What happens if a traffic police officer stops you in someone else’s car without a power of attorney?

Fine for driving without insurance in someone else's car

2.6 (52%) 20 vote[s]

Having an MTPL insurance policy is a mandatory requirement for all motorists. The purpose of this insurance is to compensate third parties for losses resulting from an accident that was your fault. But very often, some drivers either forget to issue a car insurance policy in a timely manner, or even drive someone else’s car and believe that the owner’s insurance is sufficient. However, it is not. What does the legislation say about this, and what responsibility awaits the violator?

How to legally drive someone else's car in 2021?

So, the owner of the car entrusts his property to another person. At the same time, the legislation establishes that this other person owns the car on the basis of trust from the owner. That is, the owner and owner of the car can be different people.

At the same time, the transfer of a car can also be oral (although the Civil Code of the Russian Federation establishes exclusively a written form of power of attorney).

But the most important thing is that you, as a driver driving a car that is not your own, do not need to prove in any way the right to own this car, either during a routine stop by a traffic police officer, or if you are involved in an accident in someone else’s car. The main thing is that you have documents to be able to drive it.

In standard cases, the list of these documents includes only 3 (clause 2.1.1 of the traffic rules):

• registration certificate for someone else’s car (given to you by the owner),
• MTPL insurance transferred by him, where you must be entered as a driver allowed to drive (column No. 3 of the policy), or it must be unlimited,
• your driving license of the appropriate category.

The obligation to submit a written power of attorney from the owner to a road inspector for inspection was abolished 10 years ago.

Actually, the consequences of a traffic accident depend on the specified conditions for the legal ability to drive another person’s car, which we will discuss below.

Summary

Officials say that penalties for driving without insurance in someone else's car will not increase in the near future. It does not follow from this that the need for registration of a motor vehicle license is reduced to “no”. The lack of insurance, having a financial impact on the well-being of the offender, requires considerable time spent on collecting documentation, drawing up a protocol, and paying off a fine.

Motorists who decide to take someone else’s driver’s seat, without a policy/without the owner of the car, must be aware that in the event of an accident, they will have to pay all compensation from their own personal funds. The most correct thing a car owner can do in such a situation is to allow persons included in compulsory insurance to drive their car, or on the basis of a general power of attorney.

What to do if you have an accident but are recognized as the injured party?

In this case, the actions immediately after the accident are the same as if it were your car:

1. stop and do not move the car and other objects related to the accident,
2. put up an emergency sign,
3. turn on the hazard warning lights,
4. decide whether you can apply for a European protocol (you must be included in the current insurance) or call the traffic police,
5. and other duties depending on the presence of injured or dead (clauses 2.5-2.6.1 of the Rules)

However, the difference in this case will be in the further settlement of losses caused as a result of such an accident. So, you will be the injured party in this accident in any case.

However, either only the owner or you together will apply for compensation for damage - both to the insurance company if the culprit has a valid compulsory motor liability insurance, and for a direct demand for compensation in the absence of insurance. It depends on the nature of the damage:

• if the damage was caused only to someone else’s car, which you were driving, then in this case the beneficiary is exclusively the owner, since damage was caused to his property,
• If, as a result of an accident, your health is damaged, then you are also a beneficiary (your health).

In the second case, you need to write 2 applications to the insurance company (you need to apply for compulsory motor liability insurance to the insurer of the culprit). Or, if the culprit did not have insurance, then the person causing the harm is presented with 2 demands: from you and the owner of the car.

The only time you have to pay!

There is still one situation when you will face civil liability even if you are not at fault in an accident committed in someone else’s car.

This is compensation for material and moral damage to these cars as a source of increased danger. Such liability arises when harm is caused to a pedestrian, passenger or cyclist. And the basis here is Article 1079 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, according to which the driver is obliged to compensate for damage as the owner of the source of increased danger on the road.

