I'm willing to pay but she doesn't acccept!

Washington

Recently I was cleaning my apartment and accidently left the screen door open, my dog went out side with out her lease. The property management team were doing some walk arounds at the time. My dog ran up barking and growling to one of them causing him to run and jump ontop of a car, damaging it.

The first estimate to the car was about $2,200 which valued the car to be totaled. The husband (The wife owns it and is in her name) then popped in the roof with his hand and got a second estimate, bringing it to $1,200.

The first dispute was getting my dog off the premesis which I did. I wrote a letter to the apartment stating I would like to set up a contract to pay for the car. They eventually got there legal advice and told me that this is between me and the woman and they are not the middle man.
So I offered a payment option of first 9 months at about 130 bucks a month, but they wanted a upfront $250 and then payments after. I told them I actually could not do this do to financil issues and would like to do $150 a month for 8 months instead. I also offered a flat out $600 cash to there pocket and call it that because the car is only worth $1,800 and you have to be right next to the car stairing at a side to see 2 indents on the roof ( VERY MINOR) but they refused this as well. I personally do not see the perpose into putting $1,200 into a perfectly looking good car.

She states she is going to sue the apartments and then they will sue me and all the costs will come to me.

My question is can she do this? and will all the costs come to me? Even though I'm willing to pay and i'm trying to get a contract going. The woman isn't very smart.

Please respond so I can explain more. thanks!

Lordy, is someone really going to sue for $1200?

Me, I would just send her payments, keep the cashed checks as receipts, as well as the estimate, and by the time she decides to sue you, well, you'll probably have paid her off anyway. But hey, stand by for the real legal gurus here. That's just what I would do, doesn't necessarily make it the most wise decision; however.

So you think I should just pay it off with out abiding by a contract?
I did write them a letter last night because sense I talked to them yesterday (the wife for the first time) all she could do was yell and would not even reason. I will post it.

I'm 20 years old and trying to deal with it the best way I can. She is a grown woman and sorry to say a lower class and is hard for me to deal with because she is not thinking properly.

My letter to them:

Dear Mr. Somerville, Unfortunately it has come to this; I will not be able to come up to your house anymore, do to the events that occurred on August 3rd, 2006. If you wish to talk to me, then you can easily knock on my door. I will not however, speak to your wife unless in a court of law. I’m writing this letter so I can get out everything I would like to say without argument or dispute.

First, I came up to your house to try and figure everything out. This is my first incident like this so I do not know everything in the book on how to deal with it. I wrote a letter stating I would like to propose a contract (which would be notarized), stating I would make monthly payments to you. Before we were interrupted, I wanted to explain to you about this month. I would not be willing to pay the upfront $250 or this month's payment. However next month I would be able to which brings it to 8 months at $152 per month. I did not work for the first month of living here so my bills and spending limits were more then I expected. I had to play catch up, and it will be roughly three more weeks before I am fully caught up.

I also offered an option of $600 to you in cash which you can do as you please. Personally I see this as the better option. As I said before I don’t see the trouble of putting $1,200 into a car that’s only worth $1,800 with a decreasing value every year. The car looks and runs perfectly fine, except there are a few minor things that I can noticeably point out. I have reviewed the estimate, it basically states that it will fix the roof, and side supports (which yes I understand that the weight of the man crippled the supports a bit.) What I don’t understand is how your wife is able to bring her three children into this, and somehow having them in the car while in an accident is my fault because of the roof. Her first thoughts are her children, and somehow this is grounds for suing me? If there is something more to this estimate that I do not see, then I will need further explanation. I’m sorry, but if we do not have another estimate to prove that it is unsafe to drive, than I do not understand quite where she is coming from. Basically today I was first, offering a different option, or second, telling you I could not pay this month because of financial issues and the payments will begin next month.

Second, your wife will not calm down and reason, or at least talk to me as an adult. I'm definitely no child as she may presume, and I do not appreciate the way she is handling the issue. She states she is getting an attorney and will sue the apartments so they can turn around and sue me, bringing all the costs on to me. When I spoke to the apartment management, they said "now that the dog is gone they legally cannot intervene because this is a 3rd party issue and they are no longer the middle man". So it’s between you and me. Under the court of law, it would be fairly difficult to bring the apartment complex back into the middle, (Especially because they don’t want to deal with it). And since the damage is minimal, it would most likely be delt with in a small claims court. The first step to that of course is Arbitration, where legally she will have to come and discuss her side and I will discuss my side to try to resolve the issue before court. If that fails we go to court which of course you would win. But what? Me paying you monthly payments... which I’m already willing to do? And or taking it directly out of my paycheck. That is the only two options really. And in the court if I were to show them my current financial situation the rate would be even lower then what I’m offering to pay. (Yes, I’m in debt). Either way your wife will not get the money upfront, that is why I attempted to solve the issue on my own rather than letting it escalate into something much greater. The overall cost and hassle is not worth all of this. Its pretty ridicules actually. Furthermore, it will no doubt take over six plus months for all paperwork to go through, but yet you’re going to do this and your defense is going to be the safety of your children? Six months is a long time to let things sit around. For the record if you do try to sue the apartments I will take it upon my self to go to small claims court so I can start the process to pay you from there.

