Golf Cart or Low-Speed Vehicle? What Southwest Florida Owners Need to Know About Insurance

Golf carts aren’t just for the golf course anymore.

Throughout Southwest Florida, you’ll see them in gated communities, retirement communities, mobile home parks and neighborhoods where residents use them to visit friends, get around the community or simply take an evening ride.

And that’s where we hear a question that sounds simple but really isn’t:

“Do I need insurance on my golf cart?”

The answer can depend on something many owners don’t realize:

Is it actually a golf cart — or is it legally considered a low-speed vehicle?

Those two vehicles can look nearly identical sitting in your driveway, but Florida treats them differently.

A Golf Cart and a Low-Speed Vehicle Aren’t the Same Thing

This is probably the most important part of the conversation.

Under Florida law, a golf cart is designed and manufactured for golf or recreational purposes and cannot exceed 20 mph.

A low-speed vehicle, commonly called an LSV, has a top speed greater than 20 mph but not greater than 25 mph.

That five-mile-per-hour difference can completely change the rules.

An LSV is essentially being treated as a motor vehicle for street use.

Florida requires an LSV to be:

• Titled
• Registered
• Insured
• Equipped with specific safety equipment

The driver also needs a valid driver’s license. FLHSMV says registered LSVs must carry at least $10,000 of Property Damage Liability and $10,000 of Personal Injury Protection.

A traditional golf cart operated under Florida’s golf-cart rules is different and is generally exempt from the state’s vehicle registration requirements.

That does not, however, mean going uninsured is necessarily a good idea.

“I’m Not Required to Insure It” Is Different From “I Don’t Need Insurance”

Imagine this.

You’re driving your golf cart through your community.

Your neighbor’s car is parked along the street.

You look away for a second, turn too sharply and put the front corner of the cart directly into the driver’s-side door of a relatively new SUV.

Now you potentially have:

Damage to your golf cart.

Damage to their vehicle.

And possibly injuries to passengers.

That’s when the question stops being:

“Does Florida require me to insure this thing?”

and becomes:

“Who’s paying for all of this?”

Even when insurance isn’t legally required for a particular golf cart, owners should think about the liability exposure created every time someone drives it.

Don’t Assume Your Homeowners Policy Automatically Covers the Golf Cart

This is one of the easiest assumptions to make.

The golf cart is parked at your house.

You have homeowners insurance.

Therefore, the homeowners policy must cover the golf cart.

Not necessarily.

Homeowners policies can contain specific provisions regarding motorized vehicles and may provide coverage only in certain situations or locations.

The answer may depend on things such as:

• Where the golf cart is being used
• Who is driving it
• Whether it is registered for road use
• How the vehicle is classified
• Whether it is being used recreationally
• The exact homeowners policy form and endorsements

That’s why we don’t recommend assuming the homeowners policy will take care of everything.

Have your agent actually look at the policy.

What Can Golf Cart Insurance Cover?

Coverage varies between insurance companies, but depending on the policy, golf-cart or recreational-vehicle insurance may offer protection for several different exposures.

Liability

Liability coverage can become important if you are legally responsible for injuring someone or damaging their property while operating the cart.

Think about more than just another vehicle.

A golf cart could potentially:

Hit a pedestrian.

Strike another golf cart.

Damage a parked car.

Hit someone’s mailbox or garage.

Injure one of your passengers.

Those can turn into much larger financial problems than repairing the golf cart itself.

Physical Damage

Depending on the policy, physical-damage protection may also be available for your own golf cart.

That can become valuable if the cart is:

• Involved in a collision
• Stolen
• Vandalized
• Damaged by certain weather events
• Damaged by another covered cause of loss

Modern golf carts aren’t necessarily cheap toys anymore.

Some customized carts cost enough that losing one without insurance would be a painful expense.

Medical Coverage

Depending on the policy and carrier, there may also be options addressing certain medical expenses associated with an accident.

The important thing is to know what you’ve purchased rather than assuming all golf-cart policies work the same way.

What if You Modify Your Golf Cart to Go Faster?

This deserves special attention.

There are plenty of modified carts in Florida.

Different motors, controllers, batteries and other upgrades can make some carts substantially faster than they were when they left the factory.

But once you start moving beyond the legal definition of a traditional golf cart, the classification of the vehicle may change.

