stranger says his vehicle damaged by a tree in my garden - what??

[ventilatormum]

I live on a country lane. Room for only one car with pulling in places. found a letter on my doormat last night from a stranger saying a hollybush on my bank alongside the road hit his horse trailer (yes, that way round) on Saturday night and did damage and says it is my responsibility to pay.
The hollybush is mine. I do not think it is overhanging the road at all tho that is of course debatable. I have no idea at all if he hit the bush, if he damaged his horse trailer, if the whole thing is a complete scam, or what.

He does not say how much but says he is taking the trailer to a local garage to repair damage. He says it is the nearside damaged as he came up the lane which to me means he was too far to the right of the lane anyway, instead of in the centre, or was pulled in to let a car pass, silly, as there is a passing place further up, on the left in fact. There is no visible damage to the bush.
I have taken video footage coming up the lane today and cannot see how he could possibly have done the damage he claims unless he was going ridiculously fast and slammed into my bank where the bush is.
What would anyone advise doing? He put his phone number and e mail on the letter, which is typed.
I do not want to pay him a penny as I feel the whole thing is completely unprovable. Who would decide my hollybush is a hazard anyway? No one has ever mentioned it before.
Feel very intimidated actually.
So far I emailed him last night to say if he wished to discuss his letter (I did not say any more than that) then my e mail and phone were xyz.

Er no.
Ignore. Do not engage with him.

Ha ha ha ha !!

A stationary object damaged his moving vehicle? I seriously wouldn't engage with this absolute plank.

Unless you have an amazing self-propelling holly bush which jumped out into the road in front of him, then re-implanted itself in your garden, he is being a complete idiot.

Collision between stationary/permanently fixed object + moving vehicle = moving vehicle's fault.

Shame you've already given him your email/phone number - I would just have ignored the letter.

Go to the police with this. The person sounds very wrong. How can he be sure it was your tree in any case. He didn't stop & report what he says had happened. He must have travelled more metres than just those in front of your property duing his time with his horse trailer. The damage possible to have occurred to a horse trailler would have to be established and also a horse trailer is sure to go to places that are more agricultural so there must be many plants/trees he drives past. He has no proof of what happened other than his own words which would be laughed out of court

seconded - contact the police regarding harrassment.

unless you are growing a whomping willow, this is laughable. Guessing he was drunk and is now sober, but still stupid, and trying to think of a way of getting the damage paid for.

sounds like some kind of scam that you will only feed if you respond to him. Do not respond to any further messages from this person.

take the letter to the police station.

Definitely agree with the comments regarding getting the Police involved. Sounds like a chancer to me.

It would probably be a good idea to go out and take some photographs of the holly from several different angles, to make it clear that it is not obstructing the road.

Not sure at all why the police would get involved. It's clearly a civil matter and no offence has been committed.

I agree that it doesn't sound like your holly tree should be liable for someone driving in to it.

extortion is a criminal offence. A threat of violence has not been made but the poster says that the person claiming property damage writes the poster is responsible for the damage. I would go to the police in case this person is known to them and also to alert them in case of a harassment.

thank you so much for all of these. I was v upset when I got the letter late last night but in the cold light of day (and yes, I have taken photos) I am just going to ignore ignore and if he does come back to me take action as a number of you suggest. thank you!

It must be a scam, as if the "collision" was bad enough to damage the vehicle, then the tree would show signs of that and the OP says there's no visible damage.

this episode finished today ... after e mailing him last wed to give the man my contact details, he finally got in e mail contact with me today to say the issue was causing his Wife (V I P clearly) stress so he had decided to drop his claim.
Hurrah.

She probably is on MN and saw this thread and told him to stop being a plank! Glad you don't need to worry now.

yes his wife has probably been getting increasingly stressed about his weird bloody behaviour! lol

I wonder if there was some conversation along the lines of:

'oh, so you're the knob that other MNers think should be reported to the police for extortion/harassment/driving without due care and attention ... no, you're not god's gift to drivers, of course its 100% your bloody fault if you drive into a bush'

' No need to get stressy about it'

'I'm not 'stressy', I'm just sick of you behaving like a knob, you'll get in trouble one day if you don't accept responsibility for your driving mistakes. Now email the lady and apologise for wasting her time'.

' '

Weird! Glad it's sorted for you though.

I would have loved to see him explain how a non moving object caused damage to his moving vehicle without him being involved though