Florida Car Insurance Requirements: PIP, PDL and What Most Households Carry Instead
Florida car insurance requirements are shorter than most drivers expect, two coverages of $10,000 each to register a car and no bodily injury liability for most drivers. Working with you, we explain what no-fault does, settle the repeal rumors with the bill dates, and compare 6+ Florida auto carriers.
On this page
- What car insurance does Florida require? The short answer
- The legal floor: the two coverages Florida requires to register a car
- What Florida PIP covers, who it covers, and the 14-day rule
- PIP versus medical payments coverage
- Did Florida repeal PIP? No. The bill history, by date
- Bodily injury liability and Florida’s financial responsibility law
- What most Florida households carry instead of the minimum
- Proof of insurance, cancellations and what a lapse does
- Florida car insurance requirements: questions we hear
What car insurance does Florida require? The short answer
To register a car in Florida the state requires $10,000 of personal injury protection and $10,000 of property damage liability, kept in force continuously. Florida does not require bodily injury liability of most drivers. Florida has not repealed PIP; the 2021 repeal was vetoed and the 2026 bills died in committee on March 13, 2026. Most households carry well above the floor, and the page on how much car insurance you need explains why.
Florida car insurance requirements confuse people for two reasons. The state is one of a few no-fault states, which changes what the required coverage is for, and it is one of two states that does not require bodily injury liability of ordinary drivers, which is why the floor is so low. Add a steady stream of repeal rumors and it is easy to end up unsure what the law is. The sections below give the floor, what PIP actually does, the difference between PIP and medical payments, the bill history with dates, the financial responsibility law, what a preferred-risk household carries instead, and what happens when coverage lapses.
One definition will help as you read. No-fault means that after a crash, each driver’s own policy responds first to that driver’s own injuries, up to the PIP limit and regardless of who caused the crash. It does not mean nobody is at fault; liability claims and lawsuits still exist above the no-fault threshold, which is why the liability coverages on the rest of the policy matter.
The legal floor: the two coverages Florida requires to register a car
Florida’s registration requirement is written in the no-fault law and the financial responsibility law together, and it comes to two coverages.
What Florida requires, what it offers, and what is optional
| Coverage | Florida rule | What it is designed to respond to |
|---|---|---|
| Personal injury protection (PIP) | Required: $10,000 per person to register a car with four or more wheels. | Your own medical bills and lost wages after a crash, regardless of fault, under the no-fault rules below. |
| Property damage liability (PDL) | Required: $10,000 per accident. | Damage you cause to other people’s cars and property. |
| Bodily injury liability (BI) | Not required of most drivers. Required of some under the financial responsibility law after certain accidents, suspensions or convictions. | Injuries you cause to other people, and your legal defense. |
| Uninsured motorist (UM) | Not required, but a policy with BI must offer it at the BI limits, and rejecting it takes a signed state-approved form. | Your own injuries when the at-fault driver has no BI coverage or not enough. |
| Medical payments, collision, comprehensive | Optional. A lender requires collision and comprehensive on a financed car. | Medical bills above PIP; damage to your own car. |
The two required coverages must be kept in force continuously while the car is registered, and the carrier reports cancellations to the state.
The floor is designed to get a car onto the road, and it does almost nothing for the driver who causes a serious crash or the driver who is hit by someone carrying only the floor. That gap is the reason for our page on how much car insurance you need in Florida, which walks the limits ladder from this floor to an umbrella. The rest of this page explains what the required coverage does.
What Florida PIP covers, who it covers, and the 14-day rule
Personal injury protection responds to your own injuries after a crash, regardless of fault. Under section 627.736 of the Florida Statutes it responds to 80 percent of reasonable and necessary medical expenses and 60 percent of lost income, up to $10,000 per person, plus a $5,000 death benefit. Two conditions written into the statute after the 2012 reform shape nearly every PIP claim. You must receive initial treatment within 14 days of the crash for the benefits to respond at all. And the full $10,000 is available for medical benefits only when a qualifying provider determines you had an emergency medical condition; without that determination, medical benefits are limited to $2,500.
PIP follows people rather than cars. It responds to the named insured and the relatives who live in the household when they are hurt in the insured car, in someone else’s car, or as pedestrians or cyclists struck by a vehicle, and to passengers in the insured car who do not have PIP of their own, all according to the policy’s terms. That is why a household needs only one PIP policy per car rather than one per person, and why a relative who moves in belongs on the policy.
Carriers must offer PIP deductibles of $250, $500 and $1,000 under section 627.739, and the deductible applies to the named insured and resident relatives. Some carriers also offer to exclude the work-loss benefit for a lower premium. We recommend leaving both options off in most households, because they reduce a benefit that is already small in exchange for a modest saving; a household with strong disability coverage through work is the usual exception on the work-loss option, and that is a conversation rather than a rule.
