Who needs property damage liability insurance?

Since property damage is the most common loss incurred in an accident, having adequate property damage liability insurance is of utmost importance. The majority of states actually require that drivers carry certain minimums of property damage liability coverage.

What Is Property Damage Liability Insurance?

Property damage liability policies agree to pay the party whose personal property is damaged or written off on behalf of the insured if the insured is found to have directly caused the damage to the property. The property damage coverage pays all the costs necessary to repair or restore other people's damaged personal property.

Although in the majority of cases the damaged property is a car or another vehicle, the concept can refer to any other public or personal property, such as lamp posts, homes, stores, etc.

How Much in Liability Limits?

Most states require drivers to carry a minimum of $5,000 in property damage liability coverage. However, this insurance amount is usually far from adequate for covering all the expenses involved in paying for somebody else's repair costs or loss of possessions. This is especially the case if the property damage is serious or the property is expensive.

Therefore, you should raise your property damage liability limits to safeguard yourself from ending up in financial ruin.

$50,000 per vehicle in property damage liability insurance is a reasonable amount that will provide adequate protection against liability.

You can choose to purchase your property damage coverage in single or in split limits. A policy with single limits has one combined amount for both bodily injury and property damage, and is therefore considered more flexible than a split limit policy, which allocates certain amounts for bodily injury per person, bodily injury per occurrence and property damage.

In a 150/300/100 split limit insurance policy, for instance, $150,000 is the maximum amount that an injured person can get as compensation, $300,000 is the maximum amount the insurer will pay per accident, and the amount for property damage is delimited to $100,000.

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