But even in this case, compulsory motor liability insurance applies: if the car in which, for example, a pedestrian was hit, had valid insurance, and you are included in it as an authorized driver, then the insurance company will compensate for the material damage. But the moral one is that you are still the owner of the car at the time of the accident (subparagraph “b” of paragraph 2 of Article 6 of the Law on Compulsory Motor Liability Insurance).

When is the imposition of a fine considered illegal?

The law provides for a number of exceptions, thanks to which a motorist who is not included in the policy can avoid being charged with an administrative offense.

The application of a fine is considered illegal in the following cases:

• the car falls under Part 3, Art. No. 4;
• the driver has a vehicle purchase/sale/lease agreement;
• the driver is a “fresh” owner of the vehicle: the ten days provided for obtaining a vehicle title have not yet passed;
• insurance is provided to the driver under an unlimited policy: then, there is no need to register anyone for compulsory motor liability insurance.

In addition to all of the above, punishment is not imposed on the owners of the following cars:

• low-speed equipment, when the maximum speed level is no more than 20 km/h;
• owners of cars registered outside of Russia, when the owners have international insurance.

These exceptions are stated in paragraph 3, article 4 of Federal Law No. 40 “On OSAGO”:

The best way to avoid punishment is a well-executed insurance policy. That's why:

• when there is a possibility that third parties (colleagues, relatives, friends, etc.) will be allowed to drive the car, it is wiser to purchase a “no borders” policy;
• when specific persons (children, spouse, parents, etc.) must drive a car, it is most reasonable to enter their names into a limited policy.

You should not drive without a properly executed MTPL policy: the lack of insurance leads to countless fines and also aggravates the situation with the insurance claimant.

What happens if you get into an accident in a car that is not yours and become the culprit?

If you have an accident not in your own car and have met all the above conditions for having the right to drive it, then the liability, as well as the consequences for compensation for damage, are almost the same as if it were your personal car.

And these consequences can be of 2 types:

1. administrative or criminal - a fine, deprivation of rights or other punishment directly for a violation that you committed in someone else’s car, which led to an accident (that is, we are talking about liability for corrective purposes),
2. civil is a fair obligation to compensate for the damage caused if you were the culprit of such an accident not in your own transport.

Is there a fine or deprivation of rights for this?

There is no separate liability just because you were driving a car that was not your own. Of course, we are again talking about whether you have a driving license (w/w, STS and OSAGO), otherwise there will be fines regardless of the presence of an accident.

If you are involved in an accident in 2021 - regardless of whose car it is in, liability can only be:

• for a traffic violation that caused an accident (for example, you drove through a red traffic light and received a fine of 1,000 rubles),
• a fine or for the presence of victims in an accident (Article 12.24 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation),
• or criminal liability for serious harm to health or death of people if you are guilty (Article 264 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

Important note!

• This article describes the basic principles of how legislation works. Meanwhile, in judicial practice everything depends on specific circumstances.
• In 96% of all cases there are subtleties that can affect the outcome of the entire case.
• Therefore, we recommend entrusting the matter to professionals who will study your business and select the right winning strategy.

The TonkostiDTP website employs professional road accident lawyers with experience in all major types of disputes (MTPL, guilt, administrative penalties).

Ask a lawyer

or get a free consultation by calling the hotline: 8.

Liability for damages

If you get into an accident in someone else’s car, in which you are found to be at fault, you will also be required to compensate for the damage caused. At the same time, this obligation is removed if your liability is insured under MTPL.

Here we will also not discuss another situation that was discussed in one of the previous articles - if you were involved in an accident in a company car.

However, it is removed conditionally or partially, taking into account 2 important circumstances of the 2021 legislation. We talked about the first above - this is compensation for moral damage, as well as in case of damage to property or under the conditions that are listed in paragraph 2 of Article 6 of the Federal Law-40 (if damage to someone else’s car was caused, for example, during a competition or caused to the environment ).

But let's talk a little more about the second one!

Fineness with compensation for the difference in wear

The point here is that insurance companies calculate damages under compulsory motor liability insurance taking into account the wear and tear of the car you were driving. The older the car, the higher the wear percentage when calculating. True, this wear and tear is considered when making payments - if the owner was sent for repairs, then everything should be calculated without him.