Florida defines a golf cart as being incapable of exceeding 20 mph, while an LSV operates above 20 mph but no more than 25 mph.

So if you own a modified cart, don’t simply tell your insurance agent:

“It’s just a golf cart.”

Tell them what it actually is and how you’re using it.

Where Can You Drive a Golf Cart in Florida?

Another common misconception is that you can take a golf cart onto any neighborhood street as long as the speed limit is low.

Florida law generally prohibits golf carts on public roads unless the particular road has been authorized for golf-cart use under state or local rules.

Local governments can also establish more restrictive requirements.

That’s especially important in Southwest Florida because the rules in one neighborhood, municipality or private community may not be the same as somewhere else.

Before taking a golf cart onto a public street, verify that you’re actually allowed to use it there.

Can Kids Drive the Golf Cart?

Florida also changed its rules regarding younger golf-cart operators.

Under current Florida law, someone under 18 operating a golf cart on a public road or street must have a valid learner’s license or driver’s license.

Someone 18 or older must have valid government-issued photographic identification.

Even beyond the legal requirement, parents should think carefully about the insurance side.

Ask your agent:

Who is allowed to operate my cart under the policy?

A claim is a bad time to discover that your assumptions about permitted drivers were incorrect.

What Happens if Someone Gets Hurt?

Golf carts can feel relatively harmless because they’re slow and open.

But passengers generally have:

Very little protection around them.

No traditional vehicle body surrounding them.

Limited restraint systems depending on the cart.

And sometimes passengers sitting in rear-facing seats.

A low-speed accident can still cause a serious injury.

That’s one reason I would pay particular attention to liability limits, not just whether the golf cart itself is covered for damage.

The cart might be worth $10,000 or $20,000.

An injury claim could potentially be worth considerably more.

Should Your Umbrella Policy Cover the Golf Cart?

If you carry a personal umbrella policy, this is another question worth asking.

Umbrella policies typically require qualifying underlying insurance and can have specific rules about vehicles and recreational exposures.

Don’t automatically assume the umbrella covers the cart just because you have an umbrella policy.

Tell your agent you own it.

Make sure the underlying insurance and umbrella carrier know about the exposure when required.

If you have multiple vehicles, a boat, golf cart, pool or other liability exposures, reviewing your personal umbrella insurance can make sense as part of the overall conversation.

What About Hurricane Damage?

It’s Southwest Florida, so we have to talk about hurricanes.

Imagine your golf cart is sitting beneath your carport during a storm.

A large piece of debris blows into it and causes significant damage.

Or a tree comes down on the cart.

Whether the damage is covered depends on the policy you purchased and the circumstances of the loss.

Again, the lesson is simple:

Don’t wait until after the storm to find out where the golf cart is insured.

If you’re relying on another policy to cover it, confirm that assumption beforehand.

Five Questions I’d Ask if I Owned a Golf Cart

You don’t need to spend an afternoon reading insurance contracts.

I’d start with five simple questions:

1. Is my vehicle legally a golf cart or an LSV?
2. Where am I allowed to drive it?
3. What policy covers damage I cause to someone else?
4. What coverage do I have if the cart itself is damaged or stolen?
5. Who in my household is allowed to drive it?

If you can answer those five questions, you’re already ahead of a lot of golf-cart owners.

One Last Thing: Tell Your Insurance Agent How You Actually Use It

There is a big difference between:

“We use it around the golf course.”

and

“We drive it through the neighborhood every night and take it onto public streets.”

There is also a difference between:

“It goes 18 mph.”

and

“We modified it and now it’ll do almost 25.”

Insurance works best when the policy is based on accurate information.

Don’t try to fit the vehicle into whichever category sounds cheaper.

Explain what you own and how you use it, and let your agent determine which insurance options are appropriate.

Golf Cart Insurance in Southwest Florida

Golf carts are another example of how living in Southwest Florida creates insurance questions that don’t come up everywhere else.

Whether you use yours around the neighborhood, inside a private community or simply for recreation, it’s worth understanding what would happen if you damaged the cart, injured somebody or caused damage to someone else’s property.

Wilcox Family Insurance already works with insurance for recreational vehicles, including golf carts and other off-road vehicles. You can learn more on our Recreational Vehicle Insurance page or contact our team to review your particular vehicle.

Because “I thought my homeowners policy covered it” is something you’d much rather say before an accident than after one.