Neighbours powerhosing has covered our car

[ellie09]

Hi all

We live in terraced housing. Our neighbours don't drive, so we park our cars alongside outside the houses. Its worth noting that there are no assigned car park spaces etc.

Neighbours must have been out power hosing their garden and the pavement outside their house, and in doing so, have completely covered our car in dirt.

Its all over the side of the car, the roof, the bonnet. Not to mention we don't know if there is any damage with stones etc until the car has been cleaned.

AIBU to think that is costs nothing to simply ask us in advance to move our car if they plan on doing this?

We now need to go out and get the car washed at our own expense and pray there is no tiny stones have ruined the paintwork.

And before anyone asks, no, they aren't nice neighbours. The man who lives there is known in the past to have attacked people including hospital staff, so its not exactly a situation where we can start arguing at the door about it.

Its happened before, last summer.

Take pictures, with your car in situ, and any that show ‘evidence’ of where the mess came from, before you clean it off.
If there is damage, and I suspect it will be fine, speak to your insurers.

Your neighbours are arseholes, but try not to get too worked up u til you know if there is damage.

I would definitely not advise speaking to your insurers unless you want to claim from your own policy

Can't you just wash your own car for free?

A neighbour several doors down pressure washed the front of their house around the same time we were having some building work inside our house. We hadn't actually had any work done the day our immediate neighbour screeched at us that we had ruined their car after it had just been valeted. Moral of the story be certain who caused the mess before accusing anyone.

Not this week no, too much going on and it would cost almost as much buying all the stuff in to do it anyway

It is very annoying but you are parked on a public highway not your own private land. It's shitty of your neighbour not to prewarn you though. I would knock on and ask to borrow their jet wash to clean it off.

If there's any damage from stones there's no way this could be confirmed as being due to the neighbours power washing. You think driving 60-70mph on motorways or in traffic routinely doesn't kick up stones that damage the paintwork?

In an ideal world we would tell our neighbours about every bit of movement, activity, sound that we planned so to never inconvenience them. But alas.

I'd be annoyed but take it on the chin. If a dirty car once every 12 months from your supposed unhinged neighbour is the most you've had to contend with that's a win in my book.

All this

Id probably just get a life

I think this warrants some close up pictures of the affected car so we can truely assess who is BU.

'Completely covered in' to me screams of over the top exaggeration to a few dirt spots. Happy to be proven wrong since the evidence has yet to be cleaned away.

Me too.

you’ll never be able to prove that the stone where them and not you when driving somewhere.

Personally I would use the time it had taken to post, check and respond to clean my car instead.

Unless it is an enormous car, 15 minutes cleaning it would make a huge difference.

If they're nasty neighbours, are you sure that they aren't deliberately doing it just TO mess up your car? Even some people who don't drive and have a car to park themselves still get hyper entitled that the bit of the public road in front of their house belongs to them and nobody else is allowed to park there.

I'd just get the hose out tbh, or a watering can.

A quick hose down with a normal hose would probably remove the dirt. DP power hosed my mum’s front path a few years ago and her neighbour’s car was filthy afterwards. We did try to tell them we would be using the power hose but there was no answer from their house. I just connected a garden hose and sprayed the neighbour’s car and it was good as new.

I hate buying all the stuff to give my car a quick wash. Soap, water, a sponge, a bucket, towel. These are just things nobody could possibly already have in their house already!

A hose and some washing up liquid on a sponge is all that’s needed!

Can tell you've never jet-washed anything. Jetwashing our back steps covers the patio doors in a pretty solid layer of grit and filth all over, up to about 3ft high, and thats with us being careful not to aim anything solid at it.

Someone jetwashing something muckier and not giving a toss where they send the kicked up filth could coat the lower portions of one side of car easily and do a fair bit of damage (like 10 years worth of driving it down a gravel track, in one go).

All the stuff ? What happened to a bucket, a sponge, dollop of car wash, 2 old towels to dry/ buff ?
My car was obviously neglected when I had one, it was washed once a week and took 3/4 hour at a stretch.

That's ridiculous.

A bucket or large bowl, warm water, a dash of washing up liquid, an old sponge or towel and rinse it down.

Quicker than driving it to a car wash.

How did people get so helpless?

It’s a shame your neighbours are arseholes. This happened to us, although our car was parked on our driveway. The neighbour had a contractor in to power wash his drive. We lived on a hill so his drive was level with our car’s bonnet.

I came out and saw the state of the car - it looked like it had ben pebbledashed. I hadn’t even got to the end of saying “what the hell” when the contractor spotted what had happened and said he would come round and wash it for me. All sorted.