OWNER OF CAR RESPONSIBE WHEN PERSON THEY LOANED IT TO CAUSES ACCIDENT

When sharing your car with family or friends, you should keep in mind how it may affect your insurance premium. Insurance follows the car. So even if it’s not your fault, your policy might have to step in first if there is an accident. But its not just insurance. If there isn’t enough insurance, you’re equally responsible for the damages even if you weren’t driving. Our car accident lawyers represent people injured in an accident. Therefore, we see this situation frequently.

Why are you responsible when you loan out your car? Minnesota has a law called the Safety Responsibility Act. That law states the car owner is always primarily responsible when their car causes an accident. In other words, it does not matter if they were driving. In fact, they don’t even have to be in the car. If the owner of a vehicle borrows their car to someone, the owner is responsible if that driver causes an accident.

Insurance companies consider your car’s history when calculating premiums — and not just the driver’s history. This means if a driver borrowing your car gets into an accident, even a minor fender bender could increase your rates at renewal time. Of course, the financial impact typically increases with more serious accidents. If a driver borrows your car and is in a major collision with injuries, your insurance rates could spike. Even worse, if the damages exceed your policy limits, you may face personal liability for any remaining costs.

CAR ACCIDENT LAWYERS

Therefore, you should carefully consider who you allow to drive your vehicle, especially younger drivers or those you don’t know well. Also, if loan your car to the same person regularly, consider adding them to your policy. By regularly, we mean more than 10 to 12 times a year. While most car insurance providers allow lending your car every now and then, they don’t want to regularly insure someone they haven’t evaluated. They may deny coverage if the driver has regular use of your car. Being transparent about who regularly drives your car can help you avoid denied claims and policy cancellation in the future.

Pam Rochlin and David Rochlin are Minnesota car accident lawyers. We have more than 25 years’ experience representing injury victims throughout MN. If you have been injured in a car accident where the other car was borrowed, we will pursue your claim against the owner and the borrower. Our primary focus is to make sure you get all compensation you are entitled to.