Neighbor ran over nail near our trash cans—how should I respond?

[Anonymous]

Email them this:

“My response requires me to retain legal counsel. Please standby for a response from my attorney. Just as a courtesy, I want to let you know I plan to ask counsel to seek legal costs from you.”

[Anonymous]

Just because there a nail on the street doesn't mean you put it there. Contractors go up and down my street often and it could have fallen out of their truck. If he persists, instead of telling him to pound sand (argumentative), explain you had nothing to do with it's placement.

[Anonymous]

The more you engage with this person the crazier and more demanding they will get (I speak from experience). Ignore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The more you engage with this person the crazier and more demanding they will get (I speak from experience). Ignore.

+1

[Anonymous]

They can hope all they want. It's a public street.

[Anonymous]

It is very cheap to get a nail hole fixed in a tire - not an insurance event. I would say that you haven’t been doing any kind of home repairs and are sorry they ran over an errant random nail.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would respond with

We didn’t throw away anything sharp, and our trash was fully contained in our bins, not loose at the curb. You getting a flat tire has absolutely nothing to do with us. It happened on public property on the public street.

Don’t mention you have camera footage. But Save that if they escalate.

+1

Though I'd nice it up a bit.

"What a bummer that happened to you! We didn’t throw away anything sharp, and our trash was fully contained in our bins, not loose at the curb. Not sure where that nail came from, but very unlikely to have come from us. Best of luck with your car!"

[Anonymous]

Unless they are accusing you of having planted a nail in the street, the street is not your property.

We just went through this. A car hit the utility pole that services our property. It was National Grid’s responsibility to fix the pole, but our underground lines were severed and that was our problem to fix and go after the car’s insurer for reimbursement.

Stuff in the road/street is not your responsibility

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would respond with

We didn’t throw away anything sharp, and our trash was fully contained in our bins, not loose at the curb. You getting a flat tire has absolutely nothing to do with us. It happened on public property on the public street.

Don’t mention you have camera footage. But Save that if they escalate.

I like this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The more you engage with this person the crazier and more demanding they will get (I speak from experience). Ignore.

I think ignoring out of the box is a bad plan. You give your no once, (good examples above) and THEN if they escalate, you ignore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would respond with

We didn’t throw away anything sharp, and our trash was fully contained in our bins, not loose at the curb. You getting a flat tire has absolutely nothing to do with us. It happened on public property on the public street.

Don’t mention you have camera footage. But Save that if they escalate.

This. And if they pester you, or follow up with more texts, I would say, I’m not responding anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is very cheap to get a nail hole fixed in a tire - not an insurance event. I would say that you haven’t been doing any kind of home repairs and are sorry they ran over an errant random nail.

It is cheap! We run over nails in all of our cars. It’s $35 to patch.

[Anonymous]

A nail on a public street could be from anywhere: garbage truck, landscaping, construction trucks.

What a loon

[Anonymous]

How odd. I’ve run over a nail a number of times (unfortunately) and have never “felt” when I ran it over. Didn’t notice until my tire pressure was low or had a flat. No way to know where it came from.

I’d just respond “Sorry to hear- that stinks! We haven’t thrown away any nails, so we are not the culprit 🤣 I’ve seen a few construction trucks go by recently- probably from them but who knows. Hope you had a good Thanksgiving weekend otherwise- good luck with the tire!”

I’d be friendly and light but take no responsibility at all. I would not under any circumstances pay for a new tire. Hopefully neighbor was just upset at the time, feels foolish and lets it blow over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is very cheap to get a nail hole fixed in a tire - not an insurance event. I would say that you haven’t been doing any kind of home repairs and are sorry they ran over an errant random nail.

It is cheap! We run over nails in all of our cars. It’s $35 to patch.

+1

The place we purchase our tires from does patches for free. Other times I’ve paid a small fee elsewhere. It usually isn’t that big of a deal. If in a bad spot, sometimes whole tire needs replacing (has happened once over the years). Either way, hardly insurance claim worthy. Just an annoyance.