ethical question regarding collecting damage payouts

[googe]

so lets say someone causes some fairly minor damage to your vehicle, that carries a price tag of several hundred dollars.

do you think it would be wrong to get an estimate, ask for the amount of the estimate, and keep the money but fix the damage by yourself to the best of your ability?

[Proyecto2000]

I would say its ok to do but then again I would go get an estimate at an expesensive bodyshop

[benyl]

nope, there is nothing wrong with that.

I mean, it is your choice to actually fix your car. They still damaged it and owe you some sort of compensation for it.

[FiveFreshFish]

AFAIK, they can ask for up to 3 estimates and have the right to pay for the lowest one. So you might need 3 high estimates.

If you plan to do this, make sure it DOESN'T go through the insurance companies. They will only pay out a body shop for work done. Otherwise, if it's a cash settlement, they figure a lower labor rate (like 1/3 the shop rate) to calculate the payout.

This happened to me where I was the one at fault and the other guy went through his insurance with an estimate of about $700. I ended up paying $325 out of my own pocket directly to him to avoid a claim on my record. My insurance company went to bat for me and negotiated down the cash payment amount. I don't know if this is how they still do things; this was a long time ago.