Tn. vehicle insurance law

[xsubsailor]

  Unless I’ve missed it in the news, there doesn’t seem to have been any reminder to the public about the last phase of the new vehicle insurance law going into effect tomorrow. Starting tomorrow, you have to have proof of insurance to renew your tags.

 The new fines and penalties went into effect last year but the County Clerk/Insurance Company’s data base is supposed to go on line tomorrow. I have a feeling that a lot of people are going to be in for a rude awakening.

 In case anyone missed it, driving without insurance is no longer just a traffic ticket, it’s a class C misdemeanor. If you’re involved in an accident with injuries, it’s a class A misdemeanor.

[Fourtyfive]

Glad to hear it !

[NextExit]

Are they gonna report me to the IRS if I don't....... never mind, I was thinking of ObamaCare  

I saw it mentioned in the Knox News about a week ago.  No worries here.  Insurance is so cheap in this state that I have triple the minimum coverage at about 1/4 of what I paid in the people's republic (NY) for minimum coverage  

[nightrunner]

Great. Just what we need, more government regulations on how to live your life.

[seez52]

I don't know why it took so long to get all this in place. Uninsured motorists are a huge problem. I've always thought having to carry uninsured motorist insurance is ridiculous  in a state where insurance is required.

[dralarms]

I'm just waiting for them to do like north Carolina,  if you let your insurance lapse over there they will come take your tag off your car.  I hope they start doing that here. Too many backwoods idiots that think they don't have to have insurance. 

[Pain103]

Class C misdemeanor is a traffic ticket. It has already changed to a A misdemeanor for at fault injury crash.  It wont change much just as many people driving without insurance as before. When they changed the law to say we could tow a vehicle driven by someone without insurance admin said dont do it. 

[xsubsailor]

1 hour ago, dralarms said:

I'm just waiting for them to do like north Carolina,  if you let your insurance lapse over there they will come take your tag off your car.  I hope they start doing that here. Too many backwoods idiots that think they don't have to have insurance. 

From what the County Clerk told me, they are going to do that, or at least, have the authority to do it. She also said that if someone gets insurance just so they can get their tags and then cancels it, the registration will be flagged in the data base.

[dralarms]

5 minutes ago, xsubsailor said:

From what the County Clerk told me, they are going to do that, or at least, have the authority to do it. She also said that if someone gets insurance just so they can get their tags and then cancels it, the registration will be flagged in the data base.

Good to know

[bud]

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Edited April 26, 2017 by bud

[McGarrett]

7 minutes ago, bud said:

Herein lies the problem. Registration is flagged in database once insurance is cancelled or lapses. Then, I've gotta pay for nanny state to follow up with the dead beat to try to get blood from that stone. So, I'm paying a barely got a high school diploma, govt. employee, who probably daily weighs the pluses and minuses of staying on .gov teat at their job vs staying on the teat at home on welfare, to try and track down the registrant. I'm also paying his or her fat, lazy, government job having boss to manage this ultra efficient operation. Then, I'm paying the police to go find the dead beat and jack his car tags. Then I'm paying for the dmv workers who have to deal with reprocessing this guy once he has insurance again, etc, etc.

 This ain't going to save anyone a dime.

Like your insurance, you better keep it!  Because paying for this additional nannying ain't going to be any cheaper.

Though no perfect it can't hurt to put some teeth in these laws with actual consequences for not having insurance.

What's with bashing the government employees? I'm not a government employee but I find your comments rude and disrespectful.

[Sam1]

It'll be interesting to see if insurance rates in TN start going up now since people don't have a choice now.  They went up in KY when a similar law was enacted many moons ago.  Slowly started creeping up over a few years, and now in KY insurance is at least 50% higher than here in TN.  When I moved from KY to TN in 2010, the same coverage by the same company on 3 vehicles went from $250/month to $150ish.

Hope it doesn't happen here too.

[bud]

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Edited April 26, 2017 by bud

[bud]

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Edited April 26, 2017 by bud

[NextExit]

1 hour ago, bud said:

Herein lies the problem. Registration is flagged in database once insurance is cancelled or lapses. Then, I've gotta pay for nanny state to follow up with the dead beat to try to get blood from that stone. So, I'm paying a govt. employee to try and track down the registrant. I'm also paying his or her boss to manage this ultra efficient operation. Then, I'm paying the police to go find the dead beat and jack his car tags. Then I'm paying for the dmv workers who have to deal with reprocessing this guy once he has insurance again, etc, etc.

