Neighbors, Neighbors, Neighbors!!!

M

mini1

New member
They are driving me crazy! I mobile detail in many condo/FL housing boom (built close together cookie-cutter look-a-like) developments and the neighbors are really starting to make me mad. Its like they are jealous of the person who I am detailing for! They seem to go out of the way to be a jack-a$$ to me. I don't even know these people and they are rude, arrogant and often times seem to be out for blood over stupid little things.



Today, I was in a cookie-cutter development. There is NO place to park off the street. The streets are narrow. I pull my car nearest my clients house on a public street. 10 minutes the neighbor from across the street opens her garage, starts her car, throws it in reverse (without looking AT ALL!) and slams into the side of my car. I saw the entire thing from inside my clients car. She smashed in my front quarter panel and took a whole bunch of paint off....just missing my wheel/tire (thankfully). She stops and jumps out of the car exclaiming that "she didn't even see my [big huge sedan] sitting there". She did offer to pay for all the repairs in cash. I have a feeling, based on the look of her car, that she couldn't afford to make another insurance claim and I don't want any accident history on my car (which there is none to date). Now I have to waste my time getting this fixed, then chase her down for money and my factory paint job is toast!! Nice!



So after that happens, I hope in my car and back it up. This time I put it where nobody can T-bone back into it. I pulled 2 feet onto the grass to get off the road. 2 hours goes by and no problems. Then the neighbor on the other side comes home and he gets of his car and starts yelling at me (never met him in my life) for being 2 feet on 'his' property with one of my wheels. He didn't ask nicely for me to move, he was irate from the 1st minute. I told him 5 times that there was nowhere to park, where would you like to me to park? He just started yelling obscenities at me. Little did his dumb a$$ know that there is a public right of way at least 10 feet back from the edge of road and was not on his property. I just got in the car and moved it to other side to shut him up. Sometimes I just do not understand people. Did he think that yelling at me to move was going to end well?



This is by far the most problems I have ever had in one day with the neighbors of any neighborhood.



Has this happened to any of you other fellow mobile detailers?
 
doode i wouldnt stand this, i would of done something but w/e, btw she will not pay you, you should of took some pics and called the cops, say bye bye, next time she will say that nothing had happened and she doesn't know what your talking about, also she will call cops on you and that's it. don't trust her and get the money right away.
 
sacdetailing said:
doode i wouldnt stand this, i would of done something but w/e, btw she will not pay you, you should of took some pics and called the cops, say bye bye, next time she will say that nothing had happened and she doesn't know what your talking about, also she will call cops on you and that's it. don't trust her and get the money right away.
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^^^^^^agree
 
Sucks though and I feel for you. Good luck getting paid seeing that you have no proof this lady hit your car. It's your word against her's. Always call the Police when an accident happens as they document the occurance and will give the other person's info (exchange of information). What kind of setup do you have? Truck/trailer?
 
Here is an update and answer to your questions.

I got 2 estimates yesterday on fixing my car. I went out to this lady's house and presented both of them. She admitted several times this was her fault but kept throwing out the phrase 'you shouldn't have been parked there'. I just shrugged it off, not wanting to start another fight. She was not happy with the $750 (lowest estimate) price tag to fix my car, but I kept her under control. She was saying like 'can't you just buff that [huge dent/scratches] out'? I got her to agree to pay for the repair, but as soon as I threw in the fact that the quote did not include a rental car (this repair will take 3 days and I don't have another car, so I'm not going to sit at home while it gets fixed and loose more money), she said 'I'm calling my insurance company to see if they will cover part of this'. Get this......she gets on the phone in front of me and calls her insurance and I can hear the agent on the other end. She tells them who she is and her personal info. They come back and say "your policy expired on 10/29". She acts like they 'just couldn't find my info right now'. She hangs up and tells me that she will settle for $700 right now. I tell her, I don't think so. You are paying for my rental or you can pay for my lost work. The rental will be cheaper. I should have called the cops on you before. I gave you a break. This is 100% your fault, you admitted it. She then lost it and become irate over $50. I pulled out the phone and said I'm dialing 911 if you don't pay this bill right now. You can do this the easy way and pay or you can do this the hard way and let the entire neighborhood know that you are trying to rip me off by getting a bunch of cop cars out here. She then tried to place some of the blame on me for parking [in a legal] spot. I threw it back in her face, saying that you weren't looking at all!!! You admitted it!! Its your fault, pay the bill and I will leave. You hit a non-moving vehicle on a public street. What if there were kids in the street and you ran them over? Are you going to claim that they were in a no playing zone??

