Florida's PIP and property damage mandate, and why BI is optional

Florida lets most drivers register a car with two coverages: $10,000 of personal injury protection (PIP), which pays your own medical bills and lost wages whoever caused the crash, and $10,000 of property damage liability, which pays for what you damage that belongs to someone else. Nothing in the registration requirement pays for the injuries you cause to other people. Bodily injury liability stays optional for most drivers, and it becomes mandatory only after specific events, such as a DUI conviction or a crash in which you were uninsured.

That design is a deliberate feature of a no-fault system, and it leaves real gaps. As of November 2026, the law described below is the 2026 Florida Statutes text; rules change, so confirm current figures with the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles or the state car insurance requirements lookup tool before relying on any number here.

What Florida actually requires

Two statutes do most of the work. Section 627.733 says the owner or registrant of most vehicles that must be registered in Florida has to keep security in force for the whole registration period. Section 627.736 sets the PIP benefits that security must provide. Section 324.022 sets the property damage requirement: $10,000 for damage to others' property in any one crash. That section describes no separate bodily injury minimum. It does allow a policy with a combined limit of at least $30,000 for property damage and bodily injury together, but nothing forces you to buy that.

The state's driver agency describes the same thing in plain terms. Before registering a vehicle with four or more wheels, you must show proof of PIP and property damage liability (PDL), each with a $10,000 minimum, according to the FLHSMV insurance page. The same page notes that taxis carry bodily injury liability of $125,000 per person and $250,000 per occurrence, which shows how deliberately the ordinary requirement leaves BI out.

A person who drives without the required security is exposed in a way an insured driver is not. Under 627.733(4), an owner whose vehicle lacked required security at the time of an accident loses tort immunity and becomes personally responsible for the PIP benefits an injured person would otherwise have received from an insurer.

How the $10,000 PIP benefit works

PIP is first-party coverage: you claim from your own insurer, with no need to prove the other driver was at fault. Section 627.736(1) sets a limit of $10,000 for medical and disability benefits combined, plus a $5,000 death benefit. The pieces are:

• Medical benefits. 80 percent of reasonable expenses for medically necessary care, as long as the first treatment starts within 14 days after the accident.
• Disability benefits. 60 percent of lost gross income and lost earning capacity from being unable to work because of the injury, plus certain household-replacement services.
• Death benefit. $5,000 per person, paid in addition to the medical and disability benefits.

Medical and disability benefits share one $10,000 pot. Every dollar paid for a lost paycheck is a dollar not available for a hospital bill.

Two more rules shape what that pot buys:

1. The 14-day clock. Treatment must begin within 14 days. Miss it and the benefit generally does not apply. Our separate article on the Florida PIP: the 14-day deadline and the emergency condition cap covers how that works in practice.
2. The emergency condition cap. If a qualifying provider determines you had an emergency medical condition, up to the full $10,000 is available. If the provider determines you did not, medical reimbursement is limited to $2,500, according to the statute text.

Providers are paid under a fee schedule. For most non-hospital services, the statute caps payment at 200 percent of the Medicare Part B amount, and insurers may pay 80 percent of the scheduled amount. Providers generally cannot bill you for the difference. That is why $10,000 stretches somewhat further than a hospital's list price would suggest, and also why the 80 percent share can leave you with a balance on some bills.

For the line-by-line benefit rules that apply in every PIP state, see PIP benefits explained: medical bills, lost wages and services and the broader guide to PIP.

A worked example

These numbers are hypothetical. Say Dana is hurt in a crash that is not her fault. She is seen in an emergency room within a day, and a provider confirms an emergency medical condition. After the fee schedule, her reasonable medical charges total $9,000, and she misses six weeks of work with gross pay of $1,000 a week.

1. Medical benefit: 80 percent of $9,000 is $7,200.
2. Disability benefit: 60 percent of $6,000 in lost gross pay is $3,600.
3. Total claimed: $10,800, but the combined cap is $10,000.

PIP pays $10,000. Dana still owes the other 20 percent of her medical charges, has unpaid lost income, and absorbs the $800 over the cap. To recover the rest, she would turn to her health insurance, her uninsured motorist coverage if she bought it and the other driver qualifies as uninsured, or a claim against the at-fault driver. Whether she can sue is limited, because Florida's system restricts lawsuits to more serious injuries. The Insurance Information Institute lists Florida among the no-fault states with a verbal threshold that limits suits to serious injuries.

What the $10,000 property damage requirement covers

Property damage liability pays for damage you cause to other people's property. It does not pay for your own car, which is a collision or comprehensive question. The $10,000 is a single limit for the whole crash, shared among everyone whose property you harmed.

Here is why that matters, using made-up numbers. Say you rear-end a late-model SUV and push it into a guardrail owned by a county. The SUV's repair estimate is $8,500 and the guardrail repair is $3,500. That is $12,000 in damage against a $10,000 limit. Your insurer pays up to the limit, spread however the claims are resolved, and the remaining $2,000 is a debt you could be asked to pay personally. A newer, more expensive car in the same crash would exhaust the limit alone. Our article on why property damage limits fall short in today's crashes goes through why the gap is growing.

