Virginia is finally doing away with the Auto Insurance Waiver Fee…

General Discussion
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Back in the '50s when Virginia first required vehicles to have insurance, they created a loophole. If you did want to buy insurance or could not afford to buy insurance, you could pay a fee that waived the mandatory vehicle insurance. Over the years, the fee has risen to $500. When you register or re-register your vehicle you are required to have the State Mandatory Minimum Insurance or you could pay a fee and that requirement is waived.

That means the state of Virginia allowed uninsured vehicles to operate on the roads with total impunity… It did not release the driver/owner of the vehicle of any financial responsibility for any damage, injury, or deaths they caused; they would still be accountable… But let’s be honest, folks who cannot afford insurance or have such horrible driving records that they can’t afford the insurance premium probably do not have much in assets to begin with and trying to get any type of money out of them would like getting blood out of a stone…

Last year our insurance rates took a pretty big jump and the cause was the uninsured and under insured motorist in the state and I for one am darn tired of paying for other people’s privilege to drive…

Virginia to no longer allow uninsured vehicle registration fee | Repairer Driven News.

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All I can say is, FINALLY ! I think their driving privilege should be revoked as well.

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I wish they would have more creative laws, like uninsured drivers are only allowed to drive on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 10AM to 3PM, instead of going from one extreme to the other. It would be an interesting experiment.

Does that $500 go to help victims of uninsured vehicles that cause accidents or does the government just keep the money?

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No, the fee goes straight into the state coffers for them to use as they see fit. The victim of the uninsured motorist is entirely on their own and hopefully, they have adequate insurance to pay for their injuries or the repair of their vehicle… See the link below…

And perhaps the most disturbing is if the uninsured motorist does not even have the $500 at the time registration, the state will set up a payment plan…

And we also have businesses that “Rent” tires… They claim they do so their customers can try out various brands to determine which brand works best on their cars… I only see “hoopties” up on the lifts getting their bald tires swapped out for legal tread, probably so they can pass inspection…

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When I was stationed in Japan in the 70’s, the Japanese government had an insurance program called JCI (Japanese Compulsory Insurance). It was a minimum policy that only paid for damage and medical treatment from the accident. It did not cover things like pain and suffering, mental stress etc. It only paid the actual direct bills. It did not cover your vehicle, only others you were responsible for.

It was also not very expensive, it was one price so your age, gender, driving record etc did not matter, and it was for the vehicle. It was sold in 25 month increments but could be renewed early and you would be credited with the unused portion.

It was mandatory for getting your vehicle registered. You had to show proof that the insurance covered the entire period of the registration and you could not register your vehicle and then cancel the policy and ask for a refund. If the insurance would expire before the end of the registration period, you had to renew the policy so it would be in effect during the entire period. The only way to get a refund was to show proof that you junked the vehicle. If you sold the vehicle, the insurance went with the vehicle so it was always a part of the negotiations for the selling price.

It did not protect your estate. You could be sued but the JCI did not cover that. To protect your estate, you still needed the kind of insurance we have here. The Japanese law did not require that type of insurance, but as a service member, we had to have it.

At least if you were hit by another driver in Japan, your vehicle and direct medical bills would be covered.

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You would think that their driving privileges would be revoked, but it is not because they were operating a “legally uninsured” vehicle…

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Thank goodness for the “commie wealths”.

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The initial link you posted provides this info on the fees:
"Uninsured vehicle registration fees are deposited into Virginia’s uninsured motorist fund, which has served to reduce the cost of uninsured motorist insurance coverage, according to SB 951’s impact statement.

The State Corporation Commission distributes money from the fund to insurers that write liability insurance on vehicles registered in Virginia."

I guess the logic of that is that it is supposed to help keep insurance premiums lower than they would be otherwise? IDK. I’m happy about the change too.

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When I was stationed in Italy at NATO Headquarters in Naples in the late 1970’s, it was Italian Law that all vehicles have insurance. The military had an office to help us get the required insurance through a local Italian Insurance Company, but the limits were almost a joke, they were so low…

If a military member or their family member was involved in an auto accident, the medical expenses were all coverered by the military. The insurance was suppose to cover the driver/passengers of the other vehicle if the military member was at fault.

In the event of a death of a local national and the military member was not apparently responsible (DUI, Reckless Driveling, etc…) the member and their family members were immediately returned to the states to avoid all the legal entanglements involved in the foreign civilian courts.

While I was stationed there, there were three instances of deadly vehicle accidents and in all cases, the member and their family were quickly and quietly moved out of country. Their household goods were packed up and sent after they were out of country…

In the case of my supervisor’s teenage son who was caught selling drugs at school, after spending the night in jail, he was “permitted” to return home for a change of clothes and he and his mother were ushered onto a cargo airplane destined for Germany.