However, the Constitutional Court ruled several years ago that the right of the victim to full compensation for harm must be present regardless of the presence of wear and tear in the calculation. At the same time, the court indicated that in this case it is possible to claim the difference between the calculation with wear and tear and the real market cost of repairs from the tortfeasor - that is, from you as the driver who caused the accident in a vehicle other than his own.

But here there are a number of important subtleties.

• The victim must prove that the cost of actual repairs was higher. That is, simply calculating an independent examination in judicial practice in 2021 is not suitable for this. You will have to show real receipts and expense reports.
• If the damaged car was sent for repairs, then the calculation should have been without wear and tear - that is, there can be no difference then, and there is nothing to collect from you.
• There is a recent ruling by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation regarding the case when depreciation should not be taken into account in the calculation when paying. This is when a payment in money is made without justification.

Fine for lack of MTPL insurance in 2021

Insurers will begin to take into account more individual factors for each driver, which will affect the difference in the cost of the policy from driver to driver.

What is taken into account now:

— Has your license been revoked — Does he drive at a red traffic light — Does he exceed the speed limit — Does he drive into the oncoming lane

For more details, read Federal Law No. 161-FZ of May 25, 2020

The presence of these violations in the driver’s biography will affect the price of compulsory motor liability insurance. Fines from cameras are not taken into account. Let us remind you that the maximum cost of the policy is still set by the Central Bank.

Let's hope that soon policyholders and the Central Bank (the compulsory motor insurance regulator) will correct the situation and regain the trust of motorists.

In Moscow, they actively tested a system for determining the availability of insurance policies by car numbers. Last year allowed the technology to be tested, and pilot projects are expected to be launched in other cities in the near future, but it is not yet clear who exactly will be on this list.

In 2021, it is expected that stationary cameras in different cities will “learn” to recognize cars without compulsory motor liability insurance and issue a fine. It turns out that very soon it will be possible to receive retribution for forgetfulness not only from the hands of a traffic police inspector, but also by regular mail.

At the legislative level, it has been practiced for several years to encourage timely payment of most fines. In 2021, a kind of “discount” works if the fine is paid no later than twenty days.

In this case, the fine when there is no insurance is 400 rubles, and for late agreement or its execution with errors - 250 rubles.

Who may issue a fine for missing insurance in 2021?

With the spread of digital technologies, various government agencies began to use them. This also affected fines for missing insurance. Back in 2021, the capital and Moscow region began to determine the availability of a policy by vehicle number through the use of stationary cameras.

For 2021, the authorities promised to distribute the “new product” to all regions. This means that a fine for lack of compulsory motor liability insurance will come not only after a meeting with an inspection officer, but also when this meeting did not take place.

A reliable way to avoid penalties for lack of compulsory motor liability insurance is to obtain timely insurance. If you have an officially issued policy, in addition to protection from fines, liability insurance in case of a traffic accident is also guaranteed.

You can find out about the MTPL tariff options and choose the best one for yourself if you use the MTPL online calculator - it calculates the cost of more than 15 insurers, taking into account the 2021 correction factors.

Traditionally, a traffic police officer issues a fine and gives you a receipt right on the road. However, motorists now need to be more careful and vigilant. The fact is that traffic cameras installed in the capital and on highways near Moscow have also begun to perform the function of monitoring the presence of compulsory motor liability insurance.

A car passing by is checked in the database, and if there is no valid policy, the car owner is sent a receipt for payment of the fine by mail. Soon this innovation will affect other regions.

If you have an accident with your own car without insurance - what is the penalty?

This situation should be considered in 2 different situations, the consequences of which differ in nature:

1. if you were not included in the insurance policy of someone else’s car, but the insurance was still valid,
2. if there was no compulsory motor liability insurance on the car at all.

If not included in the policy

In this case, you will face 2 measures of responsibility:

• administrative in the form of a fine of 500 rubles from the visiting traffic police officers for an unregistered driver (part 1 of article 12.37 of the Administrative Code),
• recourse claim from the insurance company.

Regress for a driver not registered in the compulsory motor liability insurance becomes possible due to subparagraph “d” of paragraph 1 of Article 14 of the Federal Law on Compulsory Motor Liability Insurance. That is, the insurance company in this case compensates the damage to the injured persons in full, and then demands the entire amount from the driver who is not driving his own car and is not included in the policy.

We also recommend that you read the other subparagraphs - the grounds for recourse from this provision of the law, because recourse is most often the most significant amount of possible costs in the event of an accident. Moreover, please note that even if the owner himself drives his own car, he may also not be included in the insurance.

If there was no insurance at all

In this case, the consequences are the same, but their size may be slightly different:

• the fine will no longer be 500, but 800 rubles – under Part 2 of Article 12.37 of the Administrative Code,
• and you will have to compensate for the damage yourself from your own pocket - MTPL insurance does not work here, even if the victim had it (after all, with this type of insurance, the risk is not personal property, but the driver’s liability).

But in the latter case there may be options. So, if the victim’s car is insured under Casco, then he can already contact the insurance company. She will compensate him for the damage, and then, in the procedure of so-called subrogation, will recover the amount paid from you.

In addition, a kind of extension of the MTPL policy has recently become popular - when additional insurance is purchased to the standard policy, which protects against situations where the person at fault for the accident does not have valid insurance. In this case, the insurer also compensates for the damage to the beneficiary, but then claims it from you.

Administrative responsibility

The legal consequences and sanctions for driving without insurance in someone else's car are enshrined in Art. 12.37 Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. For driving a car without compulsory motor liability insurance, the driver faces administrative punishment - a fine:

• 500 rubles – if the driver is not included in the MTPL;
• 800 rubles – if the driver’s civil liability is not insured at all.

An invalid policy (which has expired) is equivalent to no insurance.

If the car license is issued, but there is no insurance policy in the car, a fine will also not be avoided. An exception is that the state traffic inspector has access to the Unified Electronic Database of Compulsory Motor Liability Insurance.

Attention! An administrative fine is imposed on the person who was driving the vehicle.

The current Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation does not provide for other punishments.

Until 2013, traffic inspectors had the right to remove registration plates from a car for a similar offense; now the provision has no legal force.

Is the owner of the car held liable?

No, the transfer of a vehicle entails sanctions when the car is transferred to a person in a state of intoxication or to a person without a driver’s license.

Transferring control to a person who does not have insurance does not entail liability or punishment for the owner of the vehicle. It does not matter whether the management was carried out without the owner or in the presence.

Is there a risk of car confiscation?

Can traffic police officers confiscate a car for impound? No, this is a common myth.

Cases of temporary confiscation of a car - an administrative measure taken by traffic police officers to suppress further offenses - are listed in Art. 27.13 Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. However, the article does not contain any mention of driving a car without a policy as a legal basis for confiscation.

By the way, previously administrative punishment was imposed until “the reason for the prohibition to operate the vehicle was eliminated,” and the offender was given 24 hours to purchase a policy. In 2020, such provisions have lost force, which means that the beginning of a movement each time creates a new offense.

In practice, repeated prosecution is rare, and the courts deny the driver’s guilt if little time has passed between similar offenses.

If you were without a driver's license?

This does not matter in terms of compensation consequences. With the only subtlety that if you do not have the right to manage, then there will be recourse from the insurer on the basis of subparagraph “c” of paragraph 1 of Article 14 of the Law on Compulsory Motor Liability Insurance.

But for driving someone else’s car without a driver’s license, you also face administrative liability. And it depends on the specific reason for your lack of rights:

1. if you have never received them or do not have the required category to drive someone else’s car, then the fine will be from 5 to 15 thousand rubles under Article 12.7 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation,
2. if you are deprived of your license, then the traffic police fine increases to 30 thousand (part 2 of the same norm of the Code of Administrative Offenses),
3. if you simply forgot them at home, then there will be a “symbolic” 500 rubles under Article 12.3 (and recourse here will be illegal).