The $10,000 figure also appears in Florida's wider financial-responsibility rules. The state defines "proof of financial responsibility" in section 324.021(7) as $10,000 for injury to one person, $20,000 for injury to two or more people, and $10,000 for property damage, according to the statute. Those are the thresholds that matter when the state decides whether you can answer in damages after a crash, as described below.

Why bodily injury liability is optional for most drivers

Florida's no-fault law dates to 1972. The Insurance Information Institute's background on no-fault insurance lists Florida's effective date as January 1, 1972, and notes it was temporarily repealed in October 2007 and reenacted effective January 2008.

The logic of a no-fault system is a trade. Each injured person collects from their own PIP regardless of fault, so a lot of minor injury claims never become claims against the other driver. In return, lawsuits against the at-fault driver for pain and suffering are limited to more serious injuries. Under that logic, a mandatory third-party bodily injury policy matters less, because most people's routine injury costs are paid from PIP.

The trade has an obvious weakness. $10,000 does not cover a serious injury. Once PIP runs out, the injured person's remaining path is a claim against the at-fault driver, and if that driver bought no BI coverage, the claim is only as good as that driver's assets. A person with no BI coverage who causes a serious injury is not protected from the lawsuit; they simply have no insurer to pay it or defend it. The insurer's duty to defend comes from the liability coverage, and PIP and property damage coverage do not supply it for an injury claim.

So the optional status of BI shifts risk in two directions:

• To the driver who skips it. Your savings, wages and home are exposed to a judgment if you seriously injure someone and the case meets the threshold to sue.
• To everyone else on the road. If the driver who hits you has no BI coverage, your recovery above PIP depends on your own choices.

The Insurance Research Council's 2025 study estimated that 20.6 percent of Florida motorists were uninsured in 2023, seventh highest among the states, against 15.4 percent nationally, as reported by the Insurance Information Institute. The same table carries a footnote that compulsory auto laws in Florida cover personal injury protection and physical damage, but not third-party bodily injury coverage. The IRC's method uses the ratio of uninsured motorist claims to bodily injury claims, so Florida's figure reflects the unusual structure along with unlicensed or lapsed drivers. Do not read the 20.6 percent as the share of drivers with no insurance of any kind.

When bodily injury coverage becomes mandatory

Optional does not mean never. Three situations pull a driver into BI-level responsibility.

After a crash while uninsured

Section 324.051 ties the state's response to crash reports. If a crash must be reported and the operator cannot show financial responsibility, the department must, 30 days after it receives notice of the crash and after an opportunity to be heard, suspend the driver's license and the registrations of vehicles the driver operates, whether or not they were in the crash. The suspension lasts three years unless the person is reinstated under the chapter, per the text of 324.051.

The statute lists ways to avoid or end it, including that the vehicle was legally parked, was owned by a government, a signed release from all injured parties plus compliance with 324.031, a security deposit, or a one-year passage since a prior suspension with compliance and no court complaint filed. The law does not apply if the owner or operator had a liability policy at the time of the crash whose limits met section 324.021(7). A policy of PIP and $10,000 PDL alone does not meet the injury-to-others limits in that definition. The statute lists several exemption routes and the process turns on specifics, so a person facing a suspension notice should read the notice and call the department or an attorney rather than guess.

After a DUI

Under section 324.023, a person found guilty of or pleading guilty or no contest to DUI under section 316.193 after October 1, 2007 must keep proof of financial responsibility with minimum limits of $100,000 for one person injured, $300,000 for two or more, and $50,000 for property damage, for at least three years, per the statute. Insurers file proof of this coverage with the state on a form commonly called an FR-44. Our guide to FR-44 insurance in Florida and Virginia covers how the filing works and what it costs to maintain.

After a lapse

The FLHSMV page warns that you must keep the required coverage for the whole registration period or your driving privilege and license plate may be suspended. It lists a reinstatement fee of up to $500 and says no temporary or hardship license is available for insurance-related suspensions. It also advises turning in the plate before cancelling your insurance. A lapse is a registration problem first; it becomes a BI problem only if a crash occurs during the gap.

What a prudent driver adds

None of the following is a recommendation for a specific company or amount; they are the coverages that fill the holes the mandate leaves, and the decision depends on your assets, income and risk tolerance.

1. Bodily injury liability. This protects your assets and pays your defense if you injure someone. A common rule of thumb is to match limits to what a judgment could take from you. Our guide on how much liability coverage do you need? walks through the reasoning.
2. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. This is the coverage that pays you when the other driver has no BI insurance, which in Florida is a frequent situation. Under section 627.727, a policy that includes bodily injury liability must also include uninsured motorist coverage unless the named insured rejects it in writing on an Office of Insurance Regulation form, and a signed form is presumed to be an informed, knowing rejection for all insureds. UM limits must be at least the BI limits you bought unless you select lower limits the company's rating plan allows. The statute exempts policies with no primary liability coverage from that mandate, though it requires insurers to make UM available on a written request, up to the lesser of the policy's BI limits or $1 million. If you carry only PIP and PDL, ask your insurer exactly what UM it will sell you and at what limit. For more on waivers, see rejecting uninsured motorist coverage in writing: when waivers fail.
3. Collision and comprehensive. PIP pays injuries, and PDL pays other people's property. Neither fixes your car. If you have a loan or lease, the lender will require both.
4. Higher property damage limits. The cost of the first $10,000 is small compared with the exposure above it.
5. An umbrella policy, if your assets justify it, which sits above liability limits. See umbrella insurance: liability protection above your auto policy.

