A borrowed car wrecked by a family member

Attorney Answer

Liability cover pays for damage you cause to others. It does not pay to repair your own car — that is collision cover, and they are different things.

This is the distinction that decides the answer. Liability insurance responds when the insured driver damages someone else's property or injures someone. Damage to your own vehicle is covered by collision, which is optional and separate.

So if the policy is liability-only, your own car's repair is not covered by it, whoever was driving.

But there may be a second policy. A driver who has her own motor insurance may have liability cover of her own that responds to damage she caused to your vehicle. That is the route worth checking, because it puts the claim where the fault is.

Permission matters here too. Motor policies generally follow the vehicle and extend to a permissive driver, so lending the car knowingly usually keeps cover in place — where taking it without permission can change the position significantly.

The uncomfortable part is that claiming against a family member's policy means making a claim against a family member, and that is worth thinking through before starting.

What you can do

1. Check your own declarations page for whether you carry collision cover as well as liability. 2. Ask whether your sister has her own motor policy, and get the insurer and policy number. 3. Make the claim against her liability cover if she has one — that is where the fault sits. 4. Get a written repair estimate before discussing any figure. 5. Keep a record that she had permission to drive, which supports cover rather than undermining it.

⏱ Time limits apply. O.C.G.A. § 9-3-31 gives four years for damage to personal property, including a vehicle, while an injury claim under § 9-3-33 gets only two. Where both are in play the shorter one governs the part that matters most.

A Georgia attorney can tell you quickly how the facts here line up, and most will look at a matter like this at no cost.