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A Coverage Gap Caused by Active Duty Cannot Be Held Against You

A car insurer may not refuse to insure, limit coverage, charge a reinstatement fee or raise your premium solely because you let coverage lapse while you were on active duty for at least 30 consecutive days and the vehicle was not driven.

Verified August 23, 2026

What this benefit is

A car insurer may not refuse to insure, limit coverage, charge a reinstatement fee or raise your premium solely because you let coverage lapse while you were on active duty for at least 30 consecutive days and the vehicle was not driven.

What it's worth: No lapse surcharge, no reinstatement fee, no refusal — where the gap was active duty

  • A lapse surcharge is priced by the insurer and varies with the driver, the vehicle and the length of the gap, so there is no figure to publish. It is routinely one of the largest single factors in a Michigan premium.
  • The protection is conditional on the vehicle not having been driven or moved during the relevant period, so a family member using the car while you were away takes you outside it.

Who is entitled to it

  • You are the servicemember or veteran applying for cover.
  • Your home is in Michigan.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

Deadline: At application — certify the lapse when you buy the policy
  1. 1Raise it at the quote stage, not after the policy is issued. The protection is written around an application, and the surcharge is set at that moment.
  2. 2Ask for the insurer’s certification form. The Attorney General states the protection applies if you certify on a form provided by the insurer that the lapse was because of active duty.
  3. 3Check the length: the certification is that you were on active duty in the armed forces of the United States for at least 30 consecutive days.
  4. 4Check the vehicle was genuinely idle. The certification also covers that the vehicle was not driven or moved during the 6-month period immediately preceding application, or during the period the insurance was not maintained, whichever is shorter.
  5. 5Know exactly what the insurer may not do: refuse to insure, refuse to continue to insure, limit coverage available to you, charge a reinstatement fee, or increase your premiums solely because of that lapse.
  6. 6If an insurer surcharges you anyway, put the section number in writing to them and copy the complaint to the Department of Insurance and Financial Services.
File with
Your insurer, on its own certification form
No renewal
Once granted it does not need renewing.
CorrectionThis one is easy to lose by silence. Nothing obliges an insurer to ask why the gap happened — the protection depends on you certifying it. A veteran who simply accepts the quoted premium has waived it without knowing.
Worth knowingThe condition about the vehicle not being driven or moved is the one that fails in practice. If a spouse or a relative used the car while you were deployed, discuss that with the insurer before certifying anything.
Known gapWe could not read MCL 500.2116a at source. Whether the section reaches a lapse during state active duty ordered by the Governor, as several of Michigan’s other protections do, is not stated on the page we read.

Sources

This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.