recently I was at work and some girl accidently backed into my car lightly scratching the front bumper and taking off the front plate off. She admitted it was her fault and her insurance gave me a check. I went to a local body shop and recieved an estimate, is it mandatory to have the repairs completed or is it an option? I've read on another car forum where one member said that if the car is paid off, then the person who was damaged can do what ever they want with the check they recieved from the other party's insurance company.

 

you can keep the money without doing the repairs, but you cant claim that damage again from any insurance company or it would be fraud. The money basically comps you for the reduction in value of your car.

ps. I am not a lawyer and this is just my opinion.

 

without knowing where you are, any answer will be based on where the responder lives/experience
Here in Illinois, you can take the money and do whatever you want with it.
we aren't particularly strict about cars here in illinois, so we get to do whatever we want with them, just use your head.
YMMV

 

You can keep the money.Do repairs anywhere.But if you dont do the repairs with the people that checked the car and you find more damage then estimated its on you. For instance if they found $500 in damage and when they start the work they find something else wrong and its gonna be $200 more they are resposible. By going somewhere else youll be resposible.Unless they settle for the check amount.

 

What I did was go to a few shops and got an extemely high one ($2300), got a medium one ($1,700) and a Low one ($800)

This was required by the insurance company and they sent us a check for $1700. We could do whatever we wanted with it. So I used it to buy my VE

 

what about getting the repairs done 4 months down the road from when the estimates were taken with no additional damage, would that still be okay? how about if I got into a different accident with the front bumper but with the previous damage still there, how will that work?

 

talk to the insurance company the other person was covered by.

 

yes it would still be OK.
the second accident TECHNICALLY will only cover the additional damage. However they will more than likely cover the preexisting damage as well (been there, done that).