Uninsured Motorist Coverage in Texas

Coverage when the at-fault driver cannot pay

Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage pays the insured when the at-fault driver carries nothing or carries too little. Texas Insurance Code §1952.101 bars an insurer from issuing an auto liability policy in Texas without that coverage, in the policy or supplemental to it, unless any insured named in the policy rejects it in writing.

Two coverages sit under one name. Uninsured motorist coverage answers for a driver with no policy behind the car, and underinsured motorist coverage answers for a driver whose limits run out first.

A rejection is a document, not a conversation. Texas Insurance Code §1952.101 keeps a signed rejection in force on later renewals until the named insured asks for the coverage back in writing.

What Texas counts as an uninsured motor vehicle

An uninsured motor vehicle is not only a car with no policy behind it. Texas Insurance Code §1952.102 treats an insured vehicle as uninsured when the liability insurer cannot pay because of insolvency, and lets the commissioner approve policy wording that excludes certain vehicles whose operators are in fact uninsured.

A hit-and-run driver sits in the same coverage with one extra condition. Texas Insurance Code §1952.104 requires actual physical contact between the vehicle driven by the unknown person and the insured or the insured’s property.

A vehicle that forces a car off the road without touching it fails that contact test, leaving the damage to the insured’s own collision coverage.

What underinsured motorist coverage adds

Underinsured motorist coverage answers when the at-fault driver holds a policy that is too small. Texas Insurance Code §1952.103 defines an underinsured motor vehicle as one whose collectible liability limits were lower than the insured’s underinsured limit to begin with, or were reduced below it by payments on claims from the same accident.

Two situations put a Texas driver in that position:

• An at-fault driver carrying the state minimum of 30/60/25 (Texas Transportation Code §601.072) against a larger hospital bill
• An at-fault driver whose single-accident limit is divided among several injured people

Limits on the other driver’s policy stay invisible until after the crash.

How the offer and the written rejection work

The offer is required on every Texas auto liability policy. The Texas Department of Insurance auto insurance guide states the rule plainly: companies must offer the coverage, and a driver who does not want it must tell the company in writing.

Three things follow from Texas Insurance Code §1952.101:

• A policy with no signed rejection in the insurer’s file carries the coverage
• A rejection also governs a reinstatement or a renewal by an affiliated insurer
• A driver who wants the coverage added later asks for it in writing

Texas Insurance Code §1952.105 ties the floor for those limits to the limits prescribed by Chapter 601 of the Texas Transportation Code.

What each part of the coverage answers for

Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage splits into a bodily injury part and a property damage part. Texas Insurance Code §1952.105 requires bodily injury limits to be offered in the amounts the insured desires and sets a $250 deductible on the property damage part.

The bodily injury part answers for:

• Medical treatment for the insured and the passengers
• Lost wages and other losses recoverable from the at-fault driver
• A death claim arising from the same crash

The property damage part answers for repair or replacement of the insured’s vehicle above that $250 deductible.

Personal injury protection pays medical bills without regard to fault, a separate question: What Is PIP Insurance?

Liability coverage and uninsured motorist coverage side by side

Both coverages sit on the same Texas auto policy and answer opposite questions, under Texas Transportation Code §601.072 and Texas Insurance Code §1952.101.

Question	Liability coverage	Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage
Who it pays	The other driver	The insured and the passengers
When it answers	The insured is at fault	The other driver is uninsured or underinsured
Required in Texas	Yes, at 30/60/25	Offered on every policy, rejected only in writing
Property damage	Included	Offered with a $250 deductible
Unidentified driver	Not applicable	Covered with actual physical contact

The liability floor Texas enforces has its own page: Minimum Auto Insurance in Texas

How to check what a policy carries

The declarations page settles the question. A Texas auto policy lists its coverages and limits there, and uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage appears with its own bodily injury and property damage limits whenever the coverage is in force.

Three checks, in order:

1. Read the declarations page for a line naming uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage, often abbreviated to UM or UIM.
2. Ask the insurer for the signed rejection when no such line appears, since Texas Insurance Code §1952.101 requires one to drop the coverage.
3. Ask which limits the policy allows at renewal.

Liability limits and uninsured motorist limits are separate numbers: What Is Bodily Injury Liability?

What to have ready before you ask an agent

The declarations page answers most of what an agent needs, and a rejection signed years ago answers the rest.

Bring these to the call:

• The declarations page from the current or most recent Texas auto policy
• The uninsured motorist rejection form, when the insurer has one on file
• The seventeen-digit VIN for every vehicle in the household
• The Texas driver license number for every licensed driver at the address
• The garaging address, meaning where each vehicle is parked overnight

Luka Cenaj, the agency’s licensed principal, goes through the coverage choices on a recorded call before anything is bound.

Where Aulona Insurance Group is not the right fit

Aulona Insurance Group places Texas personal auto coverage on ordinary private passenger vehicles, and whole categories of vehicle sit outside that.

Outside the markets Aulona Insurance Group holds:

• Recreational vehicles, all-terrain vehicles, trailers, golf carts, buses, hearses, and heavy or semi trucks
• Vehicles with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $150,000 or more, and vehicles built before 1981
• Vehicles without a seventeen-digit VIN, and any vehicle garaged at a post office box address
• Storage-only and gap-only policies, and non-owner policies other than a non-owner SR-22

A vehicle used for business, or titled to an LLC, corporation, partnership or trust, is placed as commercial auto instead.

Aulona Insurance Group places the coverage this question is about: Texas Auto Insurance