Scraped the neighbours car - WWYD

[PamperGoals2024]

We have a car park. For some reason today as I pulled out I scraped the neighbours car. I heard contact and got out to have a look.

Their car appeared to have a scuff on it. When I checked my car I thought there was no mark but then I saw my whole hub cap had red paint all over it. That has all come off with composite polish but there is one mark on the metal part of my tyre. That's clearly the part that has caused the scuff.

I checked the scuff on their car and it looks black. I've taken their paint off. I'm quite friendly with the garage and they said that would be around £60-£80.

In the same sentence they said see if they say anything, we won't judge you! I know what I'm probably going to do but just wanted to see what others would do.

YABU - tell the neighbour
YANBU - leave it

Tell them and pay for the damage. Not to do that when it was entirely your fault would be a dick move.

Yes. Fess up. It would be worse if they did notice and ask you. They might shrug it off but it ought to be their decision.

Of course, you own up!

Really scummy not to tell them. Even if I loathed my neighbors and was confident of "getting away with it", I'd let them know and pay up. I'm surprised you'd even admit to considering otherwise.

Do any neighbours have ring doorbells or cctv. We have our property covered including cars so we would be able to see what you had done. Far better to own up than have someone share what they’d seen with the neighbours. Plus honesty, morality etc.

Can't believe you need to ask.

Yes tell them and pay up - accidents happen but only a real dick would just walk away

Own up. Why do you need to ask? You damaged someone else’s property so apologise and make it right.

I'd tell them and pay, and I can't stand my neighbours.

€60 - €80 to fix the scratch on your neighbours car?

Someone scratched my bumper and it cost over €1000 to get it resprayed.

Anyway getting back to the thread, if I'm being really hand on heart honest, if there was no chance of them ever finding out it was me, I'd say nothing. I think most people would say nothing too if they thought they could get away with it.

Of course you tell them! We scraped our neighbour’s car a couple of years back - didn’t cross our minds not to fess up.

Pretty typical in my experience of shitty people that they assume everyone else is also shitty. Makes them feel better about their own shittiness.

Of course you own up to it OP. I've had my car scuffed several times in my work car park as the spaces are tiny and awkward - there's no CCTV so people could easily get away with it, but every single time it's happened a note has been left. I've never taken them up on the offer to fix it because my car is 15 years old and I don't care, but people generally own up to it I think, it's the right thing to do.

Not confessing and putting things right is literally the very definition of shitting on your own doorstep!

Of course you tell them, it's a non decision. You've damaged their car you take responsibility.

Tell them! Our neighbours kid scuffed my car, and then hid his own car presumably so I wouldn't put two and two together. Didn't take me long to spot his car and leave them a note! I was furious, it'll be fairly easy to work out in a car park as well.

The flip side of that is the marks polished out of my car so I didn't ask the neighbour for anything, but I did make a point about being annoyed he hadn't come to me about it.

Why would you even consider not telling them?
Surely you do that before getting a quote?

Just apologise and offer to have it fixed.

Are they big and scary?

Unless it’s a tiny scratch it’ll be more than £80. If I was your neighbour, I’d be more annoyed if I noticed it and you hadn’t told me, than if you just told me. The lying would actually make me furious!

Tell them, and remember they may not choose to use your friend to fix it, so obviously this would cost more as that is very cheap!

To be clear, I've never damaged anyones car.

But my car has been scratched several times over the last 20yrs and no one has ever owned up. Same for alot of my friends. I've also seen people full on crashing into people's cars in car parks and driving off.

It's easy to say you'd do the right thing but 20yrs of experience has thought me that most people don't.

No one is going to tell you to say nothing.

Theres only one course of action and that’s to do the decent thing.

Just let your insurers sort if out. Someone reversed into my car whilst I was visiting a friend and said they would like me to get a quote but on looking at my car I knew if would be an expensive fix so rang my insurers even though he did not want me to. So glad I did it took four weeks waiting for parts including a new door to get the repair done so I needed a hire car and the final bill was nearly £10k.

Tell them. If you don’t and they find out (doorbell cameras etc may have seen it) and report it to their insurance you could be in trouble.

I almost had my insurance cancelled last year because someone had reported my vehicle having hit theirs and done damage in a head on collision. So I got a letter from my insurance company saying they were cancelling my insurance as I hadn’t informed them. I hadn’t had an accident and it was miles away from where I live so ended up having to chase various different people, submit evidence that my vehicle wasn’t damaged etc etc. It turned out the description of the vehicle involved was nothing like mine so they dropped it and my insurance wasn’t cancelled but it was quite stressful. No idea if someone had written the number plate down incorrectly when claiming, if my plate had been cloned or if it was a scam.

Oh come on their paint was on your car, of course you say something.