Dear Prudence,
My husband and I live in a four-unit building—two apartments upstairs, an office below the apartment next to us, and a commercial bakery that moved into the storefront below our apartment last month. The building has five parking spots in the back, and the bakery’s delivery van has hit our new car twice now. It’s cosmetic but will cost about $1,000 to repair. I had asked the landlord to install cameras, but that wasn’t done yet. The bakery denies hitting the car, even though the damage on its car matches the height of the damage on our car. Most of all, it’s private parking, so no one else has access (the guy next door is usually on tour, and the office is only open Saturdays). The landlord lives in another country and was less than helpful when I complained about the damage from his new tenants. The bakery denied it up and down, but since my husband and I confronted the staff, its delivery van has been noticeably absent. Since we couldn’t catch the driver in the act, am I stuck paying for this? My husband is self-employed, and this puts a significant strain on the budget.
—Bread Smells Like Resentment