A PIP claim is filed with your own carrier, which is the point of no-fault. The medical providers bill the carrier under the statute’s fee schedule, and disputes over PIP bills are between the provider and the carrier. Our part comes earlier, in setting the policy up so the household’s PIP, MedPay and health coverage fit together.
PIP versus medical payments coverage
Medical payments coverage, called MedPay, is the optional line that fills what PIP leaves.
PIP and medical payments coverage, side by side
| Question | Personal injury protection (PIP) | Medical payments (MedPay) |
|---|---|---|
| Required? | Yes, $10,000. | No. Optional, sold in small steps by most carriers. |
| What share of medical bills | 80 percent of reasonable and necessary medical expenses, up to the limit. | The 20 percent PIP leaves and costs above the PIP limit, up to the MedPay limit. |
| Lost wages | 60 percent of lost income, within the same $10,000. | No. |
| Fault | Regardless of fault. | Regardless of fault. |
| Conditions | Initial treatment within 14 days; the full $10,000 only with an emergency medical condition determination, otherwise $2,500 for medical benefits. | The policy’s own terms; no statutory 14-day rule. |
| Deductible | Carriers must offer $250, $500 and $1,000 PIP deductibles; the deductible applies to the named insured and resident relatives. | Usually none. |
| Outside Florida | Does not respond to you as a pedestrian or a passenger in another state, and often not in a rental or borrowed car there. | Responds according to the policy, which is the reason households that travel tend to carry it. |
Both coverages respond according to the policy’s terms. MedPay is the line households with high-deductible health plans tend to value; households with strong health coverage sometimes skip it, and neither choice is wrong.
Did Florida repeal PIP? No. The bill history, by date
No, and the rumor has a history. Florida’s no-fault law has been debated in the Legislature for years, and twice a repeal has come close enough to generate headlines that outlived the bills.
Attempts to repeal Florida’s no-fault law, by date
| Session | Bill | What it proposed | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | SB 54 | Repeal the no-fault law and PIP; require bodily injury liability of $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident; change bad-faith rules. | Passed the House 100 to 16 and the Senate 37 to 3 on April 30, 2021. Vetoed by the Governor on June 30, 2021, citing possible unintended consequences for the market and consumers. |
| 2026 | SB 522 and HB 769 | Repeal the no-fault law and PIP; set new minimum liability requirements; revise uninsured motorist rules. | Both died in committee when the regular session adjourned on March 13, 2026. A bill still in committee at adjournment dies there. |
The law in force is the one described on this page: $10,000 of PIP and $10,000 of PDL, with bodily injury liability optional for most drivers. If a future session changes it, the change will carry an effective date, and the policy you hold on that date will be the one that has to change.
Three things follow for a Florida driver. The $10,000 PIP requirement and the 14-day rule still apply, and a policy that dropped PIP would not satisfy the registration requirement. The bodily injury limits of $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident that appear in the rumors were the minimums in the vetoed 2021 bill; they are not the law, and we describe them here so the number is recognizable when it appears in a search result. And a future change, if one passes, will carry an effective date and an adjustment period; the policy you hold on that date will be the one that has to change, and we will tell our clients before it does.
Bodily injury liability and Florida’s financial responsibility law
Bodily injury liability responds to injuries you cause to other people and pays for your legal defense, and Florida does not require most drivers to carry it. Chapter 324 of the Florida Statutes, the financial responsibility law, requires proof of bodily injury and property damage limits from drivers who have had certain accidents, license suspensions or convictions, and it sets a higher set of limits after a driving-under-the-influence conviction. Those drivers must file proof with the state and keep it on file for a stated period; everyone else may register a car with PIP and PDL alone.
The optional status of bodily injury coverage is the single most important fact about Florida auto insurance, because it describes the other drivers on the road. A driver carrying only the floor who injures you has no coverage that responds to your injuries, which is why uninsured motorist coverage is offered at your bodily injury limits and why rejecting it takes a signed form. Our stacked vs. non-stacked uninsured motorist page explains that coverage and the election.
What most Florida households carry instead of the minimum
The floor is the law; it is not what most households carry. On the policies we place for households that own a home or earn a steady income, the pattern is bodily injury liability of at least 100/300, uninsured motorist coverage at limits equal to bodily injury and stacked, property damage liability well above the minimum, collision and comprehensive on financed cars and on the cars the household relies on, and a personal umbrella with an uninsured motorist endorsement above the auto policy where there is income or savings to protect. Roughly 15 to 20 percent of Florida drivers carry no coverage at all, according to the Insurance Research Council, which is the fact that turns the uninsured motorist line from optional into essential.
