Pickup truck that crashed through a garage wall, seen from inside the garage

CLAIMS

A Car Hit My House. Who Pays?

Your car, a stranger’s car, or a truck into your storefront. Three different claims, one covered peril, and a hole that is never just a hole.

A vehicle that crashes into a house, garage, fence, condo building or storefront is a covered loss under nearly every property policy in Florida and New Jersey, whether the driver was you, a stranger or a delivery company. Homeland Public Adjusters documents the damage behind the wall, works out which policy pays first, and handles the claim so you are not negotiating with two insurance companies at once. No Recovery, No Fee.

Last reviewed: October 2026

Free Claim Review Florida (305) 783-3777 New Jersey (732) 517-3777

FLORIDA

Vehicle Impact Claims in Florida

Florida has about 10% of the country’s drivers and roughly 17% of its vehicle-into-building crashes, and nearly one in four of those happens in Miami-Dade or Broward. Homeland has handled several of these claims this year alone, in homes, carports and storefronts, and represents Florida owners from the first photos through the final payment. If you have no insurance of your own and the driver was at fault, our Third Party Uninsured Damage page covers that claim.

Call (305) 783-3777, 24/7 Free Claim Review

NEW JERSEY

Sedan that crashed through the stucco exterior wall of a Florida home, wall and window broken open — A vehicle through the wall is a covered peril under almost every homeowners policy; the fight is over structural scope, code upgrades and who pays first.

Vehicle Impact Claims in New Jersey

A car through a living-room wall in Elizabeth, a delivery truck into a storefront in New Brunswick, a plow into a garage in Toms River. New Jersey’s standard auto policy carries at least $25,000 of property damage liability, which is often less than the repair, so your own property policy usually leads the claim. Homeland handles vehicle impact claims for New Jersey homeowners, associations and businesses.

Call (732) 517-3777, 24/7 Free Claim Review

Who Pays When a Vehicle Hits Your Property

Vehicle impact is a named peril on the standard homeowners, condo unit, renters and landlord forms, and the special (HO-3) form covers the building against any sudden cause the policy does not exclude. The Insurance Information Institute lists “damage caused by vehicles” as covered under every standard homeowners form. So the first answer is: your own policy pays, subject to your deductible, and it pays without waiting for anyone to decide who was at fault. The second answer is who pays your deductible and everything your policy does not, and that depends on whose vehicle it was.

Ceiling and wall debris inside a garage after a vehicle crashed into the home — Inside the garage after a pickup came through the door: ceiling, wall, electrical and contents damage that the driver’s $10,000 minimum property-damage coverage rarely covers.

Whose vehicle	Who pays first	What else is in play
A stranger’s car or truck	Your property policy (building, contents, loss of use), minus your deductible	The driver’s auto liability coverage owes the rest, including your deductible. Florida’s legal minimum is only $10,000 of property damage liability; New Jersey’s standard policy carries $25,000. Your carrier pursues the driver’s insurer (subrogation) and refunds your deductible if it recovers.
Your own car, or a family member’s	Your property policy for the house; your auto policy’s collision coverage for the car	Named-perils forms (HO-2, HO-6) exclude damage to a fence, driveway or walk caused by a vehicle owned or operated by a resident. The HO-3 covers the house either way. Your auto liability coverage does not pay for your own property.
A commercial vehicle into your business or condo building	Your commercial property or association master policy, including business income where the policy carries it	The trucking company’s commercial auto policy and sometimes its cargo insurer. Expect a liability adjuster to call within days with a quick number; the structural engineer’s report usually comes later and is larger.
Hit-and-run, uninsured or underinsured driver	Your property policy	Your deductible is likely gone unless the driver is found. Uninsured motorist coverage on your auto policy covers injuries, not your house. Report to the police the same day; the report number is the first thing every carrier asks for.
No property insurance of your own (Florida)	Nobody, unless the driver was at fault	A third-party claim against the driver’s liability insurer, which Homeland handles for Florida owners: Third Party Uninsured Damage Claims.

Terms in this table, defined: Date of Loss, Public Adjuster, Proof of Loss. See the full claims glossary.

Florida’s no-fault law is often misunderstood here. Personal injury protection (PIP) pays medical and disability benefits after a crash; it pays nothing for your house. The property side runs under the driver’s property damage liability coverage and under your own property policy, and nothing in Florida law requires you to wait for the driver’s carrier before filing your own claim.

