANBU

They sound annoying.
I would follow the advice of @Yellowsubmarinedreams hopefully they'll get the message!

This sounds annoying however I seriously doubt people are going to look at your car and think 'that car looks stupid, its shiny on one side and dirty on the other' and that is the only reason i think YABU.

RabidChinchilla what about women with children in expensive cars?

Sorry, I was generalising a bit.

However, I frequently pop out at lunchtime with colleagues to get a sandwich. Many of the salesmen have nice cars (BMW, Audi, etc) and I notice they are picky where they park when possible. However, many of my friends don't give a shit and will happily rest their door on the car next to them thinking it's ok as they're not bashing it. However, even this can dent a car easily unless you're super careful.

Ages ago I had a kid open a door into my brand new A45. I politely mentioned it to the mum and she smiled and said "oh, I've told him but he's still learning". When I asked for her insurance details her demeanour changed entirely - she should've used the child locks and I dread to think how many people have returned to find dented cars after her parking next to them.

Agreed @RabidChinchilla. Everything I drive looks like it's been off roading, either because it has or because servicing is about the only time they are cleaned. But I do always pick new expensive cars to park next to when I can. Dents and scratches are completely different to dirt.

Exception is an ancient defender, a woman once banged her door into it and left a tiny bit of paint on my door, but made a reasonable dent in her own. Of course that was my fault for having a large car parked well between the lines and straight in a space, not hers just because she couldn't park her tiny car straight or get out without slamming the door wide open.

You sound very obsessed with your car. It looks like it causes more stress and worry than pleasure.

I'm not obsessed, I just look after my car. Would you want somebody carelessly bashing a door into something that cost you £50k?

It’s not your colleague’s fault that she parks close, she’s not to know you are needs all that extra space. Also just because it is a gravel yard doesn’t mean ppl can park all over the place, you still try to make best use of the space so everyone can fit in.

You must've missed the bit where I said there's enough space for everybody to take up several spaces (car park is rarely more than half full) and that I'd already had a polite word with her.

Anybody who says they wouldn't be annoyed about spending up to £600 to remove a dent (worst case scenario) is quite honestly full of shit.

Exception is an ancient defender, a woman once banged her door into it and left a tiny bit of paint on my door, but made a reasonable dent in her own.

Defenders are absolutely indestructible! One of the few vehicles that actually look at home with a few dents on them.

I wonder if they want your parking space.

I would buy a car cover and just leave it on when I'm not using the car. I would also do as a pp suggested and ask them to give you a heads up next time they are about to wash their cars so that you can move yours.

And a wash mitt (£5 from Halfords) is infinitely better than a sponge. A wash mitt with long microfibre strands/pile will absorb the bits of grit between squeezing the mitt out into your rinsing bucket. A sponge traps bits of grit against the paint (nowhere for them to go) and you then scrub them across your nice paintwork like sandpaper.
Honestly never thought of that @RabidChinchilla need to buy a mitt now! Always wondered where some of the tiny scratches/marks came from. Sponge is going in the bin!

I wonder if they want your parking space

I would buy a car cover and just leave it on when I'm not using the car. I would also do as a pp suggested and ask them to give you a heads up next time they are about to wash their cars so that you can move yours

They definitely want the space, before i moved here years ago everyone in the neighbourhood used to park in all four of these spaces and it was just a case of first come first served. But as the people next door acquired more cars (at one point they had 6) they played musical cars and moved them about so that nobody else could take the 3 spaces off them. So petty! We live down a lovely road and everyone has drives, they themselves have a garage but they don't use it. Also they do actually have too many cars, as only 2 adults drive, so i think 4 cars is mad.
I think you're right and asking for them to give me a heads up is the best idea.

To the people who think I'm paranoid or bored... The daughter next door calls me "skinny bitch", i hear her over the fence, she's about 30 too and i lost 2 stone recently due to illness. They walk their dogs on my front lawn for them to wee on. They stay out smoking and drinking playing music on their phones and talking on speakerphone till midnight. They do a running commentary on Thursday nights and shame anyone who doesn't come out at 8pm to clap. They are dickheads.
The reason the car upsets me is because i tend to wash and wax it 2 monthly, i have bad arthritis and its a bloody hard job but i can't go through a car wash as my son is autistic and would freak out. I like my car to be clean and shiny, and i really don't think it should be getting ruined every 2 weeks.

Anyway, I'm just going to ask them to give me a heads up, thanks all

i hope they will be understanding.

No you’re not petty. My neighbour does this on purpose. He waits until we wash our cars which we do with bucket and hose being careful not to get any water on neighbours cars. He then comes out with a jet spray and makes sure he sprays across the roof of his van and car so it goes all over our car. I used to sometimes move our car up the road until he finished but recently I actually went out and asked him not to spray our car as we just cleaned it (of course very politely). He glared at me with hatred but he’s eased off a bit from making it obvious. He does it to his other neighbour too but they haven’t got the guts to say anything. Having said that my husband would prefer me not to say anything. He’s done other things too…one day he had a dust sheet full of plastering dust and came out to shake it vigorously right next to our car. He did that a couple of times until I did something similar. He’s essentially a bully but he knows I stick up for myself.

I don't know what's worse
The wankers who do this or the wankers defending it

As we're nearly two years after the OP posted, hopefully the neighbours have been removed somehow

You don’t sound petty. You sound like you’re being bullied by some horrible people. They’re probably hoping you complain so that they have (in their minds) an excuse to escalate and eg key your car which they’re obviously jealous of. They’re probably also trying to bully you away from the parking space so they have extra room.

Apart from showing a complete lack of concern and hoping they eventually get bored of this, I don’t think there’s much you can do as any reaction is likely to make it worse :(