The 2025 and 2026 debate over repealing no-fault

Whether Florida should keep PIP at all has been a live legislative question. In the 2026 session, Senate Bill 522, titled "Motor Vehicle Insurance" and sponsored by Sen. Grall, proposed repealing the Florida Motor Vehicle No-Fault Law (sections 627.730 through 627.7405 and 627.7407). The Florida Senate bill page shows it was filed November 17, 2025 and died in the Banking and Insurance Committee on March 13, 2026, with an effective date of January 1, 2027 had it passed.

As filed, the bill would have replaced PIP with a bodily injury and property damage requirement. The filed bill text set $25,000 for one person injured, $50,000 for two or more, and $10,000 for property damage, effective January 1, 2027, with the DUI limits in section 324.023 unchanged. That is a description of a bill that did not pass, not of current law. The companion House bill, HB 769, also died on March 13, 2026, in the Civil Justice and Claims Subcommittee, according to the Senate's search of bills citing section 627.736. A similar search for 2025 shows bills with the same "Motor Vehicle Insurance" title (HB 1181 and SB 1256) also died.

The trade-off any repeal raises is easy to state. A required BI policy would put money behind people injured by other drivers, while PIP pays small and moderate injury claims quickly without proving fault. That describes the mechanism, not what any legislator argued. If you want the current status, check the bill history on the Florida Senate or House site; the Legislature can take the issue up again in any later session.

PIP fraud rules and the glass changes

Two other Florida changes explain parts of today's PIP and comprehensive claims.

PIP billing and fraud. Section 627.736 now contains several fraud-related rules. Medical benefits do not include massage therapy, and licensed massage therapists and acupuncturists cannot be reimbursed for PIP medical benefits. The insured must countersign a disclosure form at the initial visit attesting that the services were actually rendered. An insurer does not have to pay for knowingly false statements, upcoded or unbundled services, or services that were not lawful when rendered. If an insured commits PIP-related insurance fraud, admitted under sworn statement or established in court, the fraud voids the related coverage and the insurer can recover payments. When an insurer suspects fraud, subsection (4)(i) requires it to tell the claimant within 30 days that the claim is under investigation and gives it 90 days from submission to pay or deny. Claims arising from unlawful patient brokering are not reimbursable. These provisions target provider billing schemes more than injured drivers, but they apply to an honest claimant's paperwork too: answer the insurer's requests and keep copies of what you sign.

Glass. Under section 627.7289, a policyholder may not enter into an assignment agreement of post-loss benefits for motor vehicle glass replacement or repair, including recalibration of driver-assistance systems, for policies issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2023. Such an agreement is void and unenforceable. In practice, a shop cannot take over your glass claim by having you sign away your benefits; you deal with the insurer, and the shop bills you or works under the insurer's own arrangements.

Common questions

Does Florida's PIP pay if I was at fault?

Yes. PIP is first-party, no-fault coverage, so your own policy pays your covered medical and disability benefits regardless of who caused the crash, subject to the 14-day treatment rule and the $10,000 limit.

If the other driver hit me and has no bodily injury coverage, who pays?

Your own PIP pays first, up to its limit. Beyond that, the options are your health insurance, uninsured motorist coverage if you bought it and the other driver qualifies, or a claim against the other driver personally, which may be limited by Florida's threshold for suing and by what that driver can pay.

Is property damage coverage enough to fix a modern car?

Often not. $10,000 is a single limit for the whole crash, and a repair or replacement of a recent model can use it up alone. If you cause damage beyond the limit, the other party or their insurer can seek the difference from you.

Does Florida require insurance for people who do not drive much?

The requirement attaches to the registered vehicle, not to how often you drive it. Section 627.733 requires security in force throughout the registration period. If a car is truly not in use, ask the FLHSMV how to surrender the plate before you cancel coverage.

Key takeaways

• Florida's registration requirement is $10,000 of PIP and $10,000 of property damage liability, as of the 2026 statutes; bodily injury liability is not required for most drivers.
• PIP pays 80 percent of medical bills and 60 percent of lost gross income from one shared $10,000 pot, if treatment starts within 14 days.
• Optional BI means many at-fault drivers have no insurer to pay for the injuries they cause, which is why uninsured motorist coverage matters for Florida drivers.
• BI-level coverage becomes mandatory after a DUI (100/300/50 for at least three years) and effectively after an uninsured, reportable crash.
• A 2026 bill to repeal no-fault (SB 522) died in committee on March 13, 2026; the rules above remain current law, so verify before you rely on them.