In Michigan, when you apply for car insurance, you MUST be accurate and truthful. If you’re not, then the insurance company will later try to use misstatements or omissions against you to try to deny your claim after you’ve been involved in a car crash. This will leave you with no auto No-Fault coverage – even though you may have been dutifully paying your insurance premiums for years.
As a auto accident attorney, this is always my #1 piece of advice because if you are in a serious car accident, you can expect the claims adjuster and insurance company to flyspeck your application for insurance to look for a reason to try to void your policy if they can claim your misrepresentation was material and willful.
What is an application for car insurance?
In Michigan, applying for car insurance is the first step in buying an insurance policy to cover your car or truck. You will be required to fill out an “application for car insurance,” which may be in paper form or online. The insurer uses the information you provide to determine: (1) whether the insurer wants to insure you, and (2) how much you will have to pay in insurance premiums.
Steps To Apply For Car Insurance In Michigan
Keep the following tips in mind when you are completing your application as part of the process to apply for car insurance in Michigan:
- Read carefully – When you apply for car insurance in Michigan, read the application carefully to make sure you understand the questions that are being asked of you.
- Ask questions – If you’re not 100% sure what information you’re being asked to provide, do not assume that “they mean this” or “they mean that” and just provide the information you “think” the insurer is asking for. If you do, you may be setting yourself up for disaster. What you need to do is: Stop, contact an agent or a representative at the insurance company (preferably in writing so there is a record of your request for clarification) and ask about what specific information you need to provide. Ask your questions in an email or send a confirmation email if this is over the telephone so you have the insurance company’s response in writing.
- Answer accurately and truthfully – Providing information that is anything less than accurate and truthful only spells trouble for you.
- Report mistakes, errors, misstatements or omissions – We’re all human. We all make mistakes. So when you make a mistake – or an error or a misstatement – while you’re filling out paperwork to apply for car insurance in Michigan, alert your insurance company right away and make sure you provide the correct, accurate and truthful information to the insurer.
- Disclose ALL of the people in your household – Many if not most auto insurers will ask you to list all of the people who live in your household. Often, people who are applying for car insurance in Michigan assume the insurance means only those people who are old enough to drive, have driver’s licenses, and/or drive the vehicle for which insurance is being sought. Unfortunately, people who make that assumption are frequently wrong. Typically, when an insurer asks you to list ALL of the people in your household, the insurer means everyone – regardless of their age or driving status: You, your spouse, your parents, your children (no matter how young including newborn infants), any children, your roommates, and your housemates.
- Disclose ALL of the people who may drive your vehicle – When applying for car insurance in Michigan and if the insurance company asks you to name ALL of the people who may drive your vehicle (whether these people live in your household or they somewhere else), then you need to name everyone who is given access or who has access to your vehicle – even if only on a rare and infrequent basis. If you happen to leave someone off this list because they have a bad driving record or their driver’s license is currently suspended, that omission will likely come back to haunt if you have to file a claim for an accident.
- Disclose where you will park your vehicle at night – When applying for car insurance in Michigan, the way the insurance company will phrase this question is to ask you where your vehicle will be “garaged,” i.e., the address where you will park your vehicle at night after you’ve come home from work. This is also referred to as the “policy address.” It has been known to occur that people will use their parent’s address or a sibling’s address or a girlfriend’s or boyfriend’s address because they think they’ll get a lower premium. But the money they save is nowhere near what it will cost them if their accident claim is denied because they used the wrong address when applying for car insurance in Michigan.
- Disclose if you plan to drive for Uber or Lyft or Amazon or make deliveries using with your vehicle – Some auto insurance companies will not insure vehicles that are used to transport passengers (such as taxis, limousines, Uber or Lyft) or vehicles that are used to make deliveries of food or goods (such as Uber Eats, DoorDash, GrubHub, Amazon, Fed Ex). Generally, insurers want to know if you plan to use your vehicle for “commercial purposes” because if you are, then the insurer is likely going to decline to insure you and your vehicle.