I gave her a minute to calm down and asked for her choice. She went on and on about how she couldn't afford this. I said fine, I'll put you on a payment plan if you pay the entire amount starting with the first payment today. She immediately calmed down at that point. I got 3 checks and cashed the first one today. It went though. Teller said she never bounced a check in her life. Good sign.



To answer your questions;

I did not call the police because I was working. The car had to be completed by sun-down that day. I had back-to-back details planned and could not reschedule. Dealing with the police would have wasted another 1 hour minimum. Secondly, if there is a police report filed, CarFax finds it. That would de-value my car by at least 10% for accident damage. This car has no accident history and I intend to keep it that way. I would then be forced to sue her for diminished value, as she surely would have never paid me for that. That is even more wasted time and lost work, plus it would make it hard to sell when I decide to do that.

The car is a big sedan. No trailer, no truck.
 
Also, I just called the city and asked for an exact law of the public right way. They told me the exact thing I thought. I CAN park in them unless it is posted by the city/HOA as no parking. There is absolutely nothing that the land owner can do to remove my car, because it is technically not on their property. They told me to call the police the next time it happens and they will be glad to come out and enforce the law/protect my car from idiots. I will be doing that next time. I'm never ever dealing with some idiot who has nothing better to do but trying to kick people off grass he doesn't even own.
 
after my parents got burned for renting property out without a written agreement, i wouldn't trust just her word. type something up and make sure it's very clear and precise and also have her sign and date it (also state to the point/date where she needs to pay everything in full). if you could have someone come with you that would be a good idea as well. can never be to careful these days...
 
mini1 said:
Here is an update and answer to your questions.

I got 2 estimates yesterday on fixing my car. I went out to this lady's house and presented both of them. She admitted several times this was her fault but kept throwing out the phrase 'you shouldn't have been parked there'. I just shrugged it off, not wanting to start another fight. She was not happy with the $750 (lowest estimate) price tag to fix my car, but I kept her under control. She was saying like 'can't you just buff that [huge dent/scratches] out'? I got her to agree to pay for the repair, but as soon as I threw in the fact that the quote did not include a rental car (this repair will take 3 days and I don't have another car, so I'm not going to sit at home while it gets fixed and loose more money), she said 'I'm calling my insurance company to see if they will cover part of this'. Get this......she gets on the phone in front of me and calls her insurance and I can hear the agent on the other end. She tells them who she is and her personal info. They come back and say "your policy expired on 10/29". She acts like they 'just couldn't find my info right now'. She hangs up and tells me that she will settle for $700 right now. I tell her, I don't think so. You are paying for my rental or you can pay for my lost work. The rental will be cheaper. I should have called the cops on you before. I gave you a break. This is 100% your fault, you admitted it. She then lost it and become irate over $50. I pulled out the phone and said I'm dialing 911 if you don't pay this bill right now. You can do this the easy way and pay or you can do this the hard way and let the entire neighborhood know that you are trying to rip me off by getting a bunch of cop cars out here. She then tried to place some of the blame on me for parking [in a legal] spot. I threw it back in her face, saying that you weren't looking at all!!! You admitted it!! Its your fault, pay the bill and I will leave. You hit a non-moving vehicle on a public street. What if there were kids in the street and you ran them over? Are you going to claim that they were in a no playing zone??

