Neighbour not happy with us and wants us to pay for car damage

[abitmorepls]

Not me, but my partner. We moved into our new house 3 months ago, and our driveway is right next to our neighbour’s, separated by a small picket fence. Yesterday, my partner decided to wash his car for the first time since we moved here. We didn’t think much of it until our neighbour knocked on our door this morning, saying there were dirt and stone chips on the side of her car, and she thinks it’s from my partner using the pressure washer. We obviously apologised and offered to pay for her to get her car professionally cleaned or suggested that my partner could do it, but she said there’s paint damage from the stone chips and that a clean wouldn’t really help. My partner thinks it’ll be fine after a wash, but she was upset, not aggressive, but very upset, and asked why we didn’t let her know so she could have moved her car. Honestly, we didn’t realise it would be a problem, he used to wash his car all the time at our old house, and nothing like this ever happened. So, what should we do now? I feel caught in the middle.

Your dp has been silly - unfortunately- and unless you want up start off in your new home with a reputation as nightmare neighbours, disruptive & inconsiderate, you need to ask the neighbour to get detailed quotes for repair, and pay for that repair.

And next time it is important for your dp to think about what is sensible in the context of your new home, not what worked in the old home - they are different places.

Your neighbour is full of nonsense. Fgs, any car travelling at a reasonable speed is chucking up all kinds of gritty debris. Paint finish on cars is tough. Just ignore politely!

Why did he use a pressure washer so close to someone else’s car? If she will let you then get some T-Cut and see if it will buff out. If it won’t, then you’ll need to pay for it being painted.

´This.

👆

And surely if theres a little fence in between the cars that would bear the brunt of the flying boulders and act as a bit of a shield.

I wouldn't pay a penny op and just stick to no way its happened because of washing your car, but it is a bit tricky now, I missed that your berk of a DP has pretty much admitted it 😬

Pressure washing the wheel arches alone will have sent stone chips and grit fragments flying. She has a point, and she did say she would have moved her car if asked, but she wasn't.

I would say this is something you have to accept and either pay for or claim on your insurance. It's unfortunate, but one of those things.

Have you had a look at the damage and exactly where her car was when your DP was pressure washing his car? Is your driveway particularly stoned?

Unless he was directly blasting at stones in her cars direction then I don’t really see how damage like that could have occurred. As you have also identified, there is a picket fence between your driveways. Just how - even if he was blasting at stones directly - have they managed to also get through or over the fence and also then cause significant damage

Id want to examine the damage fully. Sounds potentially like she is blaming door dinks/chips from other car doors on the pressure washer

And its also a bit fishy that she said if hed have let her know she'd have moved it, but she must have seen him using it, so why not move it at the time?

It's highly likely that she's telling the truth. Anyone who's used a pressure washer knows it kicks pebbles and dirt everywhere. He should have warned her. Pay for the paint to be repaired and learn for next time. I'd be pretty pissed in her shoes tbh. Especially with the "prove it" comments. It's common sense tbh. And you don't want to start something with your neighbour when you've only just moved in. There's lots of ways she can retaliate that you can't prove was her either.

Isn’t that one of their uses?

OP I think she’s pulling a fast one, but you’re quite stuck!

This.
I think he would have noticed stones flying.
Does she want a repaint job🙄
Ask fof video proof otherwise ignore it.

Saying a picket fence would've absorbed a lot of the grit is ridiculous.
This was probably a purely decorative miniature picket fence, acting as a boundary between the two front driveways, rather than a substantial fence.
Of course the car next door would have been affected.

Using the pressure washer beside another car is likely to cause damage and a wash won’t fix it. It’s also possible her car was already damaged and she’s only just noticed. However, I can’t see how either of you are going to prove it either way.

If I knew I had done something that was likely to have caused the damage I was being accused of, I would apologise and pay to fix it.

Your partner needs to be more considerate in future.

Depends on how strong the washer is.

Yes mine is strong enough to flick up dirt and stones from the drive, so if you aimed it wrongly you could probably flick stuff onto someone elses car if it were in close proximity.

In fact when I pressure wash my drive my legs always get covered in dirt and get hit by bits of stones that are flicked up.

But TBH he would probably have to aim the pressure washer in a really silly way to get someone elses car with the stones. You'd have to be aiming it at the floor (maybe cleaning your own wheels) with the other car in very close proximity.

Unless he took the opportunity to say push some gravel back into the gap or clean the drive very close to the fence.

Have you or DH checked her car? Is the damage on the side he was on, or all around? If all around or on the other side too, I'd find it hard to believe because rocks don't normally turn corners.

Another one who wouldn't use a pressure washer next to someone elses car. Any door bell cameras that might have recorded what happened?

Husband used a pressure washer to clean the driveway moss off and there was loads of muck and dirt blasted up the front of the house...he had thankfully moved the cars off the drive. Never again, it took longer to clean the front of the house off afterwards than sort the drive out.

So it's possible with a picket fence zone dirt and bits of twigs, tiny stones have been blasted but have a look at the car and see for yourself. If there's dirt and stone chips only on the side by your fence then I would guess it is your husband. First step a good clean then assess any damage.

My partner thinks it’ll be fine after a wash Did he look at it? I wouldn’t be happy if my car was chipped because of a neighbour no matter what the circumstances and they only offered for it to be cleaned. I’d be asking for payment for a professional Valeter to assess the damage if I was your neighbour and if it’s damaged you need to pay for it to be fixed.

Your DP probably was careful not aim the washer at your front door or windows in case it caused damage. Of course it is likely to cause an issue if you use a pressure washer on a car parked next to another. For the same reason, he’d move your car to pressure washer the drive because it’s obviously going to kick up debris. Just pay and next time tell them in advance so they can move their car.

A pressure washer will damage nearby cars. He ought to pay. He ought to have moved his car away before washing or used a hosepipe

Would any one of you try your luck with a new neighbour in the hope you might get a free paint job for existing damage? Of course you wouldn't.

Pressure washers throw up all sorts & even tiny debris can do damage if you shoot it at speed. Completely thoughtless to do it close to someone else's vehicle. Dh has only ever pressure washed ours once but he moved it down to the road and around to where its well away from others to do so because of course all sorts of crap will spray around when you are doing it.

this.

Voting YABU meaning HE is BU because he was completely thoughtless, careless and inconsiderate. What a twat. He should apologise and arrange to pay for any damage without quibbling over it. Can he claim on his own insurance? I hope he is man enough to accept responsibility for being such an idiot.

Yabvu
MiL lives in a terrace and her numpty neighbour pressure washed his car when mine was there (ie less than 1m away), covering it in mud and crap. They even have a very low wall that should have caught some of it so no idea what he was doing!!