Accidental damage?
 

A stone flew up from a lawnmower and hit my car today causing a dint and removing paint, where do I stand with this is it tough either live with it or sort my self or should they pay.
I did stop at the time and the guy was apologetic but said sorry accidents happen, so at that I removed myself before I lost my temper as was already fuming, I appreciate its a 13year old car and not perfect but it is very clean for its age, regardless of condition it's still damage caused by someone else's action accident or not so would home insurance cover it or something.
Any help/advise appreciated cheers

was it a neighbour's lawnmower or just passing someone who was mowing his lawn away from where you live. If it was a neighbour then maybe they could pay. Trying to get someone else to admit public liability is a bit tricky.......

Strictly they are liable for their actions but enforcing it is another matter....

Shaun

If it was caused by the local council work force they are liable and will pay up. If it's an individual cutting his grass then it is more difficult and as he said accidents happen.

Tough love,

i can just see you in vic meldrew mode going all anal over a stone chip. lol

its crap like this that puts insurance premiums through the roof.

did you suffer whiplash too?, need councelling for the trauma?,

claim for that too, :razz:

Be realistic, a 13 year old car with a stone chip lol, ffs the front of my car looks like a war zone.

Sorry, suck it up, accept for once in your life that accidents do happen and move on.

Mart :D

WTF ?

The guy isn't taking about insurance, someone has caused damage to his car, he's quite right to be annoyed.

:D

Funny, this is his last line of the original post...

"It's still damage caused by someone else's action accident or not so would home insurance cover it or something."

And as i said, Accidents happen, yes they really do! suck it in, accept it and move on.

Mart :)

He's trying to think of a way to save the guy money .. accident or not, why should he have to pay, isn't that the whole point of having insurance ?

The damage is objective, if this guy keeps his car immaculate and an accident caused by someone else damages it, then he's well within his rights to get them to fix it .. although in this case he doesn't stand a chance :D

:hjtwofing

Unlucky ,sorry

Witnessed?

Putting insurance policies up?? thats what you pay the premium for mart..... to be insured against people damaging your stuff....

Worked out just fine for that guy. That was a new car though.

I agree it's very annoying for you, but it was a genuine accident, and the chap wouldn't have dreamed of damaging your car on purpose when he set out to use his mower.

I'd either live with it as a little bit of rather unusual history for your car (quite a good tale for the pub in fact), or get one of these 'Chips Away' type firms to fix it if they can and move on.

We live in a world where the ambulance chasers who advertise repeatedly on the more obscure television channels have tried to convince everyone that there is no such thing as an accident without someone to blame, but in this case, it seems to me it's just that.

If you do still want to look at insurance, he may have a section in his home policy that's intended to pay out if, for example, one of his roof tiles slips off and lands on someone passing by, so he might have cover, but as others have said, it is rather hard to prove.

I'd better add, if you do claim against him, as it's damage to your car, you'll have to tell your car insurer and you'll almost certainly end up paying more for your premium next time, regardless of who was 'to blame'.

I often wonder who pays when I used to cut my grass and stones would fly into the road. Now I have an amazing mower that sucks everything up. And there are no more stones.

If when cutting the grass I damaged a car I would pay for it - I'd the owner was there.

The guy was apologetic and I'm not saying he should pay,or that I want to claim I was just curious I will have the work done as it sticks out like a sore thumb I was just asking the question.
And just to be clear this isn't some little tiny mark I'm being petty about its easily the size of a 50p smack bang in middle of the door.
To the guy with far to much of an opinion I do hope nothing ever happens to something you care about

lol, What did you expect? the community to rally round and agree wholeheartdly?

You asked for opinions, you got a broad spectrum, some you will disagree with, others you wont. Thats life,

re your last comment, been there and done that, New SH car run into by another driver, as soon as i saw the other partys claim form, i knew it would be NFN

I have a dented wing which will stay dented until i get rid of the car
Totally not my fault, but the cost of chasing the claim, and the excess involved and the inivitable on costs, its not worth it ...
It was an accident.

Mart :)

The right thing to do from the neighbour's point of view is to offer something towards fixing it imo. Especially as you seemed to be there when it happened. Well that's what I would have said if i had done it. Common decency really.

Bloody hell, every time I look at mine I find another dent from someone's door hitting mine, and I don't often park next to other cars!