Lost my car number: what to do to restore the license plate

Lost your number – what are the consequences?

There are, in fact, more of them than you might think at first glance:

from the most obvious - you will have to restore the lost license plate, and this costs money, albeit small,
driving a car without a license plate is prohibited by traffic regulations, and this can result in deprivation of your license or a large fine,
if someone finds it and uses it for malicious purposes, then, as a lesser evil, you will receive a “chain letter” from the camera, and in the worst case, a criminal case may be opened, but this is rare.

Cost of license plates per car

The amount of state fees for vehicle registration is regulated by the Tax Code of the Russian Federation (Part 2, Chapter 25. 3, Article 333.33, paragraphs 36-40 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation) and is the same throughout Russia. But when paying, you need to fill out the details correctly (to “your” territorial traffic police department). For verification, you can use the official traffic police portal.

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The amount of the state duty for issuance, including replacement of lost or unusable:

GRZ - 2000 rubles (for a motorcycle and trailer - 1000 rubles);
PTS - 800 rubles;
Vehicle registration certificate - 500 rubles;
For making changes to a previously issued vehicle passport - 350 rubles;
GRZ of Transit vehicles on a metal base, for cars - 1600 rubles; on a metal base, for motorcycles and trailers - 800 rubles; on paper - 200 rubles.

Thus, the state fee for registration (with a change or issue of a number) will be:

for a car - 2850 rubles;
for a motorcycle, trailer - 1850 rubles.

The state fee for re-registration of a vehicle while retaining the license plate from the previous owner will cost 850 rubles.

What to do first?

Trying to find him. But this is often very difficult to do, although you can remember where you were driving on a rough road, driving too fast through artificial bumps, and so on.

But the main thing is that you cannot drive a car with a lost license plate - this can lead to the loss of your license.

The norm of Article 12.2, Part 2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation provides for a range of penalties depending on aggravating and mitigating circumstances, as well as the presence of previously imposed penalties:

a fine of 5,000 rubles for driving without a front or rear license plate or in the absence of both at the same time,
deprivation of the right to drive for 1-3 months for the same offense.

And, if in the case of a rear registration plate you can somehow go unnoticed while driving past the traffic police crew, then with a lost front registration plate this is much more difficult to do. Although, employees on the road very often look after those cars that they do not stop, and if they detect the absence of a road protection device, with a high degree of probability they will follow you.

Do I need to report theft?

No. This is not necessary, even if they were actually stolen and you did not lose them yourself.

Despite the fact that you will find a lot of information on the Internet that allegedly submitting “for theft of license plates” is mandatory or, conversely, you should not do this, otherwise you will not be given duplicates at the issuing points, this does not correspond to the truth. As of 2021, you simply will not find legal acts that would oblige you to report loss or theft to the police. But there is also no converse - in fact, if you are deprived of property (although the state land plot is formally the property of the state), it is your right to submit a corresponding application to the police department. But not an obligation.

Moreover, even the official portal of State Services recommends in its instructions to simply contact the traffic police or to obtain a duplicate to replace the lost registration number.

Can I print it myself to get there?

No. This will not only not save you from a fine or possible deprivation, but will certainly lead to the latter, and for a longer period.

The fact is that in the case of installing a personally made license plate to replace a lost one, 2 standards of liability are immediately imposed:

directly for installation - part 3 of article 12.2 of the Administrative Code: fine 2,500 rubles,
driving with false license plates – part 4 of article 12.2: deprivation of rights for a period of six months to 1 year.

What does this have to do with false signs?! After all, we don’t change them, we simply print the same ones, but on our own surface! But the Supreme Court in its recent Ruling indicated that these are precisely false numbers.

Procedure for replacing numbers

To the police (in case of theft).

We file a report about the theft of numbers. Usually to the department of internal affairs at the place of residence. The officer on duty registers the application in a journal and gives us a notification about it.
We tell the investigator in detail about the theft. A criminal case will be initiated within the next 10 days.
We add the received notification to the prepared package of necessary documents and go to the traffic police.

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At the traffic police department:

We fill out the application form according to the sample provided by the traffic police
We provide documents. If we change plates due to their poor condition, we provide the old plates along with the documents for their further disposal.
The vehicle is inspected by an authorized person. There is no need to undergo expert verification of the VIN code and units.
We pay the state fee at a bank branch or at a payment terminal.
We receive new license plates and a corresponding new Vehicle Registration Certificate. Changes according to the new data are also made to the registration certificate (without replacing it). The entire procedure for changing numbers will take 1-2 hours.

We go to the insurance company and make changes to the MTPL and CASCO policies. For free.

Where can you recover in 2021?

Today there are 2 possibilities to do this, which differ fundamentally in the fact of replacing the alphanumeric designations of the lost license plate, the cost and duration of the procedure.

So, there are 2 authorities that can help you solve the problem if you have lost your car number:

Traffic police - here you can get new numbers, but only both and only with different symbols,
point of production of the registration mark - essentially here you receive a duplicate of the registration mark after loss.

You can contact any of them. But it must be understood in the context of where you want to recover lost PGR that both bodies provide vastly different procedures.

If at the point of manufacture you simply receive a new piece of iron with the same alphanumeric designation, and you can replace either one sign or both,
then at the traffic police you will only receive a complete re-registration of the car with the receipt of new license plates with new numbers and letters, as well as changes to the title and the issuance of a new registration certificate.

You can find a complete list of production points on the official website of the traffic police. Select your city in the drop-down list, and the map and list below will show all such points in your city.

