Fender Bender Question

vintagefix

The story:

Saturday, after DH got home from work one of our neighbors knocked on our door and told us another one of our neighbors just hit his car. Ugh. DH was home for literally 5 minutes. The neighbor who hit the car hit it with a Uhaul truck that was in his girlfriend's name that he was not authorized to drive. He was also trying to pull into a spot that you are not allowed to park in. It left a huge scratch on our bumper. This would not be a big deal but it is a really large scratch (the size of a dinner plate) and we want it fixed just so we don't end up with our car rusting away sooner than it normally would. Plus, we just take car of and maintain our stuff.

The guy who hit it is a complete moron. They've only been living next to us for about 6 months so we don't know them at all. We only learned their names yesterday. The guy was trying to say he didn't think he hit it even though there were several people who saw him do it. His girlfriend shows up and is livid at him for being so stupid. She seems to have some brains so DH talks mostly to her. She kept insisting that they would pay for it and she was really hoping we wouldn't involve insurance, etc... because it would be really bad for her since he was not listed as a driver. We are totally fine with them just paying for it but called the police to have it recorded just in case. (Again, we don't know them so their word means nothing.) That gets them in a frenzy and while DH is able to make the woman understand, the guy is not comprehending anything. We left the situation with no hard feelings and the accident on record and photos as proof. DH told the woman he would get an estimate this week and call her.

As standard procedure, the cop ran down the list of our options if they did NOT pay for the damage (insurance, lawsuits, etc...). Moron MaGoo freaks out about the mention of those things and then tries to tell the cop that he didn't do it (lied to a cop = awesome dude). So the officer told us this and reminded us to take photos because he obviously hit the car since he saw the damage on both vehicles and they agreed in the report to pay for the damages.

The next morning we were out of town at a fall festival with LO. DH gets a phone call from the moron and a message saying that the guy to give the estimate was at our house and he didn't know if we were home. Um, why wouldn't you call first???

Anyway, my question is: is it normal for the person who damaged your vehicle to be the one who picks the mechanic to give the estimate and repairs? I'm thinking that is crazy and I'm choosing the mechanic/body shop who is repairing my vehicle!! I want someone we trust, not some joe we don't even know is a good mechanic. Are we in the right to ignore his dude and choose our own?

 (Sorry, this turned into more of a rant than a simple question. Thanks for reading! And the silver lining is that they are moving OUT not IN!)