North Carolina Uninsured Motorist Coverage Requirements

Every auto insurance policy sold in the state must meet North Carolina’s uninsured motorist coverage requirements, which as of July 1, 2025 set the floor at $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident for bodily injury, plus $50,000 for property damage. You cannot opt out. Underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage is now built into every policy as well, so a driver at the bare minimum finally has UIM protection that used to be missing at that level.

The Current Minimum Limits

For any policy issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2025, uninsured motorist (UM) limits must be at least:

$50,000 for bodily injury to one person in a single accident
$100,000 for total bodily injury when two or more people are hurt in one accident
$50,000 for property damage per accident

Those numbers doubled from the previous minimums of $30,000/$60,000/$25,000 that had held for decades. The same thresholds apply on the liability side, so a bare-minimum policy carries identical figures for what it pays out to others and what your UM coverage pays to you.¹²

Why You Can’t Opt Out

Under G.S. 20-279.21, no bodily injury liability policy can be issued or delivered in North Carolina unless it includes UM coverage. There is no form to sign to remove it. If a policy somehow lacks the coverage, it is read in by operation of law. The reasoning behind the rule is direct: if an uninsured driver injures you, your own policy has to be the source of recovery, because there is no one else to collect from.

Raising or Lowering Your Limits

You are not stuck at the minimum. You can buy UM bodily injury and property damage coverage up to $1,000,000 per person and $1,000,000 per accident. If your liability limits sit above the state floor, your UM limits automatically match the highest bodily injury liability limit on any vehicle on the policy, unless you specifically request lower UM limits in writing.³

That written request can never take your UM limits below the state minimum. Carrying $250,000/$500,000 in liability, for example, you could bring UM bodily injury back down to $50,000/$100,000 to save on premium, but not lower. Property damage under UM also has a $50,000 floor.³

Who the Coverage Protects

UM coverage reaches further than the named insured. It covers you, anyone driving the insured vehicle with your permission, and passengers in the vehicle at the time of a crash. Family members living in your household are also covered, even when they are struck while riding in someone else’s car or walking as pedestrians, provided the at-fault driver is uninsured.⁴

Underinsured Motorist Coverage Is Also Required Now

Every North Carolina auto policy must include UIM bodily injury coverage as of July 1, 2025. Before that date, drivers with the old minimum limits had no UIM protection at all. That gap is closed.¹

UIM applies when the at-fault driver has insurance, but not enough to cover your injuries. Their liability coverage has to be exhausted first through a settlement or judgment, and then your UIM steps in starting from the first dollar above what their policy paid.³

Two changes from the 2025 rewrite are worth knowing. First, whether a vehicle qualifies as underinsured is now measured against your actual total damages, not against your UIM limits. If the at-fault driver’s total available liability coverage is less than what you lost, they are underinsured. Second, your insurer generally cannot reduce your UIM payout by crediting other coverage against it. Workers’ compensation is the one exception; if you were hurt on the job and received workers’ comp, that amount can offset your UIM claim. Your own liability coverage, medical payments coverage, and other policy benefits cannot be subtracted from what UIM owes you.¹

Hit-and-Run Drivers

A hit-and-run driver counts as uninsured, and your UM coverage applies. There is a catch that trips people up: North Carolina requires proof of physical contact between your vehicle and the hit-and-run vehicle. If another driver ran you off the road but never touched your car, your UM claim faces a much harder path.

Report a hit-and-run to law enforcement as quickly as you can. A police report is essential, and delay gives your insurer room to question the account. Get witness information and photographs at the scene if it is safe.

Stacking Across Policies

You cannot stack UM or UIM coverage across multiple vehicles on the same policy. Insuring three cars on one policy does not let you combine three sets of UM limits into a bigger pool for a single claim.

Two truly separate policies are a different story. If you have coverage under two distinct policies, say a personal policy and one through your employer, you can stack their UIM coverage. The 2025 changes made this explicit for UIM: the total available coverage is the sum of the highest limit from each policy.¹

Filing a Claim

A UM or UIM claim is a first-party claim against your own insurer, not the other driver’s. Notify your company about the accident and be ready with a police report, medical records, repair estimates, and proof of any lost income. Insurers must handle claims in good faith, which means investigating promptly and not denying a valid claim without a reasonable basis. Slow-walking or an unreasonably low offer can itself be actionable.

When you and your insurer cannot agree on the value of the claim, G.S. 20-279.21 provides for arbitration. Your policy’s arbitration clause sets the specific procedure, so it is worth reading before a dispute lands.⁴

Watch the deadline. North Carolina applies a three-year statute of limitations to personal injury claims from car accidents. If a lawsuit becomes necessary on your UM or UIM claim, you generally have three years from the accident date. Miss it and the right to sue is gone, so do not let negotiations drift past the mark.

Penalties for a Lapse

Insurers must notify the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles whenever coverage is canceled or lapses. The DMV then sends a termination notice to the registered owner, who has 10 days to respond.²

No response, or no proof of current coverage, and the registration and plate are revoked. Revocation lasts until the owner obtains insurance or transfers the vehicle to someone who has it.⁵

Getting the registration back takes proof of insurance and a civil penalty tied to how many lapses you have had in the previous three years: $50 for no prior lapses, $100 for one prior lapse, and $150 for two or more. A $50 restoration fee is also due at registration renewal.²

Actually driving without the required insurance is a separate matter. It is a Class 3 misdemeanor under G.S. 20-313, and the criminal charge stands independently of the civil penalties for a registration lapse, so both can hit at once.⁶

1
N.C. Department of Insurance. Changes to the Rating of Automobile Insurance Policies Effective July 1, 2025
2
N.C. Department of Transportation (NCDOT). Insurance Requirements
3
North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina General Statutes 20-279.21
4
North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina General Statutes 20-279.21 – Motor Vehicle Liability Policy Defined
5
North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 20-311 – Financial Responsibility
6
North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina General Statutes 20-313 – Operation of Motor Vehicle Without Financial Responsibility a Misdemeanor