Virginia P&C Study Guide
Failed the Virginia P&C exam? There's a good chance it wasn't you.
The most common complaint from people who don't pass isn't the test — it's the study material. And the part they point to most? The state regulations: a few generic, watered-down national pages that looked nothing like the real Virginia exam. TESTivity is built the other way around. Below is a real chapter from the Virginia P&C manual — written for Virginia specifically, not national prep with a state name slapped on the cover. Read it and see the difference for yourself.
Virginia · Property & Casualty Sample chapter
Chapter 10 Virginia Insurance Regulations
Virginia’s property-and-casualty rules have one feature that towers over everything else for the exam — contributory negligence — plus a couple of genuinely Virginia-only quirks you won’t find anywhere else. Get the regulator basics down, then we’ll hit the auto and liability rules that win the points.
Licensing — the quick version
Pre-licensing is 20 hours per line, and CE is 16 hours / 2 of ethics every 2 years — the same as Virginia’s other lines. Placing coverage with a non-admitted carrier requires a Virginia surplus lines license and a diligent search of the admitted market first.
Rates — file-and-use, and credit scoring is allowed
Virginia is a file-and-use state: insurers file rates and may use them immediately, subject to later review — unlike California’s and New York’s prior-approval systems. And unlike California, Virginia permits insurance credit scoring as a personal-lines rating factor (with adverse-action notice rules).
Auto — fault-based, 30/60/20, and UM you can’t refuse
Virginia is fault-based (no no-fault, no mandatory PIP). Minimum limits are 30/60/20 (Va. Code § 46.2-705). The standout: uninsured motorist coverage is mandatory on every Virginia auto policy — you cannot reject it, which is unusual. Most states only require UM be offered. Virginia joins North Carolina and New York here.
Then the genuinely odd one: the Uninsured Motor Vehicle (UMV) fee. Virginia lets a driver pay an annual fee to the DMV instead of buying liability insurance.
Contributory negligence — the big one
This is the single most important Virginia P&C concept. Virginia is one of only a handful of jurisdictions (with Alabama, North Carolina, Maryland, and D.C.) that still use contributory negligence: if the injured party is even 1% at fault, they recover nothing from the other driver — even if that driver was 99% at fault.
Homeowners and workers’ comp
Virginia has no FAIR Plan — high-risk property owners use the surplus lines market instead. (Hampton Roads’ chronic tidal flooding makes NFIP or private flood coverage a real concern, since homeowners policies never cover flood.) Workers’ comp is mandatory at 2 or more employees — lower than Georgia’s and North Carolina’s 3, higher than most states’ 1 — administered by the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission (VWC), paying 66⅔% of average weekly wage with a 500-week TTD cap and a 2-year filing deadline.
Key terms so far
- Contributory negligence
- 1% fault bars all recovery; used by Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, and D.C.
- UMV fee
- Annual DMV fee paid in lieu of insurance — provides no coverage whatsoever.
- Mandatory UM
- Uninsured-motorist coverage cannot be rejected on a Virginia auto policy.
Cancellation and nonrenewal
Virginia’s nonrenewal rule asks for 45 days notice and requires the insurer to state the actual reason. In the first 60 days a new policy is in force, the insurer can cancel for any reason with 10 days notice; after that, mid-term cancellation narrows to nonpayment, fraud or material
That's a taste of the real thing.
The full Property & Casualty study manual covers every exam topic in this same plain-English voice — every rule, every memory Hook, every worked example. Want the video course and full exam simulator too? They come with the Platinum study package.