Every state in the US requires drivers to carry auto insurance. Each state gets to set its insurance requirements, and Singh Insurance and Financial Services, LLC of Clermont, FL wants to help you make sure you meet the Florida requirements. In Florida, the law requires both property damage liability and personal injury protection (PIP) insurance. You must purchase $10,000 of each type of coverage to comply with state law.

Required Insurance in Florida

In Florida, insurance law uses the no-fault precept. The required PIP policy pays for your medical bills if you get injured in an accident up to the policy limit.

The PIP required in Florida also pays for income loss resulting from a car accident, your child, and other household members. It also covers your medical bills when you are injured as a pedestrian or bicyclist in a car accident. Your passengers also get covered by your PIP insurance, and it covers you when you are a passenger in another person’s vehicle and involved as a passenger.

The liability insurance component pays for damages you cause to another’s vehicle in an auto accident. Although the state is a no-fault accident state, that does not mean that insurance companies and police do not determine fault. They do. So, your insurance pays for damages you cause to another person’s vehicle when you are found at fault for the accident.

Those two components are the only ones required, but you can elect to add other types. If you choose to do so, you can add comprehensive, collision, uninsured/underinsured motorist, bodily injury liability, and rental car coverage.

Penalties for No Insurance

The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV) uses an automated system to monitor insurance purchases. Each insurance company must electronically notify them of new policies and cancellations. When the DHSMV has no record of insurance for you, it notifies you by mail and provides a date by which you must prove you obtained insurance or you lose your driver’s license, registration, and car plates. If you miss the date, you must pay a fee of $150 for your first offense plus prove you have insurance. If it happens again, you must pay a fee of $250 when you prove you have obtained insurance. On the third offense, you pay a fee of $500 when you provide proof of insurance.

Let us help you figure out which auto insurance policy types you need. Call Singh Insurance and Financial Services, LLC of Clermont, FL today.