What Car Insurance Is Required in Florida?

By Core 4 Insurance Team · Licensed Florida Insurance Agency · Miramar, FL

⏱ 16 min read 📅 Updated June 24, 2026 📍 Florida 🇪🇸 Disponible en Español

Florida requires $10,000 in PIP and $10,000 in PDL — and no, PIP was not repealed in 2026. Here is exactly what you must carry, what it actually pays for, the two deadlines that quietly wipe out benefits, and where the state minimum leaves you exposed.

You went to renew your registration, or a friend told you the rules changed, and now you're not sure what you're actually supposed to be carrying. Maybe you read that Florida got rid of PIP. Maybe an AI answer told you flat out that it ended on July 1, 2026.

It didn't. Here's the straight version, with the sources, so you can stop guessing.

This guide covers what Florida legally requires, what PIP really pays for, the two deadlines that quietly wipe out benefits people paid for, and where the minimum leaves you exposed. For the full picture of how every Florida coverage fits together, read our complete Florida Driver's Insurance Guide.

Did Florida PIP end on July 1, 2026?

The short answer: No. Florida still requires $10,000 in PIP and $10,000 in PDL. Bills to end the no-fault system were filed in 2024, 2025 and 2026, and every single one died in committee. Nothing was signed. Nothing changed.

This one deserves a straight explanation, because a lot of people got it wrong — and some of them should have known better.

In 2025, Florida lawmakers filed a pair of bills that would have scrapped the PIP requirement and replaced it with mandatory injury liability coverage. Those bills carried a proposed start date of July 1, 2026. That date is where all of this comes from. It was never a law. It was a proposal in a bill that stalled out.

Lawmakers tried again in the 2026 session. Those bills died in committee too, on March 13, 2026 — the day the session ended. And the same thing happened back in 2024.

Florida has had no-fault insurance since 1971. It's still here. If you dropped PIP because you read that it ended, you are driving without coverage the state still requires — and that's a suspended license and reinstatement fees waiting to happen.

What car insurance is required in Florida?

The short answer: Two things. $10,000 of Personal Injury Protection and $10,000 of Property Damage Liability. That's it — that's the whole legal requirement for a standard passenger vehicle.

To register a car with four or more wheels in Florida, the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles department requires you to show proof of both:

Now here's the part that surprises almost everyone.

That single gap shapes everything else about driving in Florida, and it's the reason our team pushes so hard on liability limits when we review a policy. It's also why uninsured motorist coverage matters more here than in almost any other state.

One thing worth knowing: injury liability can become mandatory for you later. Cause a crash that injures someone, or pick up certain violations, and Florida can require you to carry it and prove it — which is where SR-22 filings come in.

What does PIP actually cover?

The short answer: PIP pays 80% of your reasonable medical bills and 60% of your lost wages, up to $10,000 total, regardless of fault. It doesn't touch your car, and it doesn't pay for pain and suffering.

PIP is the coverage that pays first after a Florida crash, and it pays whether the wreck was your fault or not. That's the whole idea behind "no-fault" — you go to your own insurer instead of fighting about blame before anyone gets treated.

Under Fla. Stat. § 627.736, here's the split:

There's one more wrinkle worth knowing about: what your doctor charges and what PIP pays aren't the same number. Florida law ties PIP reimbursement to a fee schedule — for most services, roughly twice what Medicare would allow. Providers can bill more than that. PIP just won't pay it.

Why do I have to see a doctor within 14 days?

The short answer: Because if you don't, your PIP pays nothing. Not a reduced amount — nothing. It's the single most common way Florida drivers lose benefits they've been paying for.

You have 14 days from the date of the crash to get initial treatment from a qualified provider. That's the rule, and it is unforgiving:

This catches good, careful people constantly. You walk away from a fender-bender feeling shaken but basically fine. Ten days later your neck stiffens up. Three weeks later you're in an MRI machine. And your $10,000 of PIP is already gone — not because you did anything wrong, but because the clock ran out while you were waiting to see whether it would get better on its own.

