With what appears will be the new Alabama minimum property damage requirements, Florida is now in a three-way tie for having the lowest minimum auto insurance requirements.
In order to register a motor vehicle in the State of Florida, you need to two types of auto insurance: Property Damage Liability (PDL) of $10,000 and Personal Injury Protection (PIP) of $10,000.
The PIP insurance issue was finally (?) put to rest last year when the legislature re-instated it. However, I know of no discussion of the low PDL limits, which seem ridiculously low.
Let’s say you own a $25,000 vehicle and that you still owe the bank $18,000 on it. Then let’s say your car is totalled by someone who only carries the minimum amount of property damage insurance. You’ll get $10,00 from their insurance company, but now have to come up with $8,000 to pay off the bank, and you have no money for a down payment on a new one.
More importantly, Florida has no insurance requirement to compensate you if someone injures or kills you. Florida needs a mandatory personal injury liability coverage in addition to higher property damage liability. Frankly, if someone can’t insure themselves in case they negligently hurt someone else, they shouldn’t be allowed on the road anyway.
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