Customer smashed into my building this am. Now what?
 

So I am in there early this am, and I hear a car pulling into park, and then I hear my shelving coming down on my one wall. Car not bad, older e 420, but it smashed in 5 sections of siding , probably snapped a stud or two ,damaged some drywall, and moved some of the lower block wall. It is a pole building built on top of 2 courses of block.
He is a super good guy, older gent from Australia, funny as hell, and lets me cut firewood on his property, I will say I like him, and don't want to give him a hard time , but.... This is not going to be a $500.00 fix. I don't think they will ever be able to match the siding, it is probably 15 years old, and an ugly green color, and it is the front of the building, so I have to fix it. He said just to charge him for the damages, but I am not sure he has an idea of how much. He is out of town until Friday, I am not going to make any moves until I talk to him, but I think we have to turn this into the ins man.
I am not looking to prosper here either, but have spent a butload of time and money over the last 10 years fixing up this place, and it is finally starting to look good. Cannot have the front wall smashed in.

Let your insurance company handle it and let the chips fall where they may. Don't wait until you talk to the customer, get the claim started now.

you are required to report it

- tell him that next time you talk to him; his insurance will no doubt cover it

if he is very old, this may be a favor to him, as he may no longer be capable of driving safely

I agree with the above. You should look at your insurance policy, because it probably has a time period in which you must report the incident to them. This sounds like it very well may be a fairly significant amount of money to put right, and that's what you have insurance for.