Displaced, Between Leases, or Staying With Family: What to Tell Your Insurer

The situations this covers

A house fire or flood that has you in a hotel or short-term rental, a home sale that closed before the next place was ready, a long remodel, a gap between leases, or moving in with parents or friends for a few months. The car is the same; where it sleeps, and how far you drive each day, may not be.

The week it happens

1. Call your insurer with the temporary address, where the car is parked overnight, and how long you expect to be there. How a company records a temporary garaging location varies by insurance company, but it cannot record what it is not told.
2. Update the mailing address if your mail is not reaching you. Notices about renewal and cancellation are mailed to the address on the policy, and the deadlines in Insurance Code sections 662 and 663 do not wait for you to find them.
3. If the car was damaged in the event that displaced you, report it separately; comprehensive coverage, if you carry it, is the part of an auto policy that responds to fire, flood and falling objects.
4. Keep the policy paid. Autopay tied to a bank account you can still reach prevents a lapse in a chaotic month.

Within 30 days

• Decide whether this is a move. Vehicle Code section 14600 requires anyone with a driver's license who moves to notify the DMV of the old and new address within 10 days. A short hotel stay while your home is repaired is different from giving up the old home; if you have truly moved, the 10-day clock applies.
• Update the commute. A temporary place across town can double your daily miles, or cut them. Annual mileage is a mandatory rating factor, so give a realistic estimate.
• Staying with relatives? Ask them to check with their own insurer. Whether a temporary resident counts as part of their household, and whether you must be listed if you drive their car, depends on their policy's wording and varies by insurance company.
• Street parking now? If you used to garage the car and now park on the street, mention it; where the car is kept is part of what the insurer knows about the risk.

If the car is staying behind

Sometimes the people move and the car does not: it stays in the driveway of a damaged home, goes to a storage lot, or is left with a neighbor. Tell the insurer where it actually is. If it will not be driven for months, ask about reduced coverage for a parked car, which varies by insurance company, and do not drive it while coverage is reduced. Planned non-operation with the DMV fits only if the car will be off public roads for the entire registration year.

When you settle into the permanent home

Give the insurer the new garaging and mailing address effective the day you move in, and give the DMV the new address within 10 days. Re-check the mileage estimate for the new commute. If the event changed your household, such as relatives now living with you or a car sold, update the drivers and vehicles in the same call.

When you are in the new place and want to see what the policy looks like there, you can compare quotes here.