I gave her a minute to calm down and asked for her choice. She went on and on about how she couldn't afford this. I said fine, I'll put you on a payment plan if you pay the entire amount starting with the first payment today. She immediately calmed down at that point. I got 3 checks and cashed the first one today. It went though. Teller said she never bounced a check in her life. Good sign.



To answer your questions;

I did not call the police because I was working. The car had to be completed by sun-down that day. I had back-to-back details planned and could not reschedule. Dealing with the police would have wasted another 1 hour minimum. Secondly, if there is a police report filed, CarFax finds it. That would de-value my car by at least 10% for accident damage. This car has no accident history and I intend to keep it that way. I would then be forced to sue her for diminished value, as she surely would have never paid me for that. That is even more wasted time and lost work, plus it would make it hard to sell when I decide to do that.

The car is a big sedan. No trailer, no truck.
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Forget what she owes you. I would have taken the $700 and ran as fast as I could to the bank. If you think someone that doesn't have insurance is going to pay you more than that you're sadly mistaken. Also, I seriously/highly doubt your car's value deminished by 10%(or anything) from this $750 loss. Police don't report to the NICB so even if you filed a report it won't show up on a CarFax. Lastly, she doesn't owe you for loss of work. Just a rental car.
 
AeroCleanse said:
So your planning on defrauding the person that buys you car by not mentioning that it was in an accident?
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No, I didn't say that. CarFax won't be telling them, I will. I will have pictures in hand to prove the extent, which CarFax will not do. They tend to scare people away over accident damage, classifying everything as a major accident......which this one was not. I'm not required to disclose it in this state anyway, so legally I could just sell the car and not tell anyone. I'm not selling a house (where I would have to disclose any prior damage that was repaired).
 
David Fermani said:
Forget what she owes you. I would have taken the $700 and ran as fast as I could to the bank. If you think someone that doesn't have insurance is going to pay you more than that you're sadly mistaken. Also, I seriously/highly doubt your car's value deminished by 10%(or anything) from this $750 loss. Police don't report to the NICB so even if you filed a report it won't show up on a CarFax. Lastly, she doesn't owe you for loss of work. Just a rental car.
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I was not going to eat $50 for a rental car. I did not cause or have any play in this accident. I do not pay for other people's mistakes under any circumstances, especially if I have to waste another day going around getting quotes and fighting with her. She was going to pay for the rental. I didn't say that she was required to pay for lost work. I gave her a choice, since she did not want to pay for the rental. Rental OR lost work, knowing she would pick the rental.

CarFax does scan a database that reports police cases here in FL. It will say "Accident Reported on xx/xx/xxxx" "Police Report Case xxxxxxxx". 99% chance this would have shown up and scared people, making them think it was a major accident. I've seen cases appear on CarFax from the county I'm in. I know for sure they report. You should know that.....you live in FL.
 
mini1 said:
I was not going to eat $50 for a rental car.
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You’d be paying a lot more than this if this lady tells you to get lost and you have to go through your insurance company and pay your deductible. Chances are your insurance company won’t even try subrogating against her and you’ll be stuck with it on your record anyways.





mini1 said:
CarFax does scan a database that reports police cases here in FL. It will say "Accident Reported on xx/xx/xxxx" "Police Report Case xxxxxxxx". 99% chance this would have shown up and scared people, making them think it was a major accident. I've seen cases appear on CarFax from the county I'm in. I know for sure they report. You should know that.....you live in FL.
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CarFax only *sometimes* picks up major accidents reported by police, not minor fender benders on private property like this one. It varies by state. I review CarFax, NICB & ISO reports everyday as I’m an Auto Appraiser. Again, I’d stop wasting time and cut my losses with this person and avoid splitting hairs. It’s not worth it trust me. She’s sounds pretty uncollectable for such a little difference.
 
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