Expert: Charlie Barone - 9/17/2009

Question
I live in an apartment complex. My Car is (well was) in excellent like new condition. My neighbor has repeatedly hit my car with there passenger side doors cause a lot of door dings not minor one but big one, plus scratched paint etc. Last night I caught them slam there door into my car causing a large dent and scratched paint. Will their insurance cover the repairs? If they do not have insurance how do I proceed for them to fix my car? I did see opened alcohol containers in there center console. They drink and drive. Also, my car is a special edition vehicle and the type the type of paint any repairs would require a full paint job vs repairing the dented are. The dents run  along the whole drivers side of the car. All caused by them.Finally had the last straw after last night incident.Please help!

Answer
First you must find out who insures your neighbor. Getting their insurance company to pay to repair all the door dings may be difficult, however. You may have to take your neighbor to small claims court to get their insurance company to pay for all the dings. Body shops today can match any color and blend adjacent panels to get a good color match, so a full repaint is not required.