Important update to New York insurance motor vehicle reporting requirements

Effective immediately, Zurich will require customers’ license plate numbers in addition to their vehicle identification number (VIN) for New York State motor vehicle liability information.

New York requires that new business notifications must be reported no later than seven days after the effective date of the coverage. This time frame is important to ensure compliance with New York’s reporting requirements. Timely reporting helps validate in the New York Department of Motor Vehicle’s database that the vehicle has an insurance policy in force.

You may remember receiving information from us last year regarding New York State insurance motor vehicle requirements. The addition of license plate numbers to the vehicle schedule further ensures accurate reporting in compliance with New York State laws and regulations.

We would like to remind you that New York State requires insurance companies to report motor vehicle liability information within the time frames outlined below. Please note that new business notifications must be reported no later than seven days after the effective date of the coverage. In order to comply, we are requesting your urgent attention to report motor vehicle liability information as outlined below as soon as possible and no later than three days from the effective date of coverage for the vehicle.    

Vehicles subject to this requirement include:

• New business
• Renewal business
• Replacement vehicles
• Endorsing new vehicles
• Deleting vehicles
• Policy cancellations
• Policy reinstatements 
• Vehicles moved to another insurer within an insurance company group (Affiliated Company Transfer)

This reporting requirement applies to any vehicle, new or renewal, that is added or deleted from a policy, at any point of the policy period (not just at policy inception).

Failure to report vehicles to New York State according to reporting requirements could result in significant fines to Zurich: up to for each failure to timely and properly report as provided in Section 317 of the New York Insurance Law.

Requirements under the Vehicle and Traffic Law and Part 34 Motor Vehicle Liability Insurance Reporting

Articles 6 and 8 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law provide that the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles shall be notified by insurance companies of certain transactions related to motor vehicle liability insurance coverage with respect to motor vehicles registered in New York State for which an insurance ID card or insurance certificate has been issued by, or on behalf of, an insurance company.

An insurance company or servicing agent shall transmit notices required by Part 34 of the DMV Regulations to the DMV in accordance with the time frames set forth below. Notices may be submitted on a daily basis.

New business notifications (as outlined above) must be reported no later than seven days after the effective date for policies issued on or after Jan. 2, 2001. Such time frames shall apply to all new business notices required by section 34.3(a)(2).

Enforcement

An insurance company that fails to comply with the reporting requirements of Article 6 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law and/or the regulations from the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles may be subject to the fines set forth in section 317 of the Insurance Law.

Roles/responsibilities and actions required for Producers and Dealers

An insurance company or servicing agent shall transmit notices required by Part 34 to the DMV in accordance with the time frames set forth below. Notices may be submitted on a daily basis.

Timely submission is required to meet reporting requirements.

Please review motor vehicle reporting procedures to help meet and comply with the seven-day reporting requirement. We ask that you report the new business information within three days of the effective date of the coverage to ensure we meet the seven-day reporting requirement.

Process requirements

The following information is required in order to properly report a vehicle(s) to the state of New York:

• Registrant/insured name and address
• Vehicle identification number (VIN)
• License plate number
• Effective date (Date the vehicle is being added/deleted for coverage purposes)
• Policy number and policy effective dates
• Reporting insurance company

This information will be recorded in Zurich’s databases and transmitted to the DMV record-keeping system for the state of New York.

Time frame requirements

The time frames are prescribed by the Vehicle and Traffic Law and DMV regulations. Transaction filing time frames are as follows:

For more information, please contact your local Zurich underwriter or account representative.

For additional information on these regulations, the New York DMV has an implementation guide at www.dmv.ny.gov/ii-es/ediguide1-3.pdf.