This is the fine for not having car insurance: it does not matter if you drive or not

As a vehicle owner, you know you need to have your vehicle insured. First of all, because it is an essential tool to protect yourself against the unforeseen. Think that a private vehicle is more exposed to an accident compared to other means of transport. On the other hand, this is required by law and you can be fined for not having car insurance.

Unfortunately, not everyone complies with the standard and this can sometimes be a problem for third parties involved. Let's think about various scenarios, such as that you have had an accident with a hit-and-run driver. Or without going any further, a friend or relative has left you the car. Or something more usual, it is a company car.

In these cases we will not be certain if the owner of the vehicle has contracted insurance for his vehicle, nor if he is up to date with the payments. For this reason, we always recommend that you clear up all doubts about how to know if a car is insured before getting behind the wheel of a car that you do not own.

Given that in our country almost 8% of the car park circulates without insurance, a proportion that has grown above 15% in the last year, today we are going to see what is the amount of the fine for not having insurance car.

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What does the law say about the fine for not having car insurance?

Royal Legislative Decree 8/2004, of October 29, which approves the consolidated text of the Law on civil liability and insurance in the circulation of motor vehicles, establishes the obligation to insure a vehicle and the prohibition to circulate without compulsory insurance. The person responsible for the violation is always the owner of the vehicle.

This is the penalty for not having insurance car: it doesn't matter if you drive or not

Of course, it is the driver who will be responsible for the damages caused to other people or vehicles by driving without compulsory insurance when it is his fault. In these cases he must respond civilly and criminally. For his part, the owner will respond civilly (not criminally) for damages caused to people or vehicles for not having the vehicle compulsory insurance (except theft).

Fine for not having car insurance

Driving without insurance is a more common offense than we think. Moreover, the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) estimates that close to two million vehicles circulate without an insurance policy. That is precisely why they use all the automated means at their disposal to hunt down uninsured cars.

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A year almost 130,000 fines are imposed for driving without insurance, a collection of almost 100 million euros. By comparison, that's double the number of DUI charges combined. The DGT's way of hunting down offenders is not too far from what you can do as an individual.

Traffic agents capture the license plate through the various cameras available to them and compare it with a database that is coordinated with the insurers. If the vehicle does not have insurance, they will proceed to penalize its owner. The amount of the fines ranges between 601 euros and 3,005 euros, according to the BOE.

The amount of the fine is graduated according to whether the vehicle was circulating or not, its category, the service it provides, the seriousness of the damage caused, if applicable, the duration of the lack of insurance and the reiteration of the same infraction . In addition, agents can immobilize a vehicle that does not have the mandatory insurance in order until the owner shows that he has it.

And if I don't move my car from the garage?

It doesn't matter if your car doesn't move from the garage or is not in a technical condition to drive because you have abandoned it on a farm. This is the opinion of a judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). The sentence establishes that a car must have compulsory civil liability insurance as long as it is registered in an EU Member State.

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This is so, logically, as long as it has not been taken out of circulation in accordance with the applicable national regulations. In the words of the CJEU, every vehicle must have insurance regardless of "the use that is made or may be made of the vehicle in question or the intention of the owner or any other person to use it effectively".