This is what the map looks like using Moscow as an example:

If you plan to contact the traffic police with a lost registration plate, then you need the registration department of the inspectorate. You can also find a list of these on the traffic police website.

What is the price?

According to the 2 different possibilities to restore a lost number, the cost of these procedures is also noticeably different.

Making a duplicate of a lost state number is a cheaper service. But prices are set freely by production points. On average, they range from 600 to 1,500 rubles for one GRZ - front or rear.

But re-registration of a car in order to assign new license plates, if you have lost even one, costs a fixed price in the state-established tariff in the form of payment of state duties:

2,000 rubles for issuing new license plates to replace those you lost (1,500 if we are talking about a motorcycle or a car trailer),
500 rubles for issuing a new STS (the old one is invalid, since it contains old license plate numbers),
350 rubles for changes to the PTS (or 800 for issuing a duplicate passport if the old one runs out of space).

When may it be necessary to change a vehicle's license plate number?

There are many situations in which a driver may need to change his license plate number. In this case, it is necessary to distinguish between 2 main groups of reasons, depending on which the process of replacing the state number will differ:

The driver still had the license plate, but it was damaged. License plates are a metal plate that is subject to corrosion and physical impact. If the car is not used for a long time and is parked on the street, over time rust may appear on the license plates, which will ruin their appearance, and the letters and numbers will become unreadable. In such situations, the driver needs to restore the license plates.
The vehicle's license plate has been stolen or lost. If the car's registration plates have been stolen, they cannot be restored. In such a situation, the driver will be subject to a procedure for replacing the car number plates and registration certificate.

Important: If the state license plate has been damaged, but the driver still has it, you can contact commercial organizations that restore the license plates. Such companies are certified by the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate, and they have the right to produce license plates and issue them to owners upon application and provision of the required package of documents. Even if the number plates are replaced by a private company, the driver will need to give a set of numbers, which the company will then transfer to the traffic police.

How to recover?

So, the procedure for obtaining a duplicate registration certificate at the points of their production is extremely simple: you simply arrive at the address you found in advance, be sure to take with you the registration certificate (pink plastic A6 size) and, just in case, your civil passport.

This procedure takes from 10 minutes to 1 hour. And a number of points can bring a new license plate to replace the lost one directly to your home for a fee (we remind you that it is prohibited to drive your own car without license plates; this will result in a fine or deprivation of your license).

But the procedure for restoring a lost registration number through the traffic police is a little more complicated. But here, too, there are 2 ways: you can submit an application through State Services - it’s faster, eliminates some bureaucracy and, when paying through the portal, gives a 30% discount on state fees; or directly to the traffic police department, but be prepared for the fact that they may not actually accept you, sending you to the state police portal - this is illegal, but alas, it will take a long time to prove you are right.

(DOCX format).
(to be filled out by hand).

If you have lost your number, it will be faster to submit an application through the State University website. Go to the appropriate section on the portal, click on the “Get a service” button, fill out all the fields of the form and at the end select the traffic police MREO department that is convenient for you and the date and time of the appointment.

Based on the result, they will accept your application, immediately assign new numbers and produce them (as a rule, the total time takes no more than 1 hour) and give them to you. There is no need to present the vehicle for inspection to restore the GRZ.

What documents are required?

When contacting the traffic police, it is recommended to immediately collect all the paperwork for the vehicle. This will help avoid repeated downtime in queues. The list of documentation includes:

passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation (for legal entities, an authorized representative of the organization);
certificate of registration (CTC);
MTPL or CASCO insurance policy;
vehicle passport (PTS);
registration plates (if any);
an application filled out according to the sample;
receipts for payment of state fees.

For legal entities, you will also need to submit a power of attorney to receive a duplicate license plate number and payment orders certified by the organization’s seal. Today, when replacing license plates, it is not necessary to check the engine and chassis. This speeds up the process significantly.

What will happen to the old number?

If you submit an application to the traffic police to change registration plates due to loss, then you will be assigned new alphanumeric values of the number. But the old ones, according to the regulations, must be put on the wanted list. But no, they will not be specifically looked for, raising the investigative committees and other services - they will simply become invalid, and if you find them (whether it is the front license plate, the rear one or both) and hand it over to the department, they must be disposed of.

Meanwhile, in 2021, unfortunately, it is quite likely that you have already changed your license plates, and fines will continue to come under the old ones - this is if someone suddenly finds your lost license plate, attaches it to themselves and drives over the limit under auto-fixation cameras . Despite the announcement of registration plates on the wanted list, the GIMP AIS system tends to lag and the data is not updated on time. Such fines should be appealed by attaching a copy of the registration certificate with new numbers and a copy of the application to the traffic police to change the license plates.

But when making a duplicate, none of those in power will know that you have lost the number, so the situation described above is also real, but appealing such a fine is more difficult - you will have to prove the loss and, with repeated “letters of happiness,” still change the license plates to others.

Fines and other penalties for loss of state. numbers

Typically, a driver who has lost his license plate or installed it incorrectly is fined 500 rubles. But traffic police officers have the right to limit themselves to issuing a warning if such a traffic violation is recorded for the first time.

If the license plates are lost again, the traffic inspector will most likely fine the careless driver. Moreover, it does not matter how many numbers are missing: only one or both at once.

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Revocation of driving privileges

An alternative or additional punishment for the driver may be the following: he is deprived of the right to drive a car for a period of 3 months. Sanctions are also provided for the loss of transits.

Video: What to do if you lost your car license plate:

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