After about a month, she returned alone after leaving her son in the company of a Grandparent back in the states. It was my understanding the Italian Authorities “allowed” this rather than have to deal with a possible “international” incident of jailing an American teenager.

Who remembers the US diplomat’s wife who was driving on the wrong side of the road and killed a British teenage motorcyclist?

She was also quietly and quickly returned to the US. She attended her “trial” via videoconference from the US and her sentence of 8-months will never be served unless she returns to the UK. There was a civil settlement with the family…

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That distribution to the insurance compnies does nothing to help the victim of an uninsured motorist who is left out in the ability to pay their own hospital bill, vehicle repair bill/replacement, or offset lost wages…

The money all goes into some “Giant Insurance Bucket” that the insurance does as it see fit, like calculate the CEO’s bonus…

As I posted in the second link:…

“Payment of the $500 fee does not provide the motorist with any insurance coverage. If involved in an accident, the uninsured motorist remains personally liable.”

And there is no “Victim’s Fund” that offers financial help as there is for the victim of a crime…

“The Virginia Victims Fund (VVF) is a state program created to help victims of violent crime with out of pocket expenses.”

The rational for this is that driving without insurance is not considered a "violent crime…

The first link also mentioned that $650,500 of that money was from the Uninsured Fee and doing the math on that that mean there are about 1,300 vehicle running around Virginia without insurance and there are just under 100 counties in Virginia and the math on that means there are probably over 130 vehicles running around my county right now…

And now that I think about it more, the New Law does not go far enough, it only makes registrations on or after July 1st to also be Insurance compliant. That means vehicles without insurance can be registered right up to June 30th and we will still have a year of uninsured vehicles running around…

And perhaps to put salt on the hurt, last year my insurance went up a double digit with this additional endorsement I am required to carry for uninsured and underinsured motorist.

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And Last week I again sent in my semiannual premium for this year and it again went up almost double digit and we have not had a ticket/accident, or any other derogatory factor and in spite of our vehicles being a year older, nothing had changed…

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I wasn’t challenging that at all. I guess I could have just re-emphasized that it goes to some manner of insurance bucket. It was just that you initially had said it’s spent as “they see fit.” No big deal. It was an absurd law/loophole and I’m glad it is closing.

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Here in NC you have to show proof of insurance to register a vehicle. So some people get their insurance card and register. Then they cancel their insurance. The problem is the insurance company must report to the state when someone cancels their insurance. The state then cancels the registration.

So then you have someone driving without a registration and no insurance, but a tag that looks legal. If a cop runs your tag he’ll find out it’s bogus.

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I admit I was loose and even flippant with my words, “the fee goes straight into the state coffers for them to use as they see fit.”

There are over 8.5 million registered vehicles in the state. If the $650,000 is evenly distributed from the insurance companies to all registered and insured policy holders that amounts to less than 7-cents each… If the state’s $5.3 million (which includes the $650k) is even distribued, then the insurance policy premium would be reduced less than 64-cents… which barely pays the postage on my insurance payment…

So I did not intend to demean you reply, my bad, I am sorry, it was just the recent, never ending increase of our insurance premiums in spite of our outstanding driving record.

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Inflation and the cost to repair as well as medical costs continue to rise.

I despise uninsured motorists and the typical “I have nothing to lose” mentality versus having some level of moral responsibility for one’s actions or harm to another that really bugs me most.

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Don’t come to NH. You do NOT have to have auto insurance here.

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It’s against the law to drive without car insurance in Tennessee (unless you have posted the required $65,000 bond or cash deposit to forgo an insurance policy). If you get caught driving without at least the minimum amount of coverage, you’ll have 30 days to provide proof of your insurance. Feb 15, 2024

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A tad late with the warning, I live in NH for going on 12 years now. :slight_smile:

Regardless, there’s plenty of uninsured motorists in every state…

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This web site explains the differences between the uninsured motorist in Virginia and the uninsured motorist in New Hampshire… It appears that a victim of an accident with an uninsured motorist is much better off in New Hampshire than they would be in Virginia.

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No worries - I didn’t feel demeaned. I was just clarifying that I wasn’t arguing with you. And, yeah, my insurance premiums are also through the roof. After both my kids left home, and I got them plus car off of the insurance the rates went up! Mind-boggling.

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This entire thread is a perfect example ofmy contention that motor vehicle laws should be legislated at the federal level. There is no reason that my state of NJ should require that a vehicle owner carries insurance,but another state does not.