Then there's the second trapdoor, and it's the one nobody warns you about.

So who you see in those first two weeks matters as much as how fast you go. A walk-in clinic that sends you home with ibuprofen and no documentation can quietly cost you $7,500 in benefits.

What is Florida's minimum coverage missing?

The short answer: Almost everything. The state minimum doesn't repair your car, doesn't cover injuries you cause to others, and doesn't protect you from the roughly one in five Florida drivers with no insurance at all.

Legal and adequate are two very different standards. Here's what $10,000 PIP plus $10,000 PDL leaves on the table:

Look at that middle column. Five reds on a policy that is one hundred percent legal.

Think about what $10,000 of property damage actually buys in 2026. Rear-end a three-year-old SUV on the Palmetto and you can blow through that limit before the bumper is off. Whatever's left over doesn't disappear — the other driver's insurer can come after you personally for it.

This is the same math behind rising premiums across Florida: repair costs went up, and minimum limits didn't.

How much does minimum coverage cost in Florida?

The short answer: Less than you'd think to buy, and far more than you'd think to rely on. The gap between a minimum policy and real coverage is usually much smaller than people expect.

We're not going to quote you a rate on a web page — anyone who does is guessing. What you pay depends on your ZIP code, your vehicle, your driving record, your credit-based insurance score, and which carriers will even look at your profile.

What we can tell you is what we see. South Florida — Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach — runs meaningfully higher than the rest of the state. Same driver, same car, same record, moved from Miramar to Ocala, pays noticeably less. That's density, traffic, litigation, and theft rates, not anything you did.

Here's the part worth sitting with: the jump from minimum limits to genuinely protective limits is usually a much smaller number than people assume. Liability coverage is priced in tiers, and the first tier up is often the cheapest protection you will ever buy. We've had clients who assumed doubling their limits would double their premium and were startled by what it actually cost.

What should Florida drivers actually carry?

The short answer: Keep the required PIP and PDL, then add bodily injury liability and uninsured motorist coverage. Those two fill the biggest holes Florida law leaves open.

There's no universal right answer — it depends on what you'd have to protect if something went badly. But there's a sensible order to build in:

Our bilingual team walks Florida drivers through this every week, in English or Spanish, and the conversation is almost always the same: people are startled by how little the state requires, and relieved by how little it costs to fix.

The bottom line on Florida's insurance requirements

PIP is still the law. Florida requires $10,000 of Personal Injury Protection and $10,000 of Property Damage Liability, exactly as it has for decades. Every attempt to repeal it — 2024, 2025, 2026 — died in committee. If you read that it ended on July 1, 2026, you read a proposal that never passed.

But "still required" and "still enough" are different questions. Florida's minimum is one of the thinnest in the country. It doesn't repair your car. It doesn't cover injuries you cause. And because Florida doesn't require injury liability at all, the driver who hits you may have nothing to offer beyond an apology.

Two deadlines decide whether the PIP you already pay for is worth anything: see a doctor within 14 days, and make sure a qualifying provider documents an emergency medical condition. Miss the first and you get nothing. Miss the second and you get $2,500 instead of $10,000.

If it's been a few years since anyone actually read your policy to you, that's worth an hour. Core 4 has served more than 14,000 Florida clients since 2014, we compare 120+ carriers on every quote, and nine out of ten people who switch to us save money. Call (954) 420-1501 or stop by the office at 3488 Red Road in Miramar — walk-ins welcome, and we'll tell you straight whether what you have is enough.

Last reviewed by the Core 4 Insurance Team on July 24, 2026. Florida insurance law and legislative activity change frequently — we re-verify this guide quarterly, including the status of any active repeal bills. For the broader Florida auto insurance picture, see our flagship Florida Driver's Insurance Guide.