A couple weeks ago, our daughter was rear ended by another car. Obviously their fault. Their insurance company finally contacted us.
We went out to get a repair estimate today. $1200 and the body shop will send the car out to get the exhaust system checked by a professional company that does that stuff.
I asked the guy if we could get the money instead of having the car repaired. Like people used to do in the old days. He said Yes we could. The body damage is pretty much limited to the bumper. No biggie to go get a bumper and do it ourselves. The body shop guy even said all we needed was a bumper and a couple brackets. It's a real easy job. And we could even reuse our existing end caps from the current bumper.
Since the body shop will send the car out to have the exhaust system checked anyway, I thought we could get that done ourselves. If it needs repair, we could get a written estimate for that expense. Submit both repair estimates to the insurance company, and pay to have the exhaust repaired. Proper functioning exhaust is important. A dinged bumper isn't as important.
I'm thinking we could use the insurance money for the bumper to pay the attny instead. Plus, now we'd have 2 repair estimates for that vehicle that would basically negate that car's value and free up Vehicle Exemption dollars for our other cars.
Hubby worries that this could mess with our filing BK. That the insurance money could be considered income if we have them write the check to us.
Any thoughts??!!
We went out to get a repair estimate today. $1200 and the body shop will send the car out to get the exhaust system checked by a professional company that does that stuff.
I asked the guy if we could get the money instead of having the car repaired. Like people used to do in the old days. He said Yes we could. The body damage is pretty much limited to the bumper. No biggie to go get a bumper and do it ourselves. The body shop guy even said all we needed was a bumper and a couple brackets. It's a real easy job. And we could even reuse our existing end caps from the current bumper.
Since the body shop will send the car out to have the exhaust system checked anyway, I thought we could get that done ourselves. If it needs repair, we could get a written estimate for that expense. Submit both repair estimates to the insurance company, and pay to have the exhaust repaired. Proper functioning exhaust is important. A dinged bumper isn't as important.
I'm thinking we could use the insurance money for the bumper to pay the attny instead. Plus, now we'd have 2 repair estimates for that vehicle that would basically negate that car's value and free up Vehicle Exemption dollars for our other cars.
Hubby worries that this could mess with our filing BK. That the insurance money could be considered income if we have them write the check to us.
Any thoughts??!!
Comment