After buying a car, how long can you drive without compulsory motor insurance?

Let's start with the basics - what are the consequences?

Sales and purchase agreement (PSA),
car acceptance certificate,
receipt for receipt of funds.

These 3 documents secure the transfer of ownership. PrEP has no statute of limitations - this is the first thing you need to know. The purchased property remains yours once and for all, regardless of whether it is registered with the traffic police or not. That is, the very phrase about the contract being valid for 10 days is incorrect.

The purchase and sale agreement is drawn up in at least three copies:

for the buyer;
for the seller;
for MREO traffic police.

Registration of a car with the traffic police is necessary to allow the car on Russian roads.

Any vehicle model (a batch of cars imported from abroad or even an individual car) must meet the requirements of the Technical Regulations. If the manufacturer confirms compliance with the regulations, then he receives a “Type Approval”, on the basis of which a passport is issued for each car. The driver presents the PTS to the traffic police, the car is registered, and the driver is given a vehicle registration certificate.

Thus, it is the STS that confirms the safety of the car. There is no certificate - you cannot drive on the roads of the Russian Federation in this car.

Legal regulation

The Federal Law of April 25, 2002 establishes that a vehicle must be insured before it is registered with the traffic police. Ten working days are given for this. What is important is that it will not be possible to register a car without an insurance policy. Therefore, it is worthwhile to deal with the registration immediately, although it is fair to note that the registration of compulsory motor liability insurance occurs quite quickly, sometimes even in a couple of hours.

IMPORTANT !!! Thus, after purchasing a car under the policy, the new owner will have ten working days to insure and register. The traffic police inspector who stopped him should not have any questions about this. It is enough to simply explain the situation. However, if a driver gets into an accident with an uninsured car, then all responsibility will fall on him.

Ownership of a car arises in the following cases:

conclusion of the PrEP;
entry into inheritance property (in fact and in law);
when the right of ownership arises in any other way provided for by federal legislation.

Legal right to travel for 10 days without compulsory motor liability insurance and registration - is it possible?

This period has been specified since time immemorial in paragraph 1 of the Basic Provisions for Vehicle Admission - 10 days. This period is necessary for passing a technical inspection, concluding a compulsory motor liability insurance agreement and, in fact, registering.

Does it matter whether it's a new or used car?

Alas, for some traffic police inspectors, the source of law is not legislation, but the Internet and the media, where 95% of information is reposted. In addition, seeing a car leaving a car dealership, unscrupulous police officers begin to itch - a client with money and without state registration plates can become a gold mine.

That's why some inspectors are looking for pseudo-grounds to impose fines on drivers.

For example, they are trying to prosecute drivers of newly purchased new cars under Article 12.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses for lack of registration, because all over the media on New Year’s Day it was trumpeted that dealers now ensure the registration of cars themselves, and when leaving the car dealership, the driver must have an STS. In fact, dealers received only the right to register cars, but not the obligation.

The same applies to the lack of state registration plates (GRP) on new cars. If the car dealership has not registered the car, then you can drive without license plates for 10 days, referring to the same paragraph 1 of the Basic Provisions of the Traffic Regulations.

Used vehicles must have registration plates in place. When a new vehicle is first registered, it is assigned a registration number and issued with appropriate registration plates. The car is subsequently sold with them.

And if a newly purchased used car does not have license plates, then a fair punishment will follow under Part 2 of Article 12.2 of the Code of Administrative Offences.

Thus, you are allowed to travel in an unregistered vehicle for 10 days. However, careless inspectors during a “divorce” can confuse drivers with the assertion that changes have been made to the laws, but they did not have time to introduce them to paragraph 1 of the Basic Provisions.

Here are links to official laws:

The Law on Vehicle Registration - clauses 1 and 3 of part 3 of Article 8 directly states that without registration you can drive for 10 days under the DCT - more precisely, after the date of purchase of the car specified in the contract,
in the law on compulsory motor liability insurance – part 2 of article 4,
There is no such information in the law on technical inspection.

Based on the results of the technical inspection, the driver is issued a diagnostic card. A car older than 4 years must have one. And, if you buy a car second-hand, be sure to pick it up from the seller. If a paper copy was not issued after passing the technical inspection, then write in the DCP that the seller guarantees the availability of a valid diagnostic card in electronic form.

Firstly, you will once again make sure that the car is “clean”, because at least during the technical inspection the VIN number is checked.
Secondly, make sure the seller is honest. Krohobor saves not only on maintenance, but also on spare parts, operating fluids, and so on.

