Wedding Woes

Yes, you're stuck paying for it.

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

Re: Yes, you're stuck paying for it.

  • If LW has this much time to observe the comings and goings of a singular truck, they may have time to work a part-time job to cover the expense of their damaged car.  Welcome to adulting, it sucks and you're gonna love it here. 
  • Does she not have insurance?  Sucks and it's wrong to hit the car but cut your losses. 
  • Put a camera on your car? 

    But yeah this is what insurance is for unless you have evidence that it was caused by someone else.  
  • I get it.  It is frustrating to have someone hit their car and run.  And, yeah, it probably is the bakery van.  But that kind of thing unfortunately happens all the time and, without a witness or the guilty party confessing, there isn't much they can do.  It's also possible the damage didn't happen in that parking lot and they assume it did.  I know I've occasionally seen a scratch or dent on my vehicles and don't know where/when it happened.  But I'll give them the benefit of the doubt on that.

    And weird there is a hint of landlord-blaming going on, too.  Like, because the car got hit in that parking lot, now the LL needs to install video cameras.  
    Wedding Countdown Ticker
  • levioosa said:
    Tbh I don’t know if I’d use insurance for a $1000 hit and run. The consequences to my premium wouldn’t be worth it to me. I’d either pay out of pocket or just deal with it (it sounds cosmetic). Also if they have a parking lot facing window I would buy one of those home security systems with cameras and place the camera facing the parking lot. 
    That's fine.  But the overall point is that unfortunately shit happens.  
  • I'm curious how LW know's it's $1000, because when we were backed into awhile ago it ended costing over $5000 due to the way our former car was made. We didn't pay for it, but the company told us the cost.
  • banana468 said:
    levioosa said:
    Tbh I don’t know if I’d use insurance for a $1000 hit and run. The consequences to my premium wouldn’t be worth it to me. I’d either pay out of pocket or just deal with it (it sounds cosmetic). Also if they have a parking lot facing window I would buy one of those home security systems with cameras and place the camera facing the parking lot. 
    That's fine.  But the overall point is that unfortunately shit happens.  
    Obviously shit happens, but if they’re that concerned about repeat issues there are steps they can take. 


    image
  • Or you could just not fix it if it's truly cosmetic.
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