Why is it so important to be accurate and truthful when you apply for car insurance in Michigan?
In Michigan, it is important to be accurate and truthful when applying for car insurance because your mistakes, errors, misstatements or omissions will be used against you by the insurance company to deny your claim and to void your policy and coverage. They will claim that your mistakes, errors, misstatements or omissions constituted “fraud” (i.e., that you made a “material misrepresentation”) and, thus, the insurer is legally entitled to “rescind” or void your policy and coverage.
What is a “material misrepresentation”?
A “misrepresentation made in an application for no-fault insurance” is “material” “if the insurer would have rejected the risk or charged an increased premium and would not have issued the same contract had it been given the correct information.” (Sherman v. Progressive Michigan Insurance Company, MCOA, published, September 5, 2024, #364393)
Is this legal?
Michigan law allows auto insurance companies to “rescind” – i.e., void – an insured’s policy when the insured committed fraud in the application for insurance or when an insurance “contract is obtained as a result of fraud or misrepresentation.” (Titan v. Hyten, Michigan Supreme Court, June 15, 2012, #142774)
What if I made an innocent mistake?
In Michigan if you make a mistake when applying for car insurance it does not matter if your mistake, error, misstatement or omission was made intentionally or innocently, the law in Michigan considers it a “misrepresentation” and it can be the basis for rescinding your policy.
The Michigan Court of Appeals has ruled that:
“Indeed, rescission ‘is justified without regard to the intentional nature of the misrepresentation, as long as it is relied upon by the insurer.’ . . . ‘Rescission is justified in cases of innocent misrepresentation if a party relies upon the misstatement, because otherwise the party responsible for the misstatement would be unjustly enriched if he were not held accountable for his misrepresentation.’ . . . ‘T]he party alleging innocent misrepresentation is not required to prove that the party making the misrepresentation intended to deceive or that the other party knew the representation was false.’” (Sherman v. Progressive Michigan Insurance Company, MCOA, published, September 5, 2024, #364393)
When applying for car insurance in Michigan isn’t it the insurance company’s problem for not catching my mistake?
Michigan law does not put the burden on the insurance company to investigate the accuracy and veracity of all the information that an insured includes in his or her application when applying for car insurance.
Specifically, the Michigan Supreme Court has ruled that an insurer is not barred from seeking rescission based on fraud even though the fraud may have been “easily ascertainable.” The Court ruled that “an insurer has no duty to investigate or verify the representations of a potential insured,” nor must an insurer prove that “the fraud could not have been discovered through the exercise of reasonable diligence.” (Titan v. Hyten, Michigan Supreme Court, June 15, 2012, #142774)
When applying for car insurance in Michigan, is making mistakes on the application really something to worry about?
When applying for car insurance in Michigan it is important to double check the application to make sure there aren’t any mistakes. Finding mistakes on auto insurance applications has become the “go to” strategy for insurers who are trying to duck their responsibilities to their insureds and avoid having to pay out on claims.
Insurance companies are always looking for ways to deny claims or pay out as little as they can get away with.
This strategy is the “silver bullet” for insurance companies because it allows them to deny the claim right away before any benefits are paid out and before any money is spent on litigation.
The strategy also presents a “win-win” dynamic for the insurance companies.
If an insured never makes a claim, then the insurer just keeps collecting premiums and increasing its profits – oblivious and utterly unconcerned with whether there are any so-called “material misrepresentations” in the insured’s application for insurance.
But if an insured ever does end up making a claim, the insurer may be able to torpedo it by scrutinizing the insured’s application for insurance to find an error, a mistake, a discrepancy, an inconsistency, or an omission that the insurer can characterize as fraud. Once the insurer does, it will rescind the insured’s policy and deny his or her claim . . . thereby relieving the insurer of having to pay out any money for the coverage the insured dutifully already paid for.
When you or a loved one is applying for car insurance in Michigan make sure to follow this advice to ensure you or loved ones are covered by insurance in the event of a crash.
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