What to do if the traffic police fined you?

For example, the traffic police inspector refers to paragraph 2.1.1 of the traffic rules, according to which the driver must, among other things, have a vehicle insurance policy and a compulsory motor liability insurance policy. And if they are not there, impose a fine!

There is a remarkable decision of the Supreme Court AKPI12-205 dated April 17, 2012, which clearly states that 2.1.1 of the traffic rules is not valid in terms of compulsory motor liability insurance for newly purchased cars for 10 days. At the same time, take a look at Resolution No. 12-AD13-3 dated January 21, 2014.

As for the registration certificate, when purchasing a used car, the seller is obliged to transfer it to the buyer.

When driving a new car, instead of the STS, it is enough to present the DCP. The agreement confirms the legality of management. It contains the PTS number, the authenticity of which the inspector can verify by making a request. And since the PTS was issued, the car is allowed on the roads of the Russian Federation, and it is safe to drive. If a paper PTS was issued for the car, then it is better to take it with you and present it to the traffic police inspector in order to reduce the time of communication with him.

In general, there is no direct obligation to carry both the DCP and the vehicle passport. But then be prepared for the fact that you will receive a fine. And, if the traffic police officer still makes a decision, then you can and should appeal it, having already submitted all these documents to the person considering the case - the judge or his boss.

Is it possible to drive without MTPL insurance after purchasing a car and for how long?

Any car ownership begins with its purchase - be it a new car or a used one, imported from abroad or bought from a neighbor. According to the laws of our country, any car must be registered and the liability of the drivers who will drive this car must be insured. However, the departments that sign, put forward laws and enforce them do not always work in harmony, which sometimes results in contradictory implementation and freedom of interpretation by different authorities.

This time, let's figure out whether we really are given 10 days to drive without MTPL insurance! Data current as of May 31, 2021.

Indeed, paragraph 2 of Article 4 of the Federal Law “On Compulsory Motor Liability Insurance” tells us the following:

When the right to own a vehicle arises (acquiring ownership of it, receiving it for economic or operational management, etc.), the owner of the vehicle is obliged to insure his civil liability before registering the vehicle, but no later than ten days after the right to own it arises .

The vehicle must also be registered no later than 10 days after its purchase. But the date of purchase is regulated by the purchase and sale agreement (hereinafter referred to as the “SPA”) between the previous owner of the car and the current one. It follows that if we want to legally drive a car longer without registering and insuring it, then we need to sell/buy it again - in other words, rewrite the policy, setting a new purchase date, and this can be done every 10 days until the next change in the relevant law.

And everything is in order with the administrative part of the 10-day period - Article 12.37 of the Code of Administrative Offenses warns us of the following:

Failure by the owner of a vehicle to fulfill the obligation established by federal law to insure his civil liability, as well as driving a vehicle if such compulsory insurance is known to be absent, shall entail the imposition of an administrative fine in the amount of eight hundred rubles.

It's no joke, but even the Traffic Rules provide for this. Thus, according to paragraph 2.1.1 of the Traffic Regulations, the driver of the vehicle is obliged to:

Carry with you and, at the request of police officers, hand over to them for verification:
a driver's license or temporary permit to drive a vehicle of the appropriate category;
registration documents for this vehicle, and if there is a trailer, also for the trailer;
in established cases, permission to carry out activities for the transportation of passengers and luggage by passenger taxi, waybill, license card and documents for the transported cargo, and when transporting large, heavy and dangerous goods - documents provided for by the rules for the transportation of these goods;
insurance policy of compulsory civil liability insurance of the vehicle owner in cases where the obligation to insure one’s civil liability is established by federal law .
In cases expressly provided for by current legislation, have and submit for inspection to employees of the Federal Service for Supervision of Transport a license card, waybill and shipping documents.

However, not everything is so simple! The problem is that among traffic police officers and numerous lawyers it is customary to distinguish between two things in the laws relating to road traffic: the operation of the law when the car is in a “static” state and when it is controlled. So, when it comes to compulsory motor liability insurance after purchasing a car, such people interpret the law in this way: yes, the obligation to insure their civil liability begins from the first day of owning the car and for 10 days after that, and after this period liability . But the Federal Law “On Compulsory Motor Liability Insurance” does not say anything about driving, which means that driving a car without a compulsory motor liability insurance policy is prohibited from the very first second of owning it. And this statement might have the right to life, if not for the clarification of the Supreme Court of Russia on this matter, which dotted the “i” of the corresponding decision:

