PERSONAL LINES
THE PAP AND COLLEGE STUDENTS Your 20-year-old daughter is away at college. She does not have a car on campus, but her roommate does and she drives the auto occasionally. Would your unendorsed personal auto policy respond if she has an accident driving the car? If not, is there anything you can do about it? You might be surprised... Courts have generally held that students away at school are still considered to be “family members” under the PP 00 01 and, thus, are covered while operating autos at school. However, there is an important exclusion in the PAP that says [emphasis added]: B. We do not provide Liability Coverage for the ownership, maintenance or use of: 3. Any vehicle, other than “your covered auto”, which is: a. Owned by any “family member”; or b. Furnished or available for the regular use of any “family member”. However, this Exclusion (B.3.) does not apply to you while you are maintaining or “occupying” any vehicle which is: a. Owned by a “family member”; or b. Furnished or available for the regular use of a “family member”. As you can see, IF the vehicle is “furnished or available” for the “regular use” of a “family member,” there is no coverage under the parents’ policy while the student drives the car. Without debating the issues of “furnished or available” or “regular use,” let’s assume that the student does have regular, unrestricted access to her roommate’s car. In that case, she is at the mercy of the insurance on the vehicle, if any, since her parents’ policy will not provide any coverage. Is there 16 | NOVEMBER 2021 |
wisconsin INDEPENDENT AGENT
anything her parents can do do extend coverage to her under their policy while driving her roommate’s car? Well, speaking of the word “extend”... ISO has an endorsement, the PP 03 06-Extended Non-Owned Coverage-Vehicles Furnished or Available For Regular Use that may provide coverage. If you’ll open this endorsement, you’ll see that it buys back several exclusions, including B.3. above. However, note the following wording from the endorsement [emphasis added]: I. Extended Non-owned Coverage The Extended Non-owned Coverage provided by this endorsement does not afford coverage under Part A and Part B of the Policy for any accident involving: A. A vehicle owned by an individual named in the Schedule or in the Declarations; B. A vehicle owned by a “family member” or C. A temporary substitute vehicle for such owned vehicle described in A. or B. above. So, even though this endorsement provides coverage to family members for vehicles furnished or available for their regular use, it does not provide coverage IF the vehicle is owned “by a member of the same household.” Exclusion B.3. in the PAP applies to vehicles owned by family members but not scheduled on the parents’ policy and also to vehicles furnished or available for the regular use of family members (e.g., a company car). What Item I. in the endorsement means is that the coverage provided by the endorsement only buys back the “furnished or available” part
