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

Or maybe they contacted the other neighbour first, who organised the painters in the first place, and they passed the buck to OP after four weeks?

My husband is a painter and Decorator, he has public liability insurance, which is what should have been used here. The painters should have dealt with the NDN, contacted their insurance who would have advised of the next steps (pics of damage, quotes to make good)
As you have absolutely no contacts or paperwork, I'm guessing you have got a dodgy firm to do the work. So really, in these circumstances, you should be responsible, you've had a cheap job at someone else's expense.

You need to get the details of the painters for him but I wouldn't be paying. That's their job, you didn't do the painting.

My neighbours had their car towed, the company knocked my wall down, not once did it occur to me to get the money off the neighbours, they didn't knock my wall down.

There is so much about this that is mental!

How on earth do you contract tradespeople to do a significant piece of work without their contact details? How did you know that they had public liability insurance? How did you pay their invoice? What would you have done if they had done a shit job or broken one of your windows?

Why would a neighbour wait for 1 month to mention that some painters had splashed the car with paint when it was on the public highway (albeit outside your house)? What evidence did he provide? Are there paint splashes all over the pavement, road, garden or whatever you have in front of your house?

If the painters doing the work on your property did splash his car, then that is for him and the painters to sort out. If the neighbour who recommended the painters won't hand over the details, you send Mr Car Splash to speak to that neighbour.

However, none of this really makes sense or sounds plausible to me. There must be missing facts.

If you paid your trader without receiving an invoice you were obviously trying to avoid paying tax/VAT. How/Why did you pay him without an invoice? Very dodgy.

I wouldn’t pay him £150. It’s not your fault and you have tried to trace the decorators who allegedly made the mess without success. And the fact that he has been so aggressive would make me even more determined not to pay him…. If his car had been hit while parked outside your house would he have wanted you to pay for that too?
As a gesture of good will I might be willing to pay him half but making it quite clear that I was not accepting any liability, that it isn’t your responsibility but you do have some sympathy with him.
Did he knock and show you the damage before he had the car polished?

Sounds like a cash in hand job, no questions asked. The problem with that being that if something does go wrong, then there's no chance of claiming on any insurance and problems like the one the OP is experiencing arise. In fact, it IS her fault, because she obviously hired a cash-in-hand painter/decorator without any insurance.

Of course it’s a big issue, he’s out £150, and you’re wondering why he’s annoyed? 😵‍💫

But being "civilised" clearly hadn’t got the car owners anywhere.

He waited 4 weeks to tell you?

Obviously the job was cheap and paid cash in hand so you’re not going to get any recourse from the decorator.
How you handle this is up to you, but he’s acted like a dick and there’s no evidence of any damage now 🤷‍♀️

And because they were paid cash it’s unlikely they’ll have public liability insurance 🤷‍♀️

Wow! Thank goodness you are not my neighbour! Fancy being proud of being a “petty bitch”.

I would have just paid the neighbour… yabu

Who takes 4 weeks to notice that their car has paint on it? I wouldn't give him a penny, even before the aggressive behaviour

Yal are crazy.. its the painters problem not yours. His car was parked on a public road outside your house it was not on your property so how it that your problem. Give him the painters number and get him to chase them for payment.

Not a chance I’d pay for damage I haven’t even witnessed!

If your husband is retired police he will know that this is actually a crime of criminal damage and your neighbour is well within his rights to report this to the police and have them attend your address. If you really (which I can't belive anyone would be silly enough not to) have no contact details at all for the company then I'd Pay him and shut up.

Have you seen e dance of the paint on his car? Just wondering if he's trying to get a freebie? Also £150 😱😳 that's pretty expensive

If her husband is a retired Police Officer he will know that evidence is required to support an allegation of criminal damage.

Even the shouty neighbour hasn’t accused OP or her husband personally of damaging his car.

I am sure that the police would have a much easier job if, when they could not find the actual perpetrator of an action, they could just pass on responsibility to the nearest householder.

This happened to me.

my builders got the next door neighbours car with the top coat of a flat roof products which goes solid. Looked like grey splattered paint. Needed a respray.

the builder was self employed under the main contractor. Turned out his didn’t have public liability insurance.

main contractor took the hit and claimed on his insurance because it’s right that the neighbour nor us were to be out of pocket.

why would you use tradesmen you knew nothing about? Utterly bizarre.

do the right thing OP - pay up. You made the bad decision to use random painters.

If the neighbour reported this to the police, which personally the petty person in me would be doing if you refused to give me the £150….i wonder if they’d realise you did a cash in hand job using your decorator because if legit you’d know who they were? That could come back to bite you so worth considering when you don’t pay the £150.

Absolutely agree with this

Don’t pay a thing. You didn’t spray his car. Tell him it’s the cousin of your neighbour who did the work and he can ask them for their details. Nothing more to be said. Not sure why he’s made it your problem. It’s not like you chucked a paintball at his car, is it?

I find throwing cash at a problem usually makes it go away.