One of my vehicles was rear-ended by a tow truck 2 weeks ago. A police report was filed. The same day I placed a claim with their insurance ...

Question

One of my vehicles was rear-ended by a tow truck 2 weeks ago. A police report was filed. The same day I placed a claim with their insurance co.. Then later the same day the owner of the tow truck company called me and wanted to come into a side agreement to leave insurance out of it. I hesitated, didn't stop the claim yet, but eventually agreed, however, I put it all in writing in an agreement under my terms, which we eventually both signed. In the agreement I made mention in pretty much each condition I made that the car would be repaired by a body shop and how hewould pay for any and all body shop repair charges the car may require relating to the accident now and in the future. He even agreed to pay rental fees if I rented a car and offered to tow the car to the body shop free of charge. He did come and got the car to tow it, however, he said that because the body shop wasn't open on weekends, he had to take the car to his company and a friend who owns a body shop in Dekalb would come up for the weekend to work on the car for him. That was a Friday. I got the car back the following Monday evening. The same driver brought the car back to me. My 23 yr old son was the only one home, and the driver told him that in fact Hefixed the car and spent all weekend doing it complaining he didn't have time to get to his own work. The work was soooo poor when I got home I called the company right away, but he was gone. They put the wrong model trunk on the car and it didn't close. The light fixtures aren't screwed in and the paint job looked like it was done with can paint spray. I then e-mailed him my concerns. He e-mailed me telling me he would make it right and would send the driver back to pick up the car. I told him I appreciated it, but I felt safer taking it in to a body shop I am familiar with to get an estimate for him. He called me instead of e-mailing and said he would like me to take it in to a body shop he knew of on Friday last week, I said I would try if my schedule allowed, but would still get an estimate from my guy. He apologized for the poor work, however, he lied and said his friend from Dekalb did the work. I told him the driver told us otherwise and he said nothing. I was not able to make it to his body shop due to their hours and mine so I took it in to my shop on Saturday morning. I got the estimate and immediately e-mailed him the fact that I took it in to the shop and told him what the estimate was and offered to send the original estimate. He responded NO, he wants an estimate from his place. My question is, since he didn't follow the terms of our original agreement and I decide to proceed with the insurance claim, can he come back and sue me for breach of contract? Or anything else? And will the insurance cover now that the car has been altered from it original state after the accident?

Answer

ONE: Don't you have your own automobile policy? TWO: Did you report the incident to your carrier? Have your insurance company fix the car and let them worry about reimbursement.