California Drivers Insurance Requirements for Additional People
In California, you must have liability insurance for all of the drivers in the household. If you don't and someone gets in an accident, the insurance company will turn down their claim.
There is a minimum level of coverage required in California. Liability insurance must pay $15,000 in medical damages if one person in the other car is hurt and $30,000 for two or more injuries. The insurance must also pay for $5000 in property damage including the repair of the car. Keep in mind that these figures apply only to the other car. Liability insurance does not cover damage done to your own vehicle.
If you don't carry liability insurance, the California Department of Motor Vehicles will suspend your license for up to a year. If you don't pay the damages you are liable for, they can suspend the license until you do. If you do not have liability insurance, you are personally responsible for all damage done.
If the person in your household has their own vehicle and their own insurance, you will not have to put them on your insurance. However, if they get into an accident in your car, their own insurance policy will have to cover them.
You should know that additional driver insurance protects someone only when they are driving your cars. They don't have insurance to cover them in other people's cars.
When you add an additional person to your coverage, it will increase the cost of your policy. The amount of the increase will depend on how old the driver is, their driving record, and sometimes even their credit score.
Parents are often shocked to find out how much their premiums skyrocket when they add a new teenaged driver to their insurance. Their student's good grades can help with the price though. If the additional driver has one or more accidents or traffic tickets, the rates are higher as well. The reason insurance companies are looking at credit scores more and more has to do with actuarial tables that show that bad credit equals bad driving.
Every person in the household should be covered by liability insurance. It can be yours or their own. But, if you don't make sure that this occurs, lending your car to a relative or roommate could turn out to be more expensive than you ever realized.
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