When someone hits your vehicle, filing an insurance claim is usually one of the first things that you should do.

In this story, a neighbor hit OP’s vehicle and drove away because he thought his car was worthless and he didn’t like where OP had parked.

To make it worse, he got upset when OP filed an insurance claim.

Check out the full story here:

AITA for making an insurance claim against my neighbor for hitting my car even though my car is a beater?

I have an old car that I bought for 2000 dollars when I was 16. I’m 26 now. In the time I’ve had it, I’ve learned a lot about car maintenance. I fix it up with junkyard parts and it’s pretty cheap to keep running. It’s dented and rusty as all hell but it goes and it’s cheap.

So anyway, my neighbor parks in his driveway and I park on the street. And he’s gotten mad at me for parking in the street because he finds it harder to navigate his big truck around my car.

It sounds like OP is more than willing to be accommodating, within reason.

I asked him if he wants me to move my car ahead a bit or behind a bit on the street, because I’m happy to, but I have to park somewhere on the street because I don’t have a driveway or garage space.

He didn’t like that, he doesn’t want me parking on the street at all. But I’m not about to park on a whole different street then I live at.

Anyway, this week I was sitting on my fire escape reading a book and I saw my neighbor drive out his driveway right into my car’s side. I grabbed my phone and started filming asap.

I walked out to the car still filming and got a good video of the damage to the door panel. It was dented and scratched.

The state of OP’s vehicle does not excuse the hit and run by the neighbor.

Now my car was already pretty beat; it’s got body panels from 3 different cars, dents and dings all over, it’s got damage to the convertible soft top that I’ve fixed up with glue and patches, etc. It’s a tough old girl.

So the new damage didn’t bother me much, I didn’t plan on fixing it. But it did bother me that my neighbor hit and run my car. Especially because he knew it belonged to me.

So after a few days of thinking on it, I decided to file an insurance claim. I sent the company the video which had gotten my neighbors license plate in it. I thought they could find his insurance and settle.

The insurance company said that for a hit and run the policy was that I needed to file a police report so I did.

Wow! Nice to get a good amount of compensation for the damage he didn’t care about anyway.

I wasn’t expecting that much but I got a $1600 dollar payout from my neighbors insurance. I guess they appraised my car based on its estimated value based on model and year and didn’t pay attention to the fact that it’s an absolute beater with a lot of DIY fixes.

Why is it that when someone causes an accident, they get upset at the victim? It doesn’t make sense.

Anyway my neighbor is mad at me and came to my house after the insurance thing had paid out and he was looking to yell at me. But my landlord was there in the hallway doing some repairs and when he came looking for which door was mine, my landlord told him that if he wasn’t invited to get the hell off his property.

Guess he could tell this guy was angry and probably wasn’t a good idea to send him up to my room.

I feel a little bad that I hid lol. Feels cowardly. But it was also cowardly he did a hit and run.

AITAH?

I don’t see any reason why the OP should feel like the AH.

He did exactly what he was supposed to based on the law and his insurance policy.

It is not his fault that his neighbor hit him, or that he got upset.

Take a look at what some commenters had to say.

This commenter is spot on. OP did everything the way he was supposed to. His neighbor is the AH.

Good point. This has nothing to do with the value of OP’s car.

I can’t understand why the neighbor would be upset. He hit OP’s car.

Why do people get mad at the victim when they are the ones to cause an accident?

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.