Car Insurance: Use it, You Won’t Lose It
Many people are under the false impression that if they use their auto insurance coverage after an accident to pay for their medical bills or repair their vehicle, even if the accident wasn’t their fault, that their rates will go up or their insurance company will drop them. That’s just wrong!
Florida’s legislators don’t always get things right, but one good law specifically created to protect you from insurance companies is F.S. 626.9541. Basically, it says that an insurance company is not allowed to drop your coverage or raise your rates unless they have evidence in their file that you were “substantially at-fault” for the accident.
The law was created so that the insurance companies can’t sell you insurance, collect your premium, and then turn around and use fear to discourage you from making a claim when you are not at fault for an auto accident. The fear is that if your insurance company drops you, you’ll have to find a new company. This is not only inconvenient, but also may cost you more since the new company will be aware of your recent accident.
The other fear people have is that their rates will go up so that any benefits they receive from their own insurance like PIP, which pays your medical bills or collision coverage, which pays for your property damage, will be offset by the higher cost of insurance. You can see that collecting premium dollars and then scaring customers so they don’t make a valid claim substantially increases the insurance companies’ profits.
Here are some more important details:
- If you’re at fault for even one accident, the law allows your insurance company to drop you or raise your rates.
- The insurance company is likely to consider your receiving a ticket for an accident as evidence of “substantial fault” and so can drop you or raise your rates. If you feel you didn’t deserve the ticket, fight it. You’ll want witness statements, video if available and photos. Anything that will substantiate your claim that no, despite the ticket, you were not substantially at fault. Provide all this information to your insurance company and/or go to Court and win your case.
- If you are in 3 or more not at-fault accidents within a 36-month period, the law says your insurance company can drop you or raise your rates. The law figures that at some point it’s only fair to let the insurance company off the hook or to reimburse them for your multiple accidents. Caution: if your insurance company pays for a cracked window repair…that counts as one of your three claims.
So what to do if despite everything I just shared, you get a letter from your insurance company after a not at-fault accident that your rates are going up or you are being dropped? Well, let’s look to the law again. The law says you can send a letter to your insurance company demanding an explanation. They may have raised the rates of every policy owner like you in Florida, for which they are required to file a notice with the Department of Insurance. And if the letter states that they dropped you or raised your results because of the not at-fault accident, call me. Not only do I know the law, I can enforce it.