Auto Insurance Claims: Car backed into, insurance company, last question

Question
My car was parked in the church parking lot, and a friend backed into it. They have taken responsibility for it, but my question is, do I have to contact my insurance company, or is their company the only one we need to deal with? I would really not like to have a claim or anything on my insurance, since I was not at fault in this. Also, do we need to file a police report so that the insurance company will go forward? We found a good body shop that our mechanic goes to, and they already gave us an estimate--will their insurance company pay the shop that we want to fix our car? And, one last question, I will need a rental car to be able to take my kids to school and so forth, is that something that they will pay for as well? Thank you!

Answer
Hi Jennifer,

You do not need to report the accident to your insurance company.

Just report it to the at-fault persons insurance company and they will handle it. You can take your car to the body shop of your choice, however the insurance company will likely want to sent out a damage estimator to write their own estimate and take pictures. If they do this, be sure to give a copy of their estimate to your body shop. If the shop has a problem with the estimate they will have to call the insurance company to negotiate any differences. The insurance company will also owe you for a rental car during the repairs.

I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh