I think your email is fine. One thing to keep in mind, if he’s an Orthodox Jew, is that Friday is going into Shabbos, and thus “close of business” may be earlier for him than it is for you and he may not have enough time to sort this. And he will not be able to handle money or contact you after Shabbos starts.
Many, many years ago, some kid backed into me in a parking lot. I called the cops, they came out, we swapped info, no tickets issued, we went our separate ways. I got an estimate. Called his insurance carrier, he didn’t have insurance with them, hadn’t in years (which made them ‘investigate’ that). So I called him back. He refused to pay, just flat out said no. I reported the accident to the state and all of a sudden he called me up practically begging to pay. He wanted me to come out to his house to get the money, yeah, no. So he showed up at my work with a check and asked me to sign this paper saying that he made good on what he owed me. I said I would sign it in two weeks after I knew the check was good. So he offered to go and cash the check at the bank and come back. Something must have had him scared because he really, really wanted to get this cleared up. No problem. While he was getting the cash I read the paper. Blah blah blah ‘when I backed into your car in the Best Buy Parking Lot’ blah blah blah. HA!
I re-wrote the note word for word, exactly as it was but changed ‘when I backed into your car’ to ‘when you backed into my car’. Signed it, folded it handed it to him. Got my cash and I doubt he ever looked at it again.
Can you buy one that will record an accident that’s already happened?
Sorry. I wasn’t trying to disparage your idea. I was more suggesting it for next time.
I think some of your are being too paranoid for no reason. Settling fender-benders without getting insurance companies involved is SOP at least around here. It makes it easier for everyone as long as the payment is made as promised. If it isn’t, the OP already has an e-mail trail that admits guilt on the part of the other driver. The worst case is that you just make a claim with your own insurance company later if they fail to pay and then your insurance company collects from the other driver’s insurance company. This isn’t a murder case and the police aren’t generally interested in it.
Many years ago a teenager drove into our car that was parked on the street in front of our house. He begged us not to report it, swore he would pay us himself, and gave us I.D. and phone number. After 3 days we hadn’t heard from him so we called the number. His mother answered. “Just tell him [MLS husband name] called; it’s about the car.” He came by the next morning with the cash.
Here in NJ you can still report an accident up to IIRC 2 weeks after the event.
I had a guy insist he would pay out of pocket. Then he didn’t like the estimate from my repair shop. Then his friend could fix my truck in his garage for cheap. Um, no. There was no end to the stalling tactics and it was a huge waste of my time. I’ll never even consider it again. I hope you have better luck.
Asking him to agree to pay an as-yet-unknown unlimited amount on the say-so of a single bodyshop is a bit much, in my opinion. Not because he shouldn’t pay completely for the damages, but because no sensible person would ever agree to that.
I would make him pay for the cost of removing the bumper to get the correct total estimate.
I would also write out the events of the accident and have him sign that, confirming they are true.
If he balks at either of those, no deal.
If they don’t agree to that then the alternative is to let the insurance companies sort it out. When that kid hit my car (that I mentioned up thread), I sent him the estimate and his dad insisted that I get a second estimate. In Wisconsin the law says I only have to get one, and I let him know it.
Then, as I mentioned, he decided to refuse to pay it so I reported it to the state. Now, in order for it to be ‘reportable’ the damage has to be over a thousand dollars or there has to be an injury. The damage was only about $600 so I got a second estimate, but instead of going to a body shop, I took it to a dealer and it came out to (no kidding) $1001. I gave that estimate to the state when I reported it.
Anyways, I kind of agree that asking someone to pay just based on one estimate kinda sucks. I mean, what if I went to the dealer first, what if I went to a body shop my friend owned and had them mark it way up so we could split the extra money. Besides, assuming I didn’t do any of that, I shouldn’t have to run all over town getting estimates because you hit my car and don’t feel like letting your insurance company know about it. If you don’t want to report it to them, I’m certainly not going to do a whole bunch more legwork on my end to save you a few more dollars. You can do whatever you want to fix your own car, but getting my car fixed should involve as little inconvenience to me as possible.
Also keep in mind, I’m doing you a huge favor by not letting my insurance company know about it. Personally, as soon as I notice some resistance, I’m just going to make a claim with them, have them pay for it and let them deal with you. It really is in your best interest to just get this taken care of.
Now, if all you did was bash in a quarter panel on a Ford Focus and I hand you a bill for $4000, I understand not wanting to pay for it. But if I hand you a bill for $900, it’s going to be cheaper to just pay for it then to bug me to see if I can find a place that’ll do it for $750.
The insurance company typically pays for a rental car while your car is being repaired. Most people wouldn’t agree to pay for that.
It can be surprising how much it costs to get things fixed. People might say they’ll pay for it, but be prepared for them to back out when they find out the amount of the estimate.
Sometimes people are just plain old trustworthy. My gut tells me this is one of those instances.
I see no problem with requesting a fixed amount of money based on one estimate, or even on no estimates. The problem is the sky’s-the-limit wording of the cost of repairing potential hidden damages. It seems to leave a single body shop the option and profit motive to reveal a jillion dollars in damages and the poor guy would be on the hook for it with no recourse. I’d never sign anything that puts absolutely no cap or limit on how much money you are entitled to collect from me and relies entirely on the say-so of one entity chosen by you.
The guy deserves to have to pay for damages and expenses incurred by his negligent action, but insisting he sign away all rights to have you not bankrupt him seems kind of like blackmail. Ideally he will pay the needed amount and everyone will go on with their lives. If he doesn’t want to sign this, you’ve removed the possibility of that happening by proposing only unreasonable solutions.
A few months ago, someone made a left turn right in front of me. I slammed on the brakes but wasn’t able to avoid hitting her car. The airbag deployed, the front bumper was damaged, one of the right-side lights was damaged and there was other hidden damage. The total cost to repair my four-year-old Honda Fit (which cost about $20,000 new) was over $9,000. So I agree that cars can be astonishingly expensive to repair.
Personally I think anyone who’s asking to settle it privately is likely uninsured. I would insist on calling it in at that point. I’m still waiting for the asshole who rearended me to pay my deductible, it’s only been three years though, maybe if I’m more patient.
Then they would be wrong. The person causing the accident is responsible for the rental too.
I can’t see many reasons *not *to go the insurance route.
My first thought was, he’s driving without a license.
This is my thinking as well.
I guess I mis-read what you wrote. Based on that, I think I’d reply to OP and say something like (if I was on the up and up).
I’m happy to pay the amount requested as long as you sign something relieving me of any further debt [or something like that]. But if you feel there’s hidden damage, you need to get a better estimate before we go any further. I can’t, in good conscience, admit to damage that you don’t even know exists yet. Signing something like that is no different than me giving you a blank check to fix anything on your car, even if I didn’t cause it. I’m sure that’s not your intention, but the wording is too vague and I’m not willing to have that hanging over my head.
In light of receiving that reply though, the OP would possibly decide to go ahead and report the accident to the police against Mr. CarSmasher’s wishes.
The odds are not small that he does not have a license and/or does not have insurance. Maybe he has a license and insurance, but was intoxicated at the time and wanted to avoid a DUI. Maybe he was just trying to avoid a ticket for driving so stupidly. Maybe he just doesn’t want his rates to go up or his insurance to be cancelled.
Reporting the accident and finding out he is unlicensed and uninsured or just uninsured may get him in trouble, but it won’t pay for your damages. You will have a great case against him, but you will have to take him to court, get a judgment against him, and successfully collect. What a waste of your own time and effort, plus no guarantee of any payment at all. Making it easy for him to pay the total amount now is to both parties’ advantage.