What a Vehicle Strike Actually Damages

Two to four thousand pounds arriving at 20 or 30 miles an hour does not stop at the drywall. The visible hole is the smallest part of most vehicle impact claims we document:

Framing and load path: cracked studs and headers, racked walls, a shifted top plate, and in block construction, fractured cells and displaced lintels well beyond the point of impact

Foundation and slab: cracked stem walls, spalled block, and slab edges pushed out of plane, which show up as doors that no longer close

Plumbing, gas and electrical: crushed supply lines inside the wall, a sheared gas meter, a struck panel or a damaged service drop that makes the house unsafe until an electrician clears it

Windows, doors and roof: impact windows are often pulled out of square without breaking, and a strike at a corner can lift roof sheathing and break the connection to the wall

Contents and vehicles inside: furniture, electronics, a second car in the garage, tools and inventory in a business

Fuel, fluids and fire: gasoline, oil and coolant on floors and in soil, and the fire or smoke that sometimes follows, with its own cleanup

Loss of use or business income: the nights in a hotel, or the weeks a storefront is boarded up, when the policy carries that coverage

Code upgrades: the repair often triggers current-code requirements for the whole wall or opening, which ordinance or law coverage pays for when you have it

Vehicle impact by the numbers

100+Vehicle-into-building crashes every day in the U.S. (Storefront Safety Council)

17%Share of U.S. storefront crashes that happen in Florida, with about 10% of drivers

$10,000Florida’s minimum property damage liability on an auto policy (Fla. Stat. 324.022)

$25,000New Jersey standard auto policy property damage minimum since 2023 (DOBI Bulletin 22-09)

Sources: Storefront Safety Council · Storefront Safety Council statistics 2012–2024 · WPTV, Dec 30 2019 · Fla. Stat. 324.022 · NJ DOBI Bulletin 22-09

What to Do After a Vehicle Hits Your Property

Get everyone out and away: a struck wall can be holding up the floor above it. Do not pull the vehicle out until a contractor or the fire department says the structure will hold without it.

Call 911 and get the report number: the police report fixes the date, the driver, the plate and the insurer. If the driver leaves, note the vehicle and direction and tell the officer; a hit-and-run is still a covered loss.

Shut off gas and electricity if the strike was anywhere near a meter, panel or service line, and call the utility. Smell gas: leave.

Photograph before anything moves: the vehicle in place, the wall from inside and out, the ceiling and floor above and below, cracks across the room, and every item damaged. Video a slow walk-through.

Board up and shore up, keep the receipts: emergency protection is your duty under the policy and is reimbursed. Have the contractor note what they saw before covering it.

Let Homeland notify your carrier: call us before you call the insurance company. Hire us, and we file the notice in writing, with the report number and photos, so the claim opens properly.

Do not give the driver’s insurer a recorded statement or accept a check: their adjuster represents the driver. A release signed for the visible damage closes the claim before the engineer finds the rest.

Keep a log of every cost: hotel nights, meals, the storage unit, the days the store was closed. Loss of use and business income claims are built from that log.

How Homeland Handles a Vehicle Impact Claim

Structural inspection, not a glance at the hole: we open what the impact loaded, measure walls for plumb and square, and bring in a structural engineer when the load path is in question.

The repair priced as a repair, not a patch: a wall rebuilt to current code, matching stucco, siding or brick across the elevation, and the interior finishes the carrier’s estimate leaves out.

Every policy that owes, in the right order: your property policy first, then the driver’s liability carrier for the deductible and the excess, with the paperwork each one needs.

Contents, vehicles inside, loss of use and business income documented and claimed alongside the structure.

One point of contact: we deal with the carriers’ adjusters, engineers and estimators so you are not fielding calls from three companies.

Appraisal when the number is still short: the policy’s appraisal process, which Homeland’s licensed public adjuster, also a certified property appraiser and umpire, knows from both sides of the table.

No Recovery, No Fee.

Deadlines to Know

Florida. Notice of an initial or reopened property claim is due within 1 year after the date of loss, and a supplemental claim within 18 months (Fla. Stat. §627.70132). Your carrier must acknowledge the claim within 7 days and pay or deny within 60 days of notice (§627.70131). The claim against the driver’s liability insurer runs on a separate, longer clock, but evidence does not keep: get the structure inspected while the damage is fresh.

Sources: Fla. Stat. §§627.70132, 627.70131.

