A damaged or unreadable license plate, what threatens the car owner?

Fine for unreadable numbers in 2021

Article and amount of the fine. For an unreadable number there is a fine of 500 rubles. This is written in Art. 12.2 Code of Administrative Offences.

Tighter fines for dirty license plates in 2021. A draft of the new Code of Administrative Offenses has been posted on the federal portal of draft regulations. The new rules will come into effect after the document is signed by the president. There are no tougher fines for dirty numbers.

Fine for unreadable numbers in the parking lot. There is no such fine, since the car is stationary and is not used as a means of transportation. If there is a foreign object on a car's license plate, including dirt or snow, a service employee on foot will clear the plate and check the parking payment using a mobile device.

How the violation is recorded by cameras. The cameras do not read the license plate if there is dirt on it. They also don't penalize unreadable numbers.

Grigory Shukhman, expert in photo and video recording. All cameras that are on the roads in Russia have a drawback - they cannot read a license plate if at least one character is not readable. This means that information about the violation may not go to the traffic police.

Penalty for erased numbers

So, paragraph 2 of the Basic Provisions of the Traffic Regulations prescribes that cars must have numbers on the front and rear. And the Administrative Code contains 2 penalties related to our issue for violations of state registration plates (hereinafter referred to as the State Registration Plates) of a car:

• Part 1 of Article 12.2 provides for the minimum fine in the Code of Administrative Offenses of 500 rubles or a warning (the latter is almost never used in practice in 2021) in cases where the numbers are unreadable or not installed in accordance with GOST, but the same part refers to the second as a more specific unreadability,
• Part 2 of the same article punishes with deprivation of rights for 1-3 months or a fine of 5,000 rubles, but in one of the following cases:
  numbers are worn out on purpose - modified,
• at least one registration plate is installed in the wrong place (for example, under the windshield),
• license plate number or one of them is missing altogether,
• if a film is applied over the GRZ or new technologies are used that allow them to be hidden from cameras.

You probably already feel the main difference in our question - in short, if there is intent, then you can be deprived of your rights, if there is no intent, then a fine of 500 rubles. The main subtlety here is whether the numbers themselves were rubbed or they were rubbed on purpose.

Example of a normal license plate

Is there a discount?

Yes. Both types of fines can be paid with a 50% discount within 20 days from the date of the decision (not to be confused with the effective date). This is provided for in Part 1.3 of Article 32.2 of the Code of Administrative Offences.

Can my rights be revoked?

If you are stopped by a traffic police officer for having dirty license plates. Deprivation of a license or a fine for hidden license plates in 2021 is possible if the driver specifically tried to hide the license plate. Punishment is a fine of 5,000 rubles or deprivation of the right to drive for up to three months. There is no arrest for this - that's what the law says.

This happens when the driver:

• covered part of the number with a sheet of paper;
• installed a special mechanism that turns the number back to front;
• deliberately soiled the room with mud or snow. This is immediately noticeable if there has been no precipitation for a long time. Car dealerships also sell “dirt in a can” for this purpose. Inspectors know about it - it is more difficult to clean off than ordinary dirt.

If, when checking documents, the inspector discovers that the license plate is stained with mud in dry sunny weather, he has the right to punish the driver. This is written in Part 4 of the special section of the Administrative Code.

Do cameras record dirty license plates? No, the camera will not see this, and the driver will not receive a fine for erased license plates.

First way

Is it possible to drive with erased license plates? The vast majority of car owners do not notice that the symbols on license plates have become less readable. Therefore, there may be cars on the roads with erased license plates. But for this they may be brought to administrative liability under Art. 12.20 Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. Moreover, the protocol can be drawn up more than once, i.e. until the violation is eliminated.

Conclusion: driving with unreadable license plates is administratively punishable, and a fine is provided for it. But you can’t always get a fine for an erased number. To do this you need to know something.

Criteria for determining whether a number is unreadable:

• in the daytime, from a distance of 20 meters, at least 1 character on the front and/or rear license plates cannot be distinguished;

• at night, at a distance of 20 meters, at least 1 character on the rear license plates cannot be distinguished.

Also, numbers are considered unreadable if the white part of the number has become unusable, since it contains a hologram and reflective elements.

When a number is considered unreadable or dirty

Recognition in the dark. If in the dark you cannot read at least one letter of the rear license plate from 20 meters away, you will be fined. This is stated in the note to Art. 12.2 of the Administrative Code.

Daytime recognition. During the day, both the rear and front license plates should be visible. The inspector will stop the car and move the required distance first from the front number plate, then from the rear number plate.

Possible reasons for the license plate being unreadable. This could be dirt, snow or stuck leaves. In rural areas this may be a mixture of straw and manure.

If the number is not readable from 20 meters, the inspector will fine the driver 500 rubles. Now if the license plates on the car are dirty, what fine is not a question

Fines for dirty and unreadable license plates

The fine for unreadable numbers fundamentally depends on whether this “unreadability” was created intentionally or not.

So, if the symbols on the license plate cannot be read due to natural reasons (bad weather, wear of paint from exposure to an aggressive external environment), the first part of Article 12.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation applies: a warning or a fine of 500 rubles.

If the visually perceived information is deliberately distorted (part of the number is smeared, the number is covered partially or completely with impenetrable material or a special film, and so on), then the punishment is much more severe (part two of Article 12.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation): a fine of 5,000 rubles or deprivation of a driver’s license for a period from 1 to 3 months.

Thus, the use of various films, meshes or other coatings that seem to protect the license plate from adverse environmental influences, and in addition also complicate the identification of the license plate, can be qualified under Article 12.2 part 2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation - up to temporary deprivation of a driver's license.

It is important to note here that the law talks about unreadable license plates when driving a vehicle. That is, deliberate distortion of information (for example, the license plate is covered with a thick sheet of paper) on a parked car, theoretically, is not a violation.

Procedure for appealing a fine

A respectful reason. In dry weather, it still happens that the rooms get dirty with mud. This happens to SUVs on a dirt road that is not dry after heavy rain. Or there was a utility accident and the water spilled onto the road mixed with dust - one car splashed this dirt on another, as a result the license plates are not readable.

Explanation. All this must be told to the inspector on the road or to the judge, if the case went to court - the inspector considered that the license plate was dirty on purpose.

Proof. If the inspector did not believe you and sent the report to the court, present to the judge the video recording of the recorder, testimony of witnesses or a certificate from the city utility service stating that the accident really happened.

Complete replacement of signs

How to change license plates on a car if they are erased? To do this, you need to go to the traffic police, write an application, pay the state fee, and then get completely new license plates for the car.

This method is the most expensive of all those described above due to the cost of state duty. At the same time, its significant advantage lies in the fact that all actions take place officially, with the help of government bodies.

So, unreadable car registration plates require special attention . If this seemingly insignificant drawback is ignored, then the motorist should be prepared to pay a fine at any moment.

However, sooner or later, you will still have to start restoring license plates.

Video: What to do if your car license plate is erased?

Many car owners are familiar with the situation when the symbols on the state registration plate of the car lose color and clarity. Over time, the process of paint abrasion leads to the fact that the license plate becomes difficult to read, attracting unnecessary attention from traffic police inspectors.

This effect is most noticeable on the front license plate, so to avoid additional stops on the road, motorists swap the front and rear license plates.

For some time, this method copes well with the task, but what to do when the second number begins to deteriorate? We will try to find the answer to this question in this article.

Remember

1. A license plate is considered unreadable if during the day it is impossible to recognize at least one character of the front and rear license plates from 20 meters away.
2. At night, only the rear number is checked.
3. The fine for unreadable license plates is 500 rubles, if the driver did not intend to deliberately hide the license plates behind a layer of dirt.
4. If it is proven that the driver hid the number on purpose, he will receive a fine of 5,000 rubles. For this they can be deprived of their rights.
5. To avoid a fine, check the cleanliness of the rooms before leaving.
6. You can appeal such a fine if you provide a video recording of the reason for the dirt on the license plate as proof of innocence. This could be a utility accident or being forced to cross a muddy section of dirt road.

All articles by the author: Evgeniy Lesnov

A damaged or unreadable license plate, what threatens the car owner?

Unreadable, faulty and dirty license plates on cars are quite common. And often car owners neglect the traffic rules, which clearly state that this will result in a fine.

What the law says. GOST R 50577-93 is the standard that license plates of any car must comply with. A poorly readable license plate is the first sign that the driver may face a fine. This punishment is clearly stated in Article 12.2 of the Administrative Code: “Driving a vehicle with a poorly readable license plate will result in a warning or the imposition of an administrative penalty in the form of a fine in the amount of 500 rubles.” Signs that have lost their readable appearance can always be replaced with an identical duplicate. The production of a new replacement number with the presence of the old one is carried out in just a few minutes. The situation becomes more complicated if the number needs to be made in the absence of an old one. In this case, you must first obtain new traffic police registration plates.

Damaged or hard to read plates: Which ones are considered as such? In the first case, these are numbers stained with dirt, due to which not all letters or signs are visible. Also, according to Part 4 of Art. 12.2 of the Code of the Russian Federation, all symbols on the number must be visible at night. If you cannot see at least one of them, then the sign falls under the status of unreadable and is subject to a fine. This also applies to daytime. Any unreadable number is considered a day if at least one letter or number is not visible on it. Is it possible to restore or paint the room yourself? If the situation forces you to resort to painting the license plate yourself, then you will have to take into account the requirements of the standard. White paint cannot be restored. This part of the number is painted with special reflective paints. Applying simple paint will reduce the light reflection parameters of the plate. If it comes to numbers painted black, then you can safely tint them. However, there is one condition: you should carefully restore the number and not get it on the white surface of the plate. The reflective portion of the registration plate must not be exposed to any excess drops of black paint. Traffic police inspectors will definitely pay attention to this and will ask rather uncomfortable questions, the answers to which will not be so easy to find. Having seen that the coloring of the license plate has been tampered with, the inspector may issue a fine or delay time to find out the correct character array of the license plate. In general, you will have to spend a long time clarifying the circumstances with the inspector and, in the end, receive a fine. Also, when painting black symbols, you should use high-quality waterproof paint that will not blur during the first rain or snowfall. It’s even easier to give the number for correction to specialists who will select good paint.

Bottom line. If the number is damaged or individual characters are unreadable, the best option is to replace the number with a new one. The procedure may cost some money, but it will definitely save you from a fine, which will be more than the amount spent on a new number. In this case, the fine can be paid several times, but the number only needs to be changed once.

Is it possible to tint license plates on a car?

Is it possible to restore erased signs yourself?

There is no clear answer to this question. On the one hand, administrative liability is provided for unreadable registration plates under Part 1 of Art. 12.2 Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. A traffic police officer can issue a warning to the driver or issue a fine of 500 rubles if he fails to read at least one number or letter from a distance of 20 meters from the car.

On the other hand, Part 2 of Article 12.2 provides for a fine of 5,000 rubles or deprivation of rights for changing license plates. Hence the conclusion - the owners will be able to remain within the law if the numbers are subjected not to modification, but to thorough restoration.

Methods for restoring registration plates

There are three ways to solve the problem of worn-out license plates - make duplicates of state registration plates (the cost of producing one plate for 2021 is about 1,500 rubles, and for a set of two plates they will ask about 2,000 rubles), change the registration details of the car (you will have to contact the traffic police and pay a fee of 2,850 rubles for two new license plates). The most affordable option is to carry out high-quality restoration of the license plate.

If you stopped at the third point, in order not to have problems with law enforcement officers, you need to strive to ensure that the signs being restored meet the requirements of GOST R 50577-93. This document deals mainly with the presence of a reflective (white) part of the number plate. And, as you know, it is made using special reflective paints. In addition, there are also holograms visible from a certain angle. Therefore, when restoring the number, you should not tint the white fields of the sign. It is also stipulated that the black numbers and letters of the license plate must be the same height.

Technique for restoring the readability of letters and numbers

To leave the white field of the license plate untouched, it is recommended to cover it with masking tape or adhesive tape, after which you can begin to tint the numbers and letters. Do not forget to wash, dry and degrease the field being restored. GOST does not contain special requirements for the parameters of the luminous qualities of black paint.

Therefore, as an option, you can use black oil paint or a can of black nitro enamel, which is sprayed over the stencil. In all cases, paint is applied in several layers. Another quicker option is to use a black permanent marker with a thick tip and a beveled edge. In the latter case, stencils can be omitted, and the boundaries of letters and numbers can be easily marked with a regular plastic card. Excess strokes can be removed using a cotton pad soaked in solvent. However, it is likely that the paint applied with a marker will not last long on the number. As a rule, count on a couple of months.

Tricks and subtleties of the issue

Usually the front license plate is the first to suffer from aggressive influence. Therefore, since it is impossible to repair or exchange registration plates, you can simply swap the front and rear numbers.

If problems arise with the traffic police after the procedure of painting the license plates, ask to be informed that it is prohibited to independently touch up the problem sectors of the license plates. As is known, such an article of law does not exist. Punishment, we remind you, is possible only under Part 2 of Article 12.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (deliberate modification) and amounts to 5,000 rubles or deprivation of rights. If a traffic police officer refers to this article, demonstrate to him that the symbols on the sign remain the same and fully comply with the documentation.

When will a worn-out license plate on a car lead to the deprivation of a license?

Many drivers, for various reasons, do not change their old license plates to new ones, although now this procedure is quite simple. Some people make numbers “old” deliberately, realizing that this will result in punishment. The Supreme Court clarified in what cases old license plates can cause deprivation of rights.

Numbers according to GOST. According to the law, all license plates for cars are manufactured in accordance with GOST, they must be clearly readable at any time of the day or night, there are certain parameters:

• During the day, both front and rear numbers must be read from a distance of 20 meters, such visibility is considered good
• At night, rear license plates must be read from the same distance, regardless of surrounding factors
• Signs are considered unreadable if even one number or letter is not clearly visible, regardless of the circumstances, for example, in rain or mud.

If, in the event of a meeting with a traffic police inspector, the driver believes that his license plate number is clearly legible, but the traffic service officer claims the opposite, you need to invite two witnesses to record their testimony in the protocol.

Faded numbers. The Supreme Court decided to clarify the situation, since many drivers complained about traffic police inspectors depriving them of their rights only because motorists drove with faded license plates. Road service workers accused them of deliberately hiding license plates, which is punishable by law.

In such a controversial situation, it is quite difficult to understand whether the driver deliberately erased the numbers or letters, or whether they became poorly visible due to time. The Supreme Court decided to divide such license plates into three categories so that the inspector would know in which cases to fine motorists and in which to deprive them of their driving privileges.

Categories of prohibited numbers. In accordance with the law, there are three categories of license plates, for the use of which a motorist is likely to lose his license. These include:

• Fake numbers. These included signs where at least one number or letter was changed in any way. Such a violation is punishable under Article 12.2.4 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation in the form of deprivation of rights for 1 year
• Numbers changed in any way without replacing numbers or letters. This also includes pale numbers, worn out, sealed with film or mesh, or in any other way. If the inspector sees a violation, the motorist faces a fine of 5 thousand rubles in accordance with Article 12.2.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation
• Non-standard license plates. These include license plates of cars operated in difficult conditions, which is why the plate loses its proper appearance. For example, license plates on trucks quickly wear out and fade, making them practically invisible. For a violation, the driver will have to pay 500 rubles, provided as punishment under Article 12.2.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, or receive a warning

Bottom line. Many car enthusiasts, intentionally or simply forgetting, drive with worn-out or faded license plates, where the numbers and letters are difficult to read. In this case, traffic police inspectors have the right to deprive the driver of his license, as discussed in the Supreme Court.

Thus, it is best to pay due attention to the procedure for updating numbers, because now it does not take much time and is easy to complete. Otherwise, the driver must remember that he risks not only being punished by a fine, but also becoming a pedestrian for a long time.