None of those are rules, and there is no formula that turns income into a limit. Our page on how much car insurance you need in Florida walks the ladder step by step, and our page on who has to be on the policy covers the driver list. Working with you, we compare 6+ Florida auto carriers on the same limits so the difference between quotes is price and service rather than coverage.
Proof of insurance, cancellations and what a lapse does
Florida ties the two required coverages to the registration. Under section 324.0221, PIP and property damage liability must be kept in force for as long as the car is registered, and the carrier reports every cancellation and non-renewal to the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. When the state’s records show a gap, it sends a notice, and a driver who does not show new coverage faces suspension of the license and registration and a reinstatement fee that rises with each lapse.
Three practical points follow. Do not cancel an old policy until the new one is bound, because even a day’s gap is reported. If you sell a car, surrender the plate or transfer it before cancelling the coverage, so the registration is not left open with no insurance behind it, and ask for the car to come off the policy effective the day after the sale or trade-in rather than the same day, because a change takes effect at 12:01 a.m. and a same-day deletion leaves the hours before the handover uninsured; confirm the request in writing. And if you move to Florida, your out-of-state policy does not satisfy the requirement once you register here; our moving to Florida page covers the order that avoids a gap. Proof of insurance is the card or electronic card your carrier issues, and the state also checks its own records, so keeping the card current and the policy paid are both part of the requirement. Our Florida auto insurance page explains how a quote works from here.
Florida car insurance requirements: questions we hear
What car insurance is required in Florida?
To register a car with four or more wheels the state requires $10,000 of personal injury protection and $10,000 of property damage liability, kept in force continuously. Bodily injury liability is not required of most drivers, and uninsured motorist coverage must be offered but may be rejected on a signed form.
Is bodily injury liability required in Florida?
Not for most drivers. Florida’s financial responsibility law requires bodily injury limits of drivers who have had certain accidents, suspensions or convictions, with a higher set after a driving-under-the-influence conviction. Everyone else may register a car with PIP and PDL alone, which is why most households carry bodily injury coverage by choice rather than by law.
Did Florida repeal PIP?
No. The Legislature passed a repeal in 2021, SB 54, and the Governor vetoed it on June 30, 2021. The 2026 bills, SB 522 and HB 769, died in committee when the session adjourned on March 13, 2026. The $10,000 PIP requirement and the 14-day rule remain in force.
What does Florida PIP cover?
PIP responds to 80 percent of reasonable and necessary medical expenses and 60 percent of lost income, up to $10,000 per person, plus a $5,000 death benefit, regardless of fault. It follows the named insured and resident relatives into any car and onto the sidewalk, and it responds to passengers in the insured car who have no PIP of their own, according to the policy’s terms.
What is Florida’s 14-day PIP rule?
You must receive initial treatment within 14 days of the crash for PIP benefits to respond. The full $10,000 is available for medical benefits only when a qualifying provider determines you had an emergency medical condition; without that determination, medical benefits are limited to $2,500.
What is the difference between PIP and MedPay in Florida?
PIP is required and responds to 80 percent of medical bills and 60 percent of lost wages up to $10,000 with the 14-day rule attached. MedPay is optional and responds to the 20 percent PIP leaves and to costs above the PIP limit, regardless of fault, under the policy’s own terms and without the statutory 14-day rule. MedPay also reaches where PIP does not, such as a pedestrian or passenger outside Florida and passengers in your car who carry PIP on a vehicle of their own, since they look to their own PIP first but can collect your MedPay.
Do I need uninsured motorist coverage in Florida?
It is not required, but a policy with bodily injury liability must offer it at the bodily injury limits, and rejecting it or choosing lower limits takes a signed state-approved form. We recommend it at limits equal to bodily injury, stacked, because roughly 15 to 20 percent of Florida drivers carry no coverage at all.
What happens if my Florida car insurance lapses?
The carrier reports the cancellation to the state, the state sends a notice, and a driver who does not show new coverage faces suspension of the license and registration plus a reinstatement fee that rises with each lapse. Bind the new policy before cancelling the old one, and surrender or transfer the plate before cancelling coverage on a car you sell.
What do most Florida households carry above the minimum?
Bodily injury liability of at least 100/300, uninsured motorist coverage equal to it and stacked, property damage well above the minimum, collision and comprehensive on financed and relied-on cars, and a personal umbrella with an uninsured motorist endorsement where there is income or savings to protect. There is no formula; the limits are set with your agent.