Florida auto insurance: what the law requires and what your assets need you to review

Florida auto insurance: what the law requires

Florida auto insurance works differently from most states. Every vehicle with at least four wheels registered in Florida must carry, at registration, a minimum of $10,000 in personal injury protection (PIP) and $10,000 in property damage liability (PDL)¹. For private passenger cars, the law does not require bodily injury liability (BI), the coverage that pays for injury or death to others¹.

For comparison, vehicles registered as taxis must carry bodily injury liability of $125,000 per person and $250,000 per occurrence¹. The distance between those numbers and a family car's minimum shows how much real protection depends on each household's choices.

Why bodily injury liability matters even though it is not required

If a family member causes a crash with serious injuries and there is no BI coverage, the claim goes to the responsible person and, with them, to their assets. Besides paying up to the limit, an auto policy with BI typically includes the insured's legal defense, which in a lawsuit can cost as much as the award itself.

BI is also the foundation for other protections. Most umbrella policies require a minimum auto liability limit, and each insurer sets its own amount⁹. And in Florida, the requirement to include UM coverage applies only to policies with bodily injury liability³, so a PIP and PDL only policy typically leaves the family without that protection. Florida's financial responsibility law can also require proof of BI coverage after certain crashes or convictions.

Uninsured motorist coverage in Florida

About 1 in 5 Florida drivers (20.6%) was uninsured in 2023, the seventh highest rate in the country according to Insurance Research Council data². Uninsured motorist coverage pays for injuries to you and your family when the at-fault driver has no insurance or too little. Because BI is not required in Florida, many insured drivers also lack limits that could respond to serious injuries.

Section 627.727 requires every auto policy with BI to include UM coverage at limits no lower than the BI limits, unless a named insured rejects it or selects lower limits in writing on a regulator-approved form³. If the named insured signs that form, the law conclusively presumes an informed rejection on behalf of all insureds under the policy³.

The law also lets insurers offer a non-stacking version: with it, the UM limits on two or more vehicles are not added together for one injured person. It requires informed written acceptance, must cut the UM premium by at least 20 percent, and the election carries over at renewal until the named insured asks to remove it and pays the corresponding premium³. For example, in a hypothetical family with three cars and $250,000 of UM on each, stacked coverage could allow limits to be combined, while non-stacked coverage typically caps the claim at a single vehicle's limit.

Teen drivers and signing the license application (322.09)

In Florida, the person who signs the permit or license application of a minor under 18 takes on direct liability: the minor's negligence or willful misconduct behind the wheel is imputed to that person, who is jointly and severally liable with the minor for the resulting damages (section 322.09)⁴. That liability exists even if the car is not titled to the person who signed.

Owner liability, explained in the next section, comes on top of that. In practice, a new teen driver is one of the moments when it most pays to review BI, UM and umbrella limits together.

• Add the teen driver to the policy and confirm which vehicles they drive.
• Check whether the car they use meets your umbrella's underlying limit.
• Tell your umbrella insurer about the new driver if the contract requires it.
• Ask your attorney how the vehicle should be titled.

The owner is liable: Florida's dangerous instrumentality doctrine

Florida courts apply the dangerous instrumentality doctrine: an owner who entrusts a vehicle to someone else can be liable for the driver's negligence, even if the owner was not there. The law caps that liability in certain cases. Under section 324.021(9)(b)3, an owner who is a natural person and lends a vehicle to a permissive user is liable only up to $100,000 per person and $300,000 per incident for bodily injury, and up to $50,000 for property damage⁵.

There is an important wrinkle: if the permissive user is uninsured or has less than $500,000 of combined limits, the owner can be liable for up to an additional $500,000 in economic damages, reduced by amounts recovered from the driver or the driver's insurance⁵. The cap also does not limit the owner's liability for the owner's own negligence, for example lending the car to someone the owner knew should not drive⁵.

That paragraph addresses owners who are natural persons. If a vehicle is titled to a company or a trust, the analysis can differ and is worth reviewing with your attorney.

Household employees behind the wheel and rideshare use

When a driver, nanny or assistant drives the family's cars, specific questions come up: whether that person is listed as a driver, whether the policy covers regular use of the vehicle, and whether their own limits matter when they use their own car for family errands. If they drive as part of the job, employer liability rules may also apply. In Florida, domestic servants in private homes are excluded from the definition of employment under the workers' compensation law (section 440.02), although an employer may voluntarily elect that coverage (section 440.04)^8,10.

Rideshare and delivery use is another common gap. Section 627.748 lets the insurer of a personal auto policy exclude all coverage, including liability, UM, PIP, collision and comprehensive, while the driver is logged on to the platform or providing a prearranged ride⁷. The law requires platform or driver coverage of $50,000 per person, $100,000 per incident and $25,000 for property damage while logged on but not engaged in a prearranged ride, and $1 million during a prearranged ride, which begins when the driver accepts a ride request⁷.

Collector car insurance and agreed value

A standard auto policy usually pays actual cash value, which subtracts depreciation. Collector car insurance and classic car policies typically use agreed value instead: the III explains that the car is covered up to that value without depreciation, and that the value should be updated if the car appreciates⁶.

In exchange, these policies usually set conditions: the car cannot be used for commuting or errands, there may be mileage limits, and it must be stored in a locked, enclosed private structure⁶. In Florida, it is also worth asking how the policy responds if a hurricane or flood affects the garage where the collection is stored.

As a next step, gather your auto and umbrella policies and your vehicle titles, and review the questions below with your licensed agent and your attorney.

How to reduce the risk

These steps lower the chance of a crash and keep the family's liability in order:

• Agree on written rules with each new driver before handing over the keys: passengers, night driving, phone use and which cars they may drive. The adult who signs a minor's license application shares liability for the minor's negligent driving⁴.
• Ask your agent whether a safe-driving or telematics program, which records habits such as speed, braking and phone use, is available and how the data is used.
• Assign each driver to the car they actually use most, and tell your agent when that changes.
• Keep cars garaged and locked, with keys and fobs away from doors and windows.
• Before lending a car, remember that under the dangerous instrumentality doctrine the owner can be liable for the driver's negligence⁵.
• Do not let staff or relatives use a family car for rideshare or delivery work; a personal policy can exclude that use⁷.
• Store collector cars the way the policy requires and plan how to move or protect them before a hurricane⁶.
• Review bodily injury and UM limits every year against your assets and what your umbrella requires^3,9.

If you want a second look at how your family is set up on this, write to me.