Came out of the house to find that my neighbour had decided to get their guttering painted, whilst my car was in the drive . . . you don't have to think too hard about the perils of paint, a twenty foot ladder and a strong breeze.

I shouted at the decoratoring professional "hey you, there's fecking paint on my car."

This was greeted by a puzzled and rather nervy "what colour is the paint?" Never keen on merely stating the obvious I replied "it's the same colour as the fecking paint on you!"

After a quick look over the fence the painter held his hands up, which was fair enough, I told him to wait there and scurried into the house to get some detergent and a sponge.

Unfortunately for me he had decided to go and get an oily rag and a bottle of thinners to give the bonnet a quick once over.

My neighbour has decided to take the "aint nuthin to do with us" stance which leaves me in the uncomfortable position of taking matters into my own hands.

The bonnet is marked but it should come out with a buff/mop.

The painter on the other hand, seems to be on the "rock and roll" and the rather obvious questions my insurers are asking could have some rather far reaching consequences for him. I'll give him the chance to rectify the situation to my satisfaction.

But, if the boot had been on the other foot . . . ie if it was my house being painted . . . 

What would you do?

If he is on the dole and has been instructed to paint by the house owners then its the house owners who are responsible.  Id get two quotes one from the dealer to rectify and one from someone else.  Show them you are trying  to be reasonable by going with the cheaper quote.

The paint might come off with clay.

One of the lads in here got graffiti on his car when parked in the West end of Glasgow.  He got it off with clay.

The paint will be sitting like blobs on the bonnet surface which clay should take off after a bit of elbow grease.

If the decorator is not insured, get a lawyer's letter fired thru the letter box of your neighbour.

My wife when using a fence paint sprayer got paint onto her car parked some 20m away.  I took this off with clay with no long term damage to the car.  Clay was gubbed after it right enough.

Hope you get on o.k.

Andrew

Cheers for that, I've got a clay bar in the shed! Always a bit nervy using them as they can be quite fierce.

As for the neighbour issue, that's a non starter. The time weighed against cost doesn't balance, but, it's a very indicative heads up for any future activities or issues.

Gonnae check the ESPC for a lighthouse or a remote farm building and buy a rottweiler grizzly bear cross breed puppy.

NOISUFNOC wrote: If he is on the dole and has been instructed to paint by the house owners then its the house owners who are responsible.  Id get two quotes one from the dealer to rectify and one from someone else.  Show them you are trying  to be reasonable by going with the cheaper quote.

I think NOISUFNOC is correct since the recent changes to employment law, it is the employer (your neighbour in this instance) who is responsible for either ensuring that adeqaute insurance is in place or that the employer will provide insurance for the work, this would equally apply if the painter injured himself and the ambulance chasing lawyers got on the case, they would be suing the householder.

I would get some advice from the CitizenAB and then approach both parties with your findings and then let them decide who will pay for the proper repair though it does sound like it should come off with a good bit of claying and polishing either by you or a detailer of choice.

Yip, I'm reasonably up to speed with current employment legislation but the harsh reality is that people do enter into contracts, for risk or reward, with people who don't pay employers' NI, income tax, corporation tax, liability insurance etc etc etc and when it all goes wrong, 99 times out of a 100 they'll be the first to start whinging about insurance premiums. The same people who phone up Esure and say that somebody has screwed their Ford Fiesta and got away with a Rolex, sheepskin jacket, Ping golf clubs, 300 CD's . . .

I think the word I'm looking for is scunnered . . .

On a brighter note, can anyone recommend a detailer in the Edinburgh area? Not much success on the Google thingy and couldn't see any previous posts on the forum.

Graham at Custom Detailers is your man.

http://www.customdetailers.co.uk/About%20us.htm - http://www.customdetailers.co.uk/About%20us.htm

http://www.customdetailers.co.uk/Valeting.html - http://www.customdetailers.co.uk/Valeting.html

Many thanks bluebro . . . phoned him, hopefully he'll be able to get it done soon.

Many thanks to Graham at Custom Detailers, thanks too Bluebro for pointing me in the right direction.

A great job done and then the heavens opened !!! So no photos for now.

http://www.customdetailers.com/ - http://www.customdetailers.com/

Glad you got it sorted mate.

No detail would be complete though without the downpour and subsequent beading shots at the end.

Never mind beading shots, if it had kept up that level of downpour thru here in Edinburgh, I was going to tie a few remoulds onto the sides of the car and start using it as a barge!

I would have taken one of the side on but it was really chucking it down.

Nice shot, looks a good job.

Did the neighbour pick up the bill?

Andrew

Unfortunately, for them, they didn't offer to help or accept responsibility. Their only comment was something along the lines of "he (the painter) wont be making much on this job"

. . . . on a positive note the chap who did the dirty deed put his hands up straight away. No problems with him, the only thing delaying the job was the Scottish weather.

phone snaps . . . please excuse the quality . . . many thanks again to Custom Detailers  

It's the reflection of the clouds overhead . . . it hasn't stop raining since I got the detail done!

The strange looking object on the boot lid is a lamp post in the Sainsburys car park 

Nice work.

Lovely.

Andrew