(dated April 17, 2012 N AKPI12-205)
The applicant’s reference to the contradiction of paragraph 2.1.1 of the Rules with the Federal Law of April 25, 2002 N 40-FZ “On compulsory insurance of civil liability of vehicle owners” is untenable. Clause 2 of Article 4 of this Federal Law obliges the owner of a vehicle to insure his civil liability before registering the vehicle, but no later than ten days after the right to own it arises. Consequently, before the expiration of the ten-day period allotted to the owner of the vehicle for concluding a civil liability insurance contract, the driver of such a vehicle has the right to drive it without an appropriate insurance policy , which directly follows from the contested norm of the Rules, which provides for the driver’s obligation to carry this insurance policy with him only in cases established by federal law.

It would seem that the conclusion is obvious, and this Decision directly points to it: you can drive a car without an MTPL policy within 10 days after purchasing it (the car). However, here we can expect a surprising nuance: in the Russian Federation, law is not precedent (that is, laws and norms are not established after the occurrence of each relevant case), which means that even when there is a corresponding Decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, this is not obliges lower courts to strictly make similar decisions in similar cases.

Based on all of the above, we can conclude: in the vast majority of cases, you can drive a car without compulsory motor liability insurance after buying a car within 10 days , and we will not get anything for it, and, if there is something from the side of the traffic police inspector (if failure to present him with an insurance policy), then the appeal of this “something” will be satisfied with a high degree of probability. However, this is not 100% certain. And yet, based on common sense, you should take out an MTPL policy immediately before your first trip, because no one is insured against an accident, and it will be doubly offensive if you get into an accident in a car you just bought, and even without insurance!

The article is current as of the date of its writing.

Registering with the traffic police later than 10 days - how to avoid a fine?

For example, during self-isolation, access to the registration department of the traffic police and the exact time of vehicle registration is possible only through State Services. However, the registration date provided by the site is such that the 10-day period may be missed.

But, to be honest, in many departments and on ordinary days, the registration happens later than 10 days later, and you can simply miss the deadline without a fine for this reason.

For missing the registration deadline, a fine is imposed under Article 19.22 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. And in this case, the event of an offense takes place - it is stupid to deny it. But there is no corpus delicti, since there is no guilt in the driver’s actions. It is not the driver’s fault that when he tried to get a place in the registration queue on the day of purchase, he was assigned a day outside the ten-day period.

However, if the seller and the buyer are adequate people, then the purchase and sale agreement can always be rewritten to meet the allotted deadline, and it is best to come together for re-registration immediately on the day of the purchase and sale transaction.

Why you shouldn’t hesitate to get insurance

Among some unscrupulous citizens, there is a practice of drawing up a purchase and sale agreement multiple times.

You shouldn't do this, here's why:

the absence of a compulsory motor liability insurance policy automatically deprives you of all payments upon the occurrence of an insured event; you will have to reimburse the entire amount yourself, no matter how large it is;
if the fault for the accident lies with the new owner, then the victims will also have to compensate the money themselves;
additional explanations will be required at the traffic police post, although driving cannot be prohibited, but it is quite possible to ask some questions;
the absence of compulsory motor liability insurance makes it impossible to register under the Euro protocol, then even the slightest damage will require extremely protracted proceedings;
Some cities have already introduced systems to detect cars that are not insured, but none of the cameras will be able to calculate whether ten days have passed since the date of the purchase agreement or not, so the driver will simply receive fines, and this may be a repeated action . If you take the time and go to explain everything to the traffic police, you will be able to avoid fines, but is it worth it?

ATTENTION !!! Based on this, it is obvious that avoiding insurance is absolutely pointless, since every day there is a huge risk of shelling out a large sum from your wallet.

What if the car is not running?

There are two options here.

If you bought a damaged car and its repair will take quite a long time - more than 10 days after the date in the contract, then do not rush. The statute of limitations for the offense under Article 19.22 of the Code of Administrative Offenses is 2 months from the date of the DCT. Outside this period, no one will be legally held accountable.
Before registration, it is necessary to undergo a number verification, that is, the inspector compares the data in the title and the actual numbers of components and assemblies on the car. At the same time, it visually identifies the presence of malfunctions for which the operation of vehicles is prohibited. If there are no visible faults and the car is not drivable, then you can bring it for registration on a tow truck.

Something else useful for you:

How to file a complaint and restore the registration of a car if it was terminated by the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate?
Is it possible and how to buy a credit car correctly?
The transport tax has not arrived - what should I do?