What changed in Tennessee
Insurance law does not sit still, but most guides are written once and left alone. Repealed programs and retired forms keep circulating for years. This is what actually changed inTennessee, when, and where to verify it.
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July 1, 2027
Driving uninsuredUninsured-vehicle registration fees rise from $25/$100 to $500/$1,000 (enacted, not yet in force)
Public Chapter 1077 (2026, SB 1667) raises the Department of Revenue's coverage failure fee from $25 to $500 and the continued coverage failure fee from $100 to $1,000, adds a $1,500 fee with registration suspension for a repeat lapse within three years, requires proof of insurance valid for at least 30 days at initial registration, and moves insurers to weekly reporting to the verification system. It also caps noneconomic damages at $375,000 ($750,000 if catastrophic) for an uninsured vehicle owner who had received three noncompliance notices in the three years before a crash. The act's new 30-day proof-of-insurance requirement at first registration is itself repealed on June 30, 2029.
Tennessee Public Chapter 1077 (2026)January 1, 2024
SR-22SR-22 period now matches the suspension instead of a flat three years
Public Chapter 336 (2023, SB 259) rewrote Tenn. Code Ann. § 55-12-126. Proof of financial responsibility used to have to be maintained for three years; it now has to be maintained for the period of the suspension or revocation. Drivers placed under the old three-year requirement may petition the Department of Safety to shorten the time that remains. Guides that still say Tennessee requires an SR-22 for three years describe the pre-2024 law.
Tennessee Public Chapter 336 (2023)January 1, 2023
Minimum coverageProperty damage minimum raised from $15,000 to $25,000
Public Chapter 860 (2022, SB 504) set the minimum liability limits at 25/50/25 for proof required after December 31, 2022, up from 25/50/15. A policy that complied on December 31, 2022 had until its first renewal after that date to meet the new limits.
Tennessee Public Chapter 860 (2022)February 5, 2022
Moving hereDavidson County ended vehicle emissions testing
Nashville's Metro Council voted to end the county's program. From February 5, 2022, titling, registering or renewing a vehicle in Davidson County no longer requires an emissions test.
Metro Nashville Public Health DepartmentJanuary 14, 2022
Moving hereVehicle emissions testing ended in Hamilton, Rutherford, Sumner, Williamson and Wilson counties
EPA approved removing Tennessee's vehicle inspection and maintenance program from the state air plan effective September 16, 2021. A 2018 state law (Public Chapter 953, § 8(a)) ended testing 120 calendar days after that approval, and TDEC announced the end date as January 14, 2022.
Tennessee Public Chapter 953 (2018) and TDEC
What this list does and does not cover
Recorded here: changes to the rules this site tracks for Tennessee — liability minimums, SR-22 and proof-of-insurance requirements, penalties for driving uninsured, the fault system, what a lapse costs, new-resident deadlines and crash reporting. Each entry names the session law or statute that made the change and the date it took effect, not the date it was signed.
Not recorded: rate filings, individual insurer decisions, court rulings that do not change the text of the law, and changes to rules outside those seven subjects. A short list does not mean a quiet legislature — it means little moved in the parts of Tennessee law a driver has to comply with.
A change that has passed but has not yet taken effect is not shown as current anywhere on this site. It sits on the Tennessee pages as a dated pending value and replaces the current figure on the morning it comes into force. You can see every pending change across the country at the top of the national change feed, and the sources behind the Tennessee figures on its statute index.