Neighbour issue. What to do next?

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Hi ladies. We live in a quiet, short road. Around 30 houses, all which open straight onto the pavement. 7 months ago our neighbour was having his house painted. Ooh says I......let's ask them to do ours too. Price was agreed and off they went.
A couple of days later they were good to start. We chose the paint and off they set. Myself and my husband were out at work and returned to a lovely great paint job.
Around 4 weeks following this a neighbour from down the road knocked to say the painters had got paint sprinkles on his car (it was parked outside our house when the painting was done). The painters had clearly not covered the close cars with a cloth. We didn't have direct contact details for the painters but we were sure our NDN would as they had initially engaged them.
We asked NDN to get in touch with them or pass us their contact details.
NDN did none of these things despite us asking several times. Neighbour with the car got his car polished, removing the paint. He said it cost £150 and is looking for reimbursement of this from either the painters or ourselves.
On Sunday 'down the road' neighbour confronted DH, effing and jeffing and threatening him. Like zero to 100. Prior to this DH was going to offer to pay half as we can't get hold of the painters and NDN are definitely not going to help with contact. Anyway, down the road neighbour storms off threatening DH and allsorts. DH didn't react to his aggressive approach (retired police).
Planned to leave it a few days for him to calm down and pop over to resolve.
Just now I went to take the bins out and down the road neighbour is walking to our house with a glare. I ask him is he is OK? 'Not really' he growls. 'Just wait till I see your husband' and off he goes giving me the evils.
Whilst I don't feel threatened by the dick swinging, I am feeling huge resistance to helping him meet the cost of the car polish now. But equally I don't need this drama so close to my home.
Any suggestions for the next step?
Should we be the bigger person and pop the cash through his letter box or let the angry man stew in his juices?
Sorry no diagram

You might be right, but I don't think responsibility legally falls to someone else because the correct person cant be located.

Regardless of that though, everyone is right, not having their contact details is super shady and my bets guess is NDN has asked them not to pass the details on.

Exactly this.

Bullshit you don't know anything about the painters. How did you pay them?

Yes, you should compensate the neighbour who got his car spattered. Stop dilly-dallying about it. Ask to see proof of the cost of the polish and pay up. Then take it up with the painters.

Seriously some of these responses….

Firstly, why did it take car guy 4 weeks to tell you?
Secondly, why are you liable? You didn’t splash the paint the painters did ‘supposedly’
Thirdly, you didn’t see these paint splashes. So how do you know car guy isn’t trying it on?
Fourthly, IT IS NOT FOR YOU TO FIX! Being neighbourly does not extend to paying for something that is not your fault and you have not seen the so called paint splashes.

Are you going to pay for everything that neighbours say is your fault? If £150 is nothing can I say my head is hurting after reading this and can you pay me to go and have a head massage?!

I am all for keeping neighbourly relations but I will not be treated like a fool.

You should have told him from the off you were not at home when the work was done. You have asked NDN for the Painters contact details and they still haven’t given them to you. Their issue is with the tradesman not you. If he was still huffing & puffing at that point you could have used the example that if your car was parked in front of his house and it was damaged would he also pay up to fix the damage because the car was parked outside HIS house?! Funnily enough I bet his answer would be a big fat NO!

I would have also got someone to knock on NDN’s door pretending they liked the work done & if they could have the tradesman’s details but that’s just me using my brain to make the right people cough up & pay for the work car guy is claiming for.

That way it is no longer your problem & car guy can go & take it up with them. Neighbourly relations restored & you are not out of pocket for £150.

Seriously people just stand your ground unless you like being walked all over.

You've already fallen out with him.

Painters should have insurance for this sort of thing, surely you have some contact details for them?

It's not your fault or your problem, pass on the painters details if you find them but if not tell the car bloke 'you'll need to prove this in a small claims court for us to be able to pay'

No. Not me.

Wouldn't you have been pissed off if it was your car?

I would.

Pay the man. Then seek out the painters.

£150 isn't nothing to us but in the grand scheme of living in peace it's a small price to pay.
I get it that he is angry. Our bad. We don't realise he was so close to the end of his tether. He has been very understanding about the fact we don't have the contact details and NDN will not hand them over.
Apart from this we haven't had any contact with car guy in the 10 years we've lived here (we're down south).
We don't want the bad feeling so we'll pay up but not engage further due to him being shouty and sweary.
Big lesson learned.

I'm another who doesn't understand why you are even considering paying the car owner. It isn't your responsibility if the painter didn't take adequate precautions to protect his car. But why on earth did he take four weeks to speak to you about the damage? Unless he took photos immediately before and after the work was carried out, he has absolutely no proof that the damage was caused by your painters - it could have happened anywhere.

I'm also puzzled why you haven't got any details for the painter - surely he gave you an estimate, invoice, or payment details?

We don't want the bad feeling so we'll pay up but not engage further due to him being shouty and sweary.

£150 might be a lot of money to him and his family – it could be the difference between getting the weekly shop or not, or paying his energy bill. So if he was shouty and sweary it was probably because he was at the end of his tether.

I am considering paying up because I can't point him in the direction of the painters. My fault. Never envisioned NDN wouldn't be forthcoming with contact details.

Did you actually see the paint on his car before he got it removed?

Hang on, this was seven months ago?!!! Car Neighbour spoke to you four weeks after the painting was done, but you've let this drag on for over half a year? No wonder he's bloody furious!

OP do you seriously not know the details of painters YOU engaged to paint your house?

We don't have the contact details for the people who painted our house.

Thank you all for taking time to comment. Some of the comments have been really helpful and helped me decide what to do for the best next steps.
I'm away to work now and won't be returning to the post to comment but I appreciate you all.

Well this thread has certainly given me ideas for how to make a quick £150. My neighbours had the outside of their house painted a few weeks ago - I think I'll give them a knock and ask for £150 to get my car polished 😆😆😆

Couldn't you get the painters contact details by saying to your NDN that you're thinking of getting your lounge/hall/bedroom redecorated and you'd like to ask them for a quote?

It happened seven months ago though – if it was a scam, you'd think they'd have given up trying by now!

@Bookmark1111 But if it wasn't a scam, surely they wouldn't have waited four weeks to contact the OP. We don't even know if the OP or her husband ever got to see the damage.

There's something really off about this. I just don't believe that the OP has no idea who painted her house. It's normally more than one coat. It takes more than one day. She'd have spoken to them, or seen a van, and of course had to meet them to pay them.

Exactly this. A reasonable person would speak to the neighbours straight away and show them tje damage.

I'd be wanting to see his receipt for the poloshing work before paying anything.

She’s explained this loads of times. The NDN hired the painters to do the job on both houses and OP agreed to go halves with them. Turns out the painters are relatives of the NDN. OP didn’t hire them and most likely paid her share to the NDN. They probably came in a plain white van and if she spoke to them she wouldn’t have asked their name. She trusted the NDN to handle it. Very unwise with hindsight.

4 weeks following …. Is hardly a smoking gun. Seems fishy he waited that long.
if man wants money, needs photos of damage, receipts.