New Jersey. Insurers must begin investigating within 10 working days of notice and pay a first-party property claim within 30 calendar days after receiving a properly executed proof of loss; a third-party property damage claim must be resolved within 45 days (N.J.A.C. 11:2-17.7). Your policy sets its own prompt-notice condition.

Source: N.J.A.C. 11:2-17.7.

In the News: A Real Vehicle Impact Claim

In the News. On March 30, 2026, Spectrum News 13 reported on a deadly crash in Apopka in which a car left the road and struck a home, and quoted the Storefront Safety Council’s Rob Reiter that roughly 100 vehicle-into-building crashes happen every day across the country, killing more than 2,600 people a year and seriously injuring more than 16,000. Florida ranks among the top states for cars crashing into homes. For the family inside, the claim that follows is three claims at once: the structure under their own policy, the driver’s liability carrier for the deductible and the excess, and the contents and living expenses nobody thinks to list until a public adjuster asks.

Source: Spectrum News 13, March 30, 2026

Vehicle Impact Claim FAQs

A car hit my house. Does my homeowners insurance cover it?

Yes. Vehicle impact is a covered peril on the standard homeowners, condo unit, renters and landlord forms, and the HO-3 covers the house against any sudden cause the policy does not exclude. Your deductible applies, and the driver’s liability insurer may owe it back to you.

Should I file with my insurance or the driver’s?

Both, in that order. Your own policy pays without waiting for fault to be decided, and your carrier then pursues the driver’s insurer and returns your deductible if it recovers. Filing only against the driver leaves you waiting on a liability adjuster whose job is to pay as little as possible, with a policy that may carry only $10,000 (Florida minimum) or $25,000 (New Jersey standard) of property damage coverage.

I crashed my own car into my garage. Is that covered?

The house is covered under your property policy. Named-perils forms exclude damage to a fence, driveway or walk caused by a resident’s vehicle, but the structure itself is covered on every form. Your auto policy’s collision coverage handles the car; your auto liability coverage does not pay for your own property.

The driver’s insurance company already offered me a check. Should I take it?

Not before the structure has been inspected. Liability adjusters settle early because the number goes up once an engineer looks at the framing and the slab. A signed release ends the claim for everything, including what has not been found yet.

The driver drove off. What now?

Report it to the police immediately and give them the vehicle description. Your own property policy still covers the damage; the deductible is the part you may not recover unless the driver is identified.

A truck hit my building and the store is closed. Can I claim the lost sales?

If your commercial policy carries business income coverage, yes, from 72 hours after the loss until the space is repaired with reasonable speed, plus extra expense to keep operating elsewhere. The trucking company’s liability carrier may owe the rest. Keep daily sales records from before and after.

Does the repair have to bring the wall up to current code?

Usually, and the code upgrade is the part carriers leave out of the first estimate. Ordinance or law coverage pays the increased cost when the policy carries it; in Florida, the roof-to-wall and opening-protection requirements triggered by a wall rebuild can be substantial.

Does Homeland handle the claim against the driver too?

We handle your first-party property claim and document the loss in a way the driver’s carrier has to answer. In Florida, where the owner has no property insurance of their own, we handle the third-party property damage claim directly; see our Third Party Uninsured Damage page.

Insights

Car crashed into a building wall with cracked stucco and a bent sign

Vehicle Impact Claims We Handle Across Florida & New Jersey

Homeland handles vehicle impact claims throughout Florida and New Jersey. Wherever the car came to rest, call us 24/7.

Miami Fort Lauderdale Tampa Orlando West Palm Beach Naples Jacksonville Fort Myers Sarasota Camden New Brunswick Elizabeth West New York Union City

Related Coverage

Lightning, Trees & Other Sudden Damage Third Party Uninsured Damage Claims Retail & Strip Centers Homeowners Condo & HOA Associations

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Other Sudden Damage Claims We Handle

A vehicle strike is one of several sudden, non-storm losses that are covered more often than owners expect. Homeland handles each of these for Florida and New Jersey policyholders.

Lightning, Trees & Other Claims Fire & Smoke Damage Claims Water Damage Claims Theft & Vandalism Claims Business & Commercial Claims Denied & Underpaid Claims

Let Us Handle the Claim Behind the Hole in the Wall

The visible damage is the easy part. Call Homeland before the driver’s insurer calls you with an offer. We inspect the structure, document the hidden damage and present the claim to every carrier that owes on it.

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