 This ain't going to save anyone a dime.

Like your insurance, you better keep it!  Because paying for this additional nannying ain't going to be any cheaper.

Won't be the government, they'll put the burden on the insurance companies.  Now I know no one wants to hear "this is how they do it up North" but since it might be relevant, I'll say it... in NY, you can't cancel your insurance policy until you've got a receipt from DMV stating that you've cancelled your registration (turn in your plates).  Then you fax it in and they'll cancel it.  If you let your insurance lapse, they notify the state who will in turn notify you thru a very nasty letter that if you don't (1) turn in your plates (surrender your registration) or (2) re-instate your insurance, your license will be suspended.   I would hope TN would never do that but nothing surprises me anymore....   And y'all will love this.... you have to pay them a $1 to take back their plates!  

[btq96r]

So, how does this work with online renewals?

[Murgatroy]

2 hours ago, Sam1 said:

It'll be interesting to see if insurance rates in TN start going up now since people don't have a choice now.  They went up in KY when a similar law was enacted many moons ago.  Slowly started creeping up over a few years, and now in KY insurance is at least 50% higher than here in TN.  When I moved from KY to TN in 2010, the same coverage by the same company on 3 vehicles went from $250/month to $150ish.

Hope it doesn't happen here too.

I pay more than double in KY for insurance for what I would in TN.

 

It makes little difference. If someone cancels their insurance there is no reasonable expectation that a civil servant is going to remove there tag. That means when I get rear ended by someone without insurance (two years ago) I will still have to pay out of pocket to get the damage repaired, and the offender will just go along their way. The cop will issue a citation and be done with it.

 

We have drivers up here getting charged with DUI and manslaughter for running children down and it hasn't made a difference.

 

Empty charges are empty charges. So you get a six month suspended sentence and have to pay $500. Yeah, that is punishment. I had to pay a $500 deductible and my insurance paid the additional $1200 to repair my car.

[macville]

So this means I should be able to drop my uninsured driver insurance, right?

[runco]

From actual personal experience, I am not worried about if the other person has insurance or not, I am more concerned that my own uninsured coverage and the amount.   I recommend carrying $500K or even $1M for uninsured insurance.  Trust me.   Even if the other person has insurance, a lot of people take the bare minimum in coverage.   Sometimes $50K, $100K, etc. is not enough to cover major medical and death related law suits.  Its best not to gamble on the other persons insurance coverage.

[Sam1]

10 minutes ago, runco said:

 Sometimes $50K, $100K, etc. is not enough to cover major medical and death related law suits.  Its best not to gamble on the other persons insurance coverage.

+1, the first 48 hours after my wreck in 2011 was over a $190,000 hospital bill... And that was just for medical.  Before that I carried the minimum, never again. 

[DaveTN]

More laws with no teeth. Driving on a suspended or revoked driver’s license is illegal, as I understand it driving as a habitual offender is a felony. But plenty of those people still drive.

Many years ago when mandatory insurance was started the insurance companies said that the administration of it caused the costs to rise. I don’t doubt that.

Will the people that can’t afford insurance quit driving? Of course they won’t. Will they be able to get plates? Of course they will. Those that don’t have someone that will get them for them will steal them.

I wonder how many driving without insurance charges it takes to gain a person habitual offender status.

It’s like everything else; those that work and have to stay out of jail will pay the bills for those that don’t.

[gregintenn]

On 12/31/2016 at 11:28 PM, btq96r said:

So, how does this work with online renewals?

...or mail ins?

I need to renew tags on a vehicle this month. Do I have to take an insurance card with me to do so, or does the county clerk have some way of verifying it himself?

I don't know about where you guys live, but the last thing we need here is something to make the county clerk's office less efficient.

[bersaguy]

Heck I thought this law was on the books for many years that it was against the law to not have auto insurance if you own and drive a car in Tennessee........................

[tnhawk]

On ‎12‎/‎31‎/‎2016 at 11:28 PM, btq96r said:

So, how does this work with online renewals?

Insurance company notification to DMV that a policy is no longer valid will prevent most drivers from letting their insurance lapse.

[bersaguy]

I had to go pay my boat insurance today and I asked my agent if everyones insurance was gong to go up since the law is finally going to be enforced. She said that as far as she has heard they will not go up to existing insured folks but the new customers may have higher premimums depending on their driving records.