Continuity of Coverage: The Rule That Governs Everything
- An SR-22 is a form your insurer files with the state — it is not a separate insurance policy.
- Expect a one-time filing fee (often $15–$50) plus a premium increase that reflects the underlying violation.
- You must keep the policy continuous for the state's full requirement period, usually 1–3 years.
Continuity of coverage is the principle that your SR-22 filing must exist without interruption for the full required period — and it is the single rule that produces most SR-22 disasters. The state tracks the filing as a continuous thread from carrier to carrier: switching insurers is fine, lapsing is not. The mechanism is unforgiving by design; when a carrier cancels an SR-22 policy, it must report the cancellation to the state, and the state suspends the license pending a replacement filing. The operational rules that follow: always buy the new policy before cancelling the old one (even one day’s overlap beats a one-day gap); pay premiums on schedule (autopay is not optional advice here — it is compliance infrastructure); and when moving states, file the new state’s certificate before the old policy ends. See switching carriers without breaking the filing.