Ok here's the deal. I repair cars on the side. One of my customers had me drive his vehicle to my shop for a repair. I was working on a car and while I was under the steering wheel, the car went out of gear and the car hit a metal shelving unit in my shop. Minor damage. I told the owner(who I had done a lot of work for in the past) that I would fix the car if he wanted but I would prefer he make a claim on his insurance and I would pay for his deductible. He said he would prefer that I fix it. Ok no problem. I am getting ready to order parts and the guy says "I dont want you to fix what you damaged. That is not so important. I want you to fix this this and this." I told him that I would not do that. I would fix only what I had damaged. Then he comes back and says that he got a quote for $1800 and he wants me to fix whatever he wants on his car for the equivalent of the quote. That he has the right to determine what to fix with that amount of monies. (We are talking some major parts on the car. ) I still said no. Then he comes up with "okay, if you dont want to fix what I want, then you can pay me $750 and we will call it even". I did some research on parts and labor and I came up with an estimate of $575. I told him my estimate, gave him the website for the parts to verify cost, and 2 weeks go by and I don't hear from him. I soon get an email from him and he says that he wants a signed written statement from me that I damaged the car, and that I will pay him for the deductible and increased monthy payments he is going to have to pay to his insurance company before he will file a claim. Now so we are clear, I have NO PROBLEM paying for what I did. But I think it is foolish to hand over a statement without something in writing to show that the claim was made in the first place. What do you think?

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Originally Posted by ericjenn03

Ok here's the deal. I repair cars on the side. One of my customers had me drive his vehicle to my shop for a repair. I was working on a car and while I was under the steering wheel, the car went out of gear and the car hit a metal shelving unit in my shop. Minor damage. I told the owner(who I had done alot of work for in the past) that I would fix the car if he wanted but I would prefer he make a claim on his insurance and I would pay for his deductible. He said he would prefer that I fix it. Ok no problem. I am getting ready to order parts and the guy says "I dont want you to fix what you damaged. That is not so important. I want you to fix this this and this." I told him that I would not do that. I would fix only what I had damaged. Then he comes back and says that he got a quote for $1800 and he wants me to fix whatever he wants on his car for the equivalent of the quote. That he has the right to determine what to fix with that amount of monies. (We are talking some major parts on the car. ) I still said no. Then he comes up with "okay, if you dont want to fix what I want, then you can pay me $750 and we will call it even". I did some research on parts and labor and I came up with an estimate of $575. I told him my estimate, gave him the website for the parts to verify cost, and 2 weeks go by and I dont hear from him. I soon get an email from him and he says that he wants a signed written statement from me that I damaged the car, and that I will pay him for the deductible and increased monthy payments he is going to have to pay to his insurance company before he will file a claim. Now so we are clear, I have NO PROBLEM paying for what I did. But I think it is foolish to hand over a statement without something in writing to show that the claim was made in the first place. What do you think?

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Turn it over to your insurance company, let them handle it, if you don't have any insurance, pay only for the damage you caused either by fixing it yourself but preferably by letting the customer get his onw couple of estimates and then pay the lowest of the two. There's no need to sign anything, don't sign anything and buy yourself some liability insurance.

First mistake of course was trying not to pay for the damages and asking him to "turn it over to his insurance. This make it look like you were trying to get out of paying damge you caused. You should have just told him you would fix the damages, what repairs shops are obligated to do.

So after that, he figured he could wheel and deal a little with you, and get some other work he would rather have done if you had about the same amount of money spent. ( and heck you already wanted to deal, so I can see where he would expect you to do that)

And no you got into this, what you have to do now is let him get 3 estimates for repair and to pay the lower of the bids or let your liability insurance you shop has ( I will assume you have insurnace)

You can't make him let you fix it, just pay for written estimates he gets and be done with it.

