Auto Insurance Claims: Very important question!! Family issue!!, minor accident, paint work

Question
Hi my name is Veronica and i had a question, i got in an accident not to long ago, and it was in my own house with my own in-laws, not we do not get along very well, they were in from the hurricane not too long ago, and we were letting a lot of in-laws stay with us we provided food, shelter and water at our expense. i was backing out one day from the driveway, i backup into one of their trucks by accident. Now we did not want to make a police report or anything just for me to pay the damages, they left the next day to Houston and they were calling me they have me a way higher price that i thought the accident was..because this was a fairly small accident all i got was paint scratched.... so i told them i would fix it if they came back.... and they said they could not come back etc.. etc. the story goes on... now in this whole time my insurance cancelled 2 days before i got in the accident.. and now i am only paying them $600 and i wired them $200 dollars already which is what we agreed to and i have recorded phone calls stating this...<br>
I spoke with them this morning and i guess they were wanting all the money at once... they are saying they are either going to put a lawyer or going to report this to the police..What should I do?  

Answer
Veronica,

Even though the damage may have been minor, body & paint work are very expensive. $600.00 is considered to ve extreemly minor damage. You do not need to worry about them calling the police. This was a minor accident that occured on private property. The police will likely decline to get involved. You had no insurance at the time of the accident so they can not file a claim. Do not worry about them getting a lawyer because no lawyer will take a $600.00 case.

You should tell these people that you understand that you are responsible for the damage and are willing to pay for it. You have already given them a $200.00 down payment and will pay the balance as you can. If you have the money to pay it you should do so. But before paying them any more money you should write up a release form for them to sign and have notorized and sent back to you before you send them any more money. It should state that you ar paying the $600.00 in damage as PAYMENT IN FULL FOR ALL CLAIMS.

If they don't like those terms, tell them that you will deduct out of the $600.00 the cost of the food they ate while you were gracious enough to put them up during a crisis.

I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh