[email protected] | January 3, 2025 | Car Accidents

What Happens In Maryland When You Let Someone Else Drive Your Car, and They Get In an Accident?

Your car is in a body shop, and you weren’t the one driving it. Someone borrowed it, crashed it, and now an insurance company wants to talk to you. Borrowed car accident insurance in Maryland comes down to two things: what your policy says and how the driver got behind the wheel. Neither answer is automatic. If you or the person driving got hurt, call (410) 837-2144 for a free case review.

Maryland’s Mandatory Minimum Auto Insurance Coverage

Every vehicle registered in Maryland has to carry liability coverage, and the state sets the floor. The Motor Vehicle Administration puts the minimums at $30,000 for bodily injury per person, $60,000 for bodily injury per accident, and $15,000 for property damage.1

The required security statute carries the same three numbers.2

One detail matters more once you lend the car out. Those minimums apply even when the vehicle is sitting still.1

Buy more than the minimum if you can. Those limits cap what your policy pays for a crash someone else caused while you’re driving. Here’s how Maryland car insurance works in more detail.

Types of Use in Maryland

Whether your policy responds turns on how the driver ended up in your car. Permission, exclusion, and household access are three separate questions, and they can produce three different answers on one claim.

Permissive Use

Your policy may cover a driver you permitted to, but that’s a condition, not a guarantee. The Maryland Insurance Administration says other people operating your vehicle may be covered under your bodily injury or property damage coverage, and lists three conditions for family members: they’re listed on the policy as drivers, they’re driving with your consent, and the policy’s terms don’t otherwise exclude them.3

Read that as a checklist, not a slogan. All three must hold, and the regulator advises you to read your policy or call your insurance company before you hand over the keys.

Non-Permissive Use

Consent is one of the conditions the state’s insurance regulator lists, so a driver who took your car without it has a coverage problem from the start.3

Report the theft or the unauthorized use to the police. Every insurance company handling this will ask for it.

In a stolen vehicle case, the driver’s own auto policy will not cover the loss, and the injured person’s recourse is uninsured motorist coverage or personal injury protection benefits.

Excluded Drivers

Permission does not override an exclusion. A named driver exclusion is an endorsement that removes one specific person from your policy. If that person drives a covered vehicle and crashes, the Maryland Insurance Administration says there will be “no coverage of any kind available under your policy” for the damage that driver caused to another person and their property or to your own car.3 The one narrow exception: someone hurt in the crash who has no auto policy of their own may still collect PIP or uninsured motorist benefits.4

The statute behind it is blunt about consent. The exclusion applies whether or not the driver had your express or implied permission.4

That’s how a favor turns into a personal bill, and it’s the easiest thing to check tonight. Pull up your declarations page and look for an exclusion.

Licensed Drivers Who Live in Your Home

A licensed driver who lives with you but was never reported to your insurance company is a different problem, and a common one. The Maryland Insurance Administration warns that while your policy generally provides liability coverage for any driver who isn’t specifically excluded, your collision and comprehensive coverage may not apply when the crash involves an undisclosed driver living in your home, even if that driver reasonably believed they were allowed to use the car.5

Look at what that splits apart. The person your car hit can still get paid while your own car sits unrepaired. Tell your insurance company about every licensed driver in the house.

Negligent Entrustment

Negligent entrustment is a claim based on the owner’s decision to hand over the keys, not the crash itself. Maryland recognizes it, and it turns on what the owner knew or should have known about the driver.

Maryland follows the Restatement (Second) of Torts: an owner who lends a car to someone the owner knows, or has reason to know, is likely to drive it dangerously, “because of his youth, inexperience, or otherwise,” can be liable for the resulting harm.6

If you already know someone shouldn’t be driving, lending them your car is a choice you may answer for on its own, separately from who is liable for the crash.

When the Damage Costs More Than Your Limits

The liability policy pays up to its limits and then stops. If the person driving your car hurts someone badly, $30,000 per person can disappear in a single emergency room stay.

What happens next belongs to the injured person’s own policy. Underinsured motorist coverage fills that gap. Maryland requires uninsured and underinsured motorist bodily injury coverage of at least $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident, plus at least $15,000 in uninsured motorist property damage coverage.3 The statute treats a vehicle as uninsured when the applicable liability limits fall below the coverage the injured person carries.7

Sequence matters. Before you can tap underinsured or enhanced underinsured coverage in Maryland, you must exhaust the at-fault driver’s liability policy, meaning the limits have been tendered.

Who Pays if the Person Driving Your Car Gets Hurt

Your policy does, first. Personal injury protection, or PIP, is first-party coverage that pays medical bills and part of lost income no matter who caused the crash, and Maryland’s PIP statute reaches past your household to cover any other individual injured while using the insured vehicle with the express or implied permission of the named insured.8 Limited exclusions apply, for example if you intentionally caused the crash, were in a vehicle you knew was stolen, or were committing a felony, and policies can limit PIP for motorcycles, mopeds and scooters.

Maryland also sets the order of payment. The insurance company for the vehicle the injured person was occupying pays the benefits, and nobody can collect them from more than one policy on a duplicative basis.9

The amount is modest and often misread. The statutory minimum is up to $2,500 in total. That $2,500 covers reasonable and necessary expenses incurred within 3 years of the crash, plus either 85% of the income an earner lost or the cost of essential services if the injured person was not earning when the crash happened.8

Claim it anyway. PIP pays regardless of fault; the insurance company may not raise the premium because of a PIP claim or payment, and the PIP insurer has no right of subrogation and no claim against anyone else to recover what it paid.10

That last point is the one people miss. The money isn’t taken back out of a later settlement.

PIP comes with every Maryland policy unless the first named insured waives it in writing (Md. Code, Ins. § 19-506 and § 19-505(a); Nesbit v. GEICO (2004)).3 Your collision coverage, if you bought it, repairs your car regardless of who caused the accident, subject to your deductible.3

Not sure which policy should be paying? Call (410) 837-2144.

Maryland’s Contributory Negligence Rule

Maryland’s fault rule can end a claim outright, and it follows everyone involved in a borrowed car crash. A person who fails to exercise ordinary care for their own safety and helps cause the injury is barred from all recovery, regardless of how negligent the other driver was.11

There’s no percentage math and no partial award. We cover Maryland contributory negligence in full on its own page.

The rule also applies to uninsured motorist claims. The Maryland Insurance Administration states that if you contributed to the accident in any way, you cannot collect payment under uninsured motorist coverage.12

It isn’t automatic, though, and that’s the part insurance companies gloss over. Under Maryland case law (Myers v. Bright (1992)), being negligent isn’t enough to be contributorily negligent; the negligence must have contributed to causing the crash or the injuries. That distinction often drives the fight over who was at fault in a car accident.

Lending a Car That Isn’t Insured

If your car’s coverage has lapsed, lending it out is its own offense. Maryland’s Transportation Article says a person who knows or has reason to know that the required security doesn’t cover a vehicle may not drive it or, if they’re an owner, knowingly permit another person to drive it.13

A first offense carries up to one year in jail, a fine of up to $1,000, or both.13

The civil penalties run alongside it. The Maryland Insurance Administration puts the uninsured penalty at $200 for the first 30 days and $7 for each day after that.3

What to Do Before You Hand Over the Keys

Most of the risk in lending a car can be checked in about ten minutes.

  1. Read your declarations page. If the person asking to borrow the car is named as an excluded driver, your policy pays nothing for the damage they cause.3
  2. Report every licensed driver who lives with you. An undisclosed resident driver may knock out your collision and comprehensive coverage.5
  3. Confirm the policy is active. Lending a car you know is uninsured is a criminal offense in Maryland.13
  4. After a crash, get the police report. Maryland’s fault rule means the other side has a reason to scrutinize how your driver was driving.
  5. Watch the deadline. The statute of limitations for most Maryland civil claims is 3 years from the date the claim accrues.14

None of that takes a lawyer. What comes after a serious crash usually does.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does my insurance cover someone who borrows my car in Maryland?

Often, but it depends on your policy, not a general rule. The Maryland Insurance Administration says other people operating your vehicle may be covered under your bodily injury or property damage coverage. It lists three conditions for family members: listed on the policy as drivers, driving with your consent, and not otherwise excluded by the policy’s terms.3 Read the policy before you lend the car out.

Can I be sued personally if I let someone drive my car and they cause a crash?

Yes, but your liability coverage pays a covered claim up to your limits. The Maryland Insurance Administration says you’d pay personally only if the claim exceeds the limit or isn’t covered by the policy.3 You could also face a separate negligent entrustment claim if you knew or should have known the driver was unsafe.

Will my rates go up if the person I lent my car to causes an accident?

For a PIP claim, the statute answers directly: the insurance company may not increase the premium because of a claim or payment made under that coverage.10 A liability loss is a different question and depends on the company’s own rating rules. Ask your insurance company rather than assuming it either way.

