One of the more overlooked aspects of purchasing automobile insurance is updating your insurance company when your children become of driving age. Your insurance company adjusts your annual premium based on how many people in a particular household could realistically be driving the vehicles insured under the policy at any given time. Often, folks will purchase insurance or change insurance carriers before their children get their learner’s permits. The broker or agent may not remind you that you need to notify your carrier that your children are of driving age and most of the time, people flat out forget.
Even if the child is of driving age, oftentimes because of family circumstances, some children don’t get learner’s permits; there may be acceptable public transportation in the region, or for whatever circumstance this does not happen. Most people think that once the child starts “driving” they need to inform the insurance company but this is not the case. Say, for instance, a child is 17 or 18 and still living in their parents’ house but they do not have a learner’s permit or driver’s license. A reasonable conclusion would be that the child does not need to be added to the policy or at least the carrier does not need to be notified and sometimes this decision is made because the parents are fearful that the “insurance rate will go up”.
Regardless of the reason, the result is the family does not notify their carrier and then, one of the parents gets into an accident. Once that happens, the parent claims their personal injury protection (PIP) benefits or maybe even as far as making an uninsured motorist claim. During the investigation by the insurance company, they may request a recorded statement of the insured parent or parents and ask them an otherwise innocuous question about who lives with them. They respond to one or two children, ages 15-20. The statement concludes and everything is fine and then the insured gets a letter in the mail saying that they have committed a material misrepresentation and that they should have informed the carrier that there was a driving-age child in the house and that they are disclaiming or denying coverage for the accident. What’s worse: they will also drop the family from coverage and refund their remaining premium payment if it has already been paid.
This is a disastrous way to lose coverage and access to insurance benefits you may have been paying for over several years. It is important to notify your insurance company once your child turns 15 so that they can adjust your premium accordingly and you can avoid any catastrophic coverage determinations in future accident situations that may take dollars away from your treatment and potentially your settlement. You should contact our office for a free evaluation of your automobile accident and whether you have a viable claim for benefits. It is important to consult with an attorney because carriers receive numerous injury claims a day and they prioritize claims where the victim is represented.
You can achieve better results if you are patient and allow your attorneys to work on your behalf. If you have any additional questions or if you have been involved in an automobile accident in central Florida, you can call our office 24 hours a day at 407-478-4878.
JABARI BENNET, ESQ.
