First of all, I did first ask a lawyer about it and he just told me the insurance wouldn't "double pay". When I asked what he meant, he said that if I receive cash from the guilty party, the insurance would discount that amount from the amount they would pay for the repairs. But he didn't give much more explanation and dismissed it whenever I brought the idea back. So, I'm lost and I don't know if it could be considered fraud in any way.
The case: a guy crashed on my car and is stalling to pay me. In the end he said he will pay some amount that does not seem enough to cover for all the damage and rental car during repair. But that amount would be more than enough to cover my deductible and the increase in insurance grade in the next 2 years. So I wonder if I can take that amount and then just use my own insurance for the repairs. Obviously he wouldn't be paying for the repairs, since the insurance paid for it, he would be paying me for my troubles, or as a kind of apology.
Has anyone actually tried that?
According to my brief and very unqualified search, it doesn't seem to be illegal in Japan, but I'm not 100% sure of it. Obviously it could also go against the insurance terms, which is surprisingly harder to find out.
Finally, I wonder if the insurance would go after the other guy for the cash after paying for my repairs, which obviously would make him angry and maybe want his money back.
The other choice is suing, obviously. But the other guy is a foreigner with no property in Japan and could easily just run away from the lawsuit, hence my hurry to just get any cash I can from him rather than footing 100% of the bill.
by nexflatline