Is it a law for a car dealership to make you get insurance before you drive the car off the lot?
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Is it a law for a car dealership to make you get insurance before you drive the car off the lot?
My girlfriend and I just bought a car from a used car dealership. They didn’t make us get insurance because they said since we had full coverage on our other car that it will cover us for the new car until we got insurance for it. We got into a accident a couple days later and the insurance said they wouldn’t cover us. Is it the responsibility for the dealership to fix the car?
Asked on August 19, 2011 California
Answers:
FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
In the state of California all legal drivers in this state are required to have insurance for all motorized vehicles that they drive. The car dealership's obligation to you was to sell you a vehicle disclosing everything known about it so that you could make an informed decision in your purchase.
It had no legal obligation to make sure that you had full coverage for the vehicle that you purchased before you drove it off the lot. It was your obligation to make sure that the vehicle you just purchased had adequate insurance for your needs before you drove it home post purchase.
The car dealership did not cause you to get into the accident that you got into. The car dealership has no responsibilty to fix the car that you purchased based upon your question.
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