I think neither of you quite understands how insurance works. If the car owner had filed a claim, his carrier would have paid the claim, then either contacted your insurance company or you to reimburse them. Insurance companies don't pay for things when they can get someone else to. Since you were clearly at fault, you (or your business insurance) have to pay. His rates should not be affected.

As Chuck said, you started with the shady dealings, so he figured he would get something he wants out of it.

So where do you go from here? I would contact your insurance and see if you are covered. I would then go to the car owner and apologize that you misunderstood how the insurance works. Tell him you estimate $x amount of damage to his vehicle. You can then tell him you will either repair that damage or do an equivalent amount of repairs.

OK hold on there. I don't think you are understanding. I offered to pay for the damages or fix it myself(because this is what I do for a living) from the beginning. I asked him to submit a claim if he wanted me to pay out of pocket. I told him that I would pay for any charges that the insurance company increased his policy by. He chose for me to fix it. He did not want to file a claim.

His options to me were pay $1800 for another shop to do the work, I could fix for $600 out of pocket, or I was to work my debt off on a job that would cost $3000 for him to do in a shop. I had no problem paying the $600, but after I talked with my agent and learned a few very important pieces of info that I did not know before (like the fact that if a claim was made, I would be responsible for the deductible and that his monthly rate would not increase, something that he did know) I said to file a claim. And the story goes on...

I was not in any way, trying to be shady. I thought that was the best way so that future complications could be avoided. That is what I was trying to do. I don't not think it is wise to sign anything until a claim is made. Especially since he changed his mind so often about what he wanted me to fix. I am not paying for something I did not damage.

Like others, I am a family man without a money tree in the back yard. He knows that too. Which is why I was so confused as to why he did not want to file a claim.

First, let's back up if you don't mind and ask who's legally liable for the damages -- it's you, the shop owner, who quite admirably, admitted it. If I were the ins company for your customer, I would suggest you first seek rembursement from the company or person responsible for the damages and that is you, the shop owner. I would then tell you, the my insured, to please contact us should you encounter any difficulties with either the shop owner or the liability carrier for the shop owner and we will pay for the repairs to your vehicle minus the deductible. I would then subrogate or file a claim with the liability carrier to recover any monies I, as the insurance company for the customer, paid as a result of my insured's vehicle being damaged by the shop. I would also politely ask, though I have no right to pursue or recover in a lawsuit, my insured's deductible. In other words, pay me back and if you don't mind, while you are writing a check us, to also make one payable to my insured for his deductible.

RichardBondMan- You have been the nicest, and most helpful. I hear what you are saying---- but there is some pieces missing here. What you are saying is true but I don't have business insur. And he knew that. My hourly rates were low because of that. He used my services because he could get things done for cheap. As I said before, we had worked together for a long while. This was the first instance of this kind. I felt horrible when this happened. I stopped working on the side because of this situation. I can show you email after email where I offered to pay for damages and he said he wanted me to work on other things(big $3000 job) but I was afraid of something happening again and to be honest, (and I told him) I was not very skilled at what he wanted me to work on. So I declined. He knew that I had no insurance and told me to check and see with my car insurance if I was covered to drive other vehicles and if so, we would say that I was driving the car instead. He is trying to push me into a corner and made the mistake that I would just do what he wanted me to do. I was asking advice because I am not the smartest person I know and maybe I was not looking at this clearly. Paying is not a problem. Signing an agreement and paying before a claim is filed, is. I don't know what my rights are if I don't give in to his demands. Like I said, I had no insurance but he knew that and took a chance. Tell me honestly what would you do?

Either pay for damages only you caused or have some other body shop repair the damages, preferably a body shop he and you agree to and you pay the bill, then don't do any other work that was not first agreed upon before the incident, might consider not doing further work for this customer, simply explain like you said that you are not qualified to do some of the extra work he wants, he may not like it, but leave it at that, if he sues I don't think he will will if you simply put him back in the same condition before the incident where you damaged his vehicle. That's what I would do.