Talk to a Maryland Attorney If You Think You Might Be on the Hook

Lending your car is usually fine. It gets expensive in narrow cases: an excluded driver, an undisclosed driver in the house, a lapsed policy, or injuries worth more than the car’s limits.

If a borrowed car crash has already happened, we can tell you which policy should be paying and who pays first. Our attorneys handle Maryland car accident claims from our Baltimore office at 14 W. Madison Street. The first conversation is free, and you pay nothing unless we recover compensation for you.

Call (410) 837-2144 to start a free case review.

This content is marketing material and is not legal advice. Every case is unique and laws change frequently. Please contact our office to speak with an attorney about your specific situation before making any legal decisions.

Sources

  1. MDOT Motor Vehicle Administration, Auto Insurance Requirements in Maryland, current. Minimum liability limits of $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident for bodily injury and $15,000 for property damage, and the rule that the minimums apply even when the vehicle is not being driven. https://mva.maryland.gov/vehicles/Pages/insurance-requirements.aspx
  2. Md. Code, Transportation § 17-103 (required security), current compilation, Maryland General Assembly statute text. Statutory form and amounts of the security every Maryland-registered vehicle must carry. https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gtr&section=17-103&enactments=false
  3. Maryland Insurance Administration, A Consumer Guide to Auto Insurance, MIA-A-1 (7/24). Conditions for coverage of other drivers (p. 12); owner’s exposure above the policy limit (p. 11); collision coverage paid regardless of fault (p. 14); mandatory offer of at least $2,500 in PIP (p. 13); uninsured and underinsured motorist minimums (pp. 12 and 18); lapse penalty amounts (p. 24); named driver exclusions (p. 30). https://insurance.maryland.gov/consumer/documents/publications/autoinsuranceguide.pdf
  4. Md. Code, Insurance § 27-606(c) (named driver exclusion), current compilation, Maryland General Assembly statute text. The exclusion operates whether or not the excluded driver had express or implied permission, except that PIP and uninsured motorist coverage remain available to other injured people who have no other auto policy. https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gin&section=27-606&enactments=false
  5. Maryland Insurance Administration, Consumer Advisory: Licensed Drivers in Your Household, current advisory. Liability coverage generally responds for a driver who is not specifically excluded, while collision and comprehensive coverage may not apply to an undisclosed resident driver. https://insurance.maryland.gov/Consumer/Documents/publicnew/ConsumerAdvisory-Licensed-Drivers-Household.pdf
  6. Broadwater v. Dorsey (1997); Rounds v. Phillips (1934); Robb v. Wancowicz (1998). https://www.mdcourts.gov/data/opinions/cosa/1998/625s97.pdf
  7. Md. Code, Insurance § 19-509 (uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage), current compilation, Maryland General Assembly statute text. Definition of an uninsured motor vehicle, including the underinsured case. https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gin&section=19-509&enactments=false
  8. Md. Code, Insurance § 19-505 (personal injury protection benefits), current compilation, Maryland General Assembly statute text. Coverage of a permissive user and the single “up to $2,500” minimum covering expenses, 85% of lost income, and essential services. https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gin&section=19-505&enactments=false
  9. Md. Code, Insurance § 19-513 (priority, nonduplication and offsets), current compilation, Maryland General Assembly statute text. The insurer of the occupied vehicle pays, and benefits may not be recovered from more than one policy on a duplicative or supplemental basis. https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gin&section=19-513&enactments=false
  10. Md. Code, Insurance § 19-507 (benefits paid without regard to fault), current compilation, Maryland General Assembly statute text. No premium increase because of a PIP claim or payment, and no right of subrogation. https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gin&section=19-507&enactments=false
  11. Coleman v. Soccer Association of Columbia (2013), quoting Harrison v. Montgomery County Board of Education (1983). Restatement of the contributory negligence rule. https://www.mdcourts.gov/data/opinions/coa/2013/9a12.pdf
  12. Maryland Insurance Administration, Uninsured Motorist, current consumer page. A claimant who contributed to the accident in any way cannot collect under uninsured motorist coverage. https://insurance.maryland.gov/Consumer/Pages/uninsured-motorist.aspx
  13. Md. Code, Transportation § 17-107 (driving or permitting the driving of an uninsured vehicle), current compilation, Maryland General Assembly statute text. Prohibition on knowingly permitting another person to drive an uninsured vehicle, and the first-offense penalty. https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gtr&section=17-107&enactments=false
  14. Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 5-101 (statute of limitations), current compilation, Maryland General Assembly statute text. Three years from accrual for a civil action at law unless another Code provision sets a different period. https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/laws/StatuteText?article=gcj&section=5-101