Do vehicles not used have to be insured?

Car insurance

Do vehicles not used have to be insured?

A car, moped or caravan, parked on a private property … they don’t have to be insured. Or? It depends on an essential aspect.

If vehicles are not officially closed and ready to drive, there must also be liability insurance if the owner no longer wants to use it, a judgment of the European Court of Justice (ECJ, Case C-80/17) says.

Specifically, it was about a case from Portugal. A vehicle owner had no longer used her car due to health problems and parked in her farm, but without officially shut down it. Her son drove the car without her knowledge and without her permission in November 2006 and died in a traffic accident. Two other occupants died.

The Portuguese Automobile Garanti Fund paid compensation to the members of the occupants. He then demanded around 440,000 euros from the vehicle owner because she did not meet her obligation to take out liability insurance. The owner, on the other hand, argued that she was not responsible for the damage and not subject to insurance because she had parked her vehicle.

However, the Luxembourg judges did not join this view in their judgment. Accordingly, the vehicle owner can also be held responsible for the damage if she is not responsible for the accident under civil law, but was obliged to take out insurance.