So to sum it all up, I’m still very willing to pay and handle this as an adult, but if you want it to drag it out, I will play the game with you. It is your call really. My work schedule is the same as the property manager, 9-6 mon-fri. If you would like to speak to me Mr. Somerville then please knock on my door any day after 7pm. I am out of town this Saturday night. If you would like you and I to talk to the property manager it’s either letters to her, or asking her associates so they can get a hold of her. I hope to get a response shortly. This letter and all other documents are recorded, copied, and signed for my self defense.

Sincerely

Mitchell Gould

My goodness, sounds like you had a run in with some gold diggers, who want to sue for everything. I do wish one of the attorneys here would give you a legal point of view.

Honestly, I still have to say, that if it were me, I would just send the payments as you can afford them. My bet is they will cash them no problem. Like they're not gonna keep your money right?

You have to keep perfect documentation though, they seem like people who would attempt to pursue this in small claims court. But if you have receipts and the estimate to prove you've paid your damages accordingly, I can't see this going wrong for you. But again, I'd like to hear from one of the attorneys here about this. I'd hate for you to take my advice and you end up getting screwed royally in the end.

Thank you for responding so quickly. I have to admit that I hate that I'm so critical and judgmental over people. I fully believe she is doing this because she wants the most money out of this as possible and thinks of nothing else.

Months do ussually go by fairly fast for me but this is still a long amount of time to find out what happens. I think I will as u say at the moment make payments ( will be 2 weeks before i can though) and see what happens from there.

Also this is my first time trying this out. Will a attourney post on this message or do I need further actions?

Legally, they have the right to be paid the whole $1200 at once. They don't HAVE to accept payments. I sure as hell would take someone to small claims court for that much money. If you have $600 now, pay them that now and offer to pay the rest in installments and hope they accept that. They are under no obligation to accept a lesser amount then the actual repair cost unless it exceeds the actual value of the car (in which case you would owe them that amount).

Getting the payment agreement in writing is definitely a smart idea. Make sure you include the date the final payment will be made and that after that point you will be released from all further liability.

By the way, you owe them the $1200 regardless of whether they decide to fix the car or not. You are liable for the full cost to repair the car and make them whole again. Whether they choose to actually get the work done or not is none of your business.

Job_Hunting is giving you terrible advice.

I agree that you are getting bad advice from "Job Hunting".
If you were to send a check for $120 to me, I would be at the court-house filing the paperwork the same day. The check would not be cashed.
You are in over your head, based on the letter you intend to send.

You may want to review http://www.courts.wa.gov/newsinfo/resources/?fa=newsinfo_jury.scc&altMenu=smal so that you know what to expect.

My bad advice is duly noted. Thanks for coming behind and chiming in, I was hoping someone would do that as I indicated in previous point.

Though legally the car owners have the right to the full amount immediately, the poster obviously was showing very fair attempts to rectify the matter.

Job_Hunting said:

My bad advice is duly noted. Thanks for coming behind and chiming in, I was hoping someone would do that as I indicated in previous point.

Though legally the car owners have the right to the full amount immediately, the poster obviously was showing very fair attempts to rectify the matter.

Click to expand...

True, and if the OP wanted to be a pain in the a**, although it would end up costing her more, she could force the injured to sue her and then go through the trouble of collecting on the judgement. The entire suit and collection could take much longer than just accepting payments to start with.

The other thing that would add a problem to the injured is that although the OP is the ultimate cause of the damage, the injured party would still have to include Mr. apartment inthe suit , at the very least as a witness but I think they would need to sue him as well because he is the one who caused the damage. If the injured party did not actually witness the damage, they will definately require Mr apartment to testify at a minimum.

A worst case sceanrio is that the injured has to sue Mr. apartment and get a judgement and then Mr. Apartment has to sue the OP to reclaim the damages. The OP can always go the route that Mr. apartments actions were not justified and claim no responsibility. That would screw things up. I mean, think about it. What reasonable person actually believes they will escape a dog by jumping on top of a car? If the guy deemed it was neccessary, then the dog surely would have been large enough to follow him right up there. If the dog were not large enough to follow, the actions could be seen as unreasonable and extreme.

Ultimately OP you are responsible (definately morally and actually legally unless you want to play some games)for the actual damages caused up to the fair market value of the car. The only eventual way of getting out of any of this is to dispute the value of the damages. If you feel they are too much, request (initially) a second estimate.

Just as a side note OP. If theiknjured really wants to be mean, they could more than likely get an estimate that states that since the origianl structural integrity of the car has been compromised, it will never be able to be restored to a safe condition and therefore it is considered totaled. You would then owe the fair market value of the car. If you have doubts, give me the name and address of the injured and I can assure you a competent body man will give them a letter to the same and verify it in court.



Find a way to work it out.