Those who want to drive in New York must have auto insurance, and it must provide a certain minimum amount of coverage. Without this insurance, you can’t register your vehicle and drive anywhere. They are also very strict about this, making it so that your vehicle can not even be registered without the proper proof of insurance. So what exactly is the minimum amount of New York auto insurance coverage that you need?
You are required to get New York auto insurance coverage in the amount of $50,000 for basic no fault coverage, $10,000 in property damage coverage, uninsured motorist coverage and bodily injury coverage each in the amounts of $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident for injury and $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident for death.
Since New York is a no fault state, this insurance coverage is to pay for injury to you, your passengers, and others not in the car that are injured, as well as damage to your own vehicle. The other driver’s coverage will handle any damages or injuries that occur on their part during the accident, regardless of who was at fault.
Of course you don’t have to limit yourself to this amount of coverage, you can always get a policy that has a bit more coverage in one area or another. In the case of serious damages or injuries if your coverage is not enough it is still possible for people to sue you, so it might not hurt to look into this option.
One other thing that you need to know about New York auto insurance coverage is that you have to get your insurance through a New York company. The insurance must come through the New York State Insurance Department. Since you can’t get insurance through out of state companies this might limit your options a bit and make it harder to get really low rates.
You have to be especially careful not to let your New York auto insurance coverage lapse as the Department of Motor Vehicles monitors this closely and will be notified by your insurance company if this happens. Then you will have to either surrender your license plates to them or pay a daily fee as long as the lapse is for less than 90 days.
This cost can really add up however, so it is best to be diligent in paying for your insurance and making sure that if you switch the new company notifies the Department of Motor Vehicles of the change right away so you don’t have to deal with any problems or pay any fines for not having the proper insurance coverage.
It isn’t all that difficult to get your New York auto insurance coverage however. You can still do a search online to try to get the best auto insurance rates like you can in any other state. You can also work through an insurance agent. Once you find the right company and policy for you, you just need to complete the paperwork and start paying the appropriate amount to the insurance company in order to maintain your coverage.