But another fine threatens the owner who allowed a person without a driving license or deprived of such a right to drive his car. He will be charged 30,000 rubles for the transfer of control (Part 3 of Article 12.7).

Fine for driving without insurance in 2021. What determines the size of the punishment?

If you do not have a compulsory motor liability insurance policy, you will have to pay a fine. How many? The fine for driving without insurance can be 500 or 800 rubles, it all depends on the circumstances of the offense.

Article 12.37 provides for two offenses: failure to fulfill insurance obligations (fine - 800 rubles) or driving with a policy, but not during the prescribed period of use or by a driver who is not included in it (fine - 500 rubles). According to the Law on OSAGO and the Insurance Rules, an OSAGO contract (which is essentially a policy) can be concluded taking into account limited use: for a certain period during the year (for example, for the summer season) and only by registered drivers. Such a policy is cheaper and can be edited, but only with the participation of an insurance company employee, since it will be necessary to pay an additional insurance premium and make changes to the strict reporting form. Using the car during a period not provided for in the contract is a violation and will entail a fine of 500 rubles.

The same amount is provided for a fine for driving without insurance in someone else's car without the owner, if the driver is not included in the policy. Therefore, you should take care to include in it all the persons who will be allowed to drive the vehicle, and if there are quite a lot of them, issue a policy without such restrictions.

Article 12.3 specifies another offense - driving a vehicle without an MTPL policy; in this case, you can limit yourself to a warning.

The punishment does not apply to drivers who, after purchasing a car, have not yet managed to register it with the traffic police. By law, they have 10 days to do this. During this time, you can drive without a compulsory motor liability insurance policy. This provision has been confirmed by judicial practice, in particular by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. However, if the driver causes an accident, they will have to pay for the damage out of their own pocket, so drivers are recommended to take out a policy simultaneously with the car purchase and sale agreement.

If you fled the scene of an accident in someone else's car?

In this case, the judicial practice of 2021 works in such a way that if the person who caused the harm is unknown, due to the fact that he left the scene of the accident, the owner of the car is responsible. This practice has been established thanks to the same article 1079 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

And please note again that this is only in the case when the culprit - the driver of the wrong car - is not clear. At the same time, the materials of the accident case must contain evidence of the involvement of this car itself in this accident.

Is it possible to drive someone else's car without its owner, without insurance?

Surely, if you ask the majority of citizens: “Is it possible to drive someone else’s car without a power of attorney and compulsory insurance?”, they will answer in the negative. The main legislative framework regulating the possibility of driving a car without the owner’s compulsory motor liability insurance is the following law:

A power of attorney should be issued in relation to the person who is planned to be entrusted with driving the vehicle: only with a power of attorney is it possible to sit at the “wheel” of someone else’s car. It must indicate: the date, period of validity, and a list of legal capabilities vested in the person driving the car.

Many motorists are interested in the question: how many times in one day can a person who drives someone else’s car without insurance and a power of attorney be fined? According to the law, it is prohibited to issue more than a couple of fines in one case.

If a traffic police officer slows down a violator, imposing a fine on him, the law considers such a violation to be “complete,” which means there should be no repeated punishment. But what happens if the driver continues to drive, and ten kilometers later the traffic inspector slows him down again, having detected a similar violation? Then the fine is issued again.

Situation: there is a policy, but the driver forgot it

You should know! If the driver has compulsory motor liability insurance, but forgot/lost it, for lack of insurance he faces a minimum fine, in the case where there are no other violations.

The driver will have to prove to the traffic inspector that he has compulsory motor liability insurance. But, if the driver is unable to provide any evidence of the existence of a policy, then the traffic inspector issues a protocol indicating that the requirements for issuing compulsory motor liability insurance have not been met. Simply put, the traffic inspector records the very fact of the absence of a policy.

Related article: Can an insurance fine be issued several times a day?

Such a decision should be challenged in court. To do this, you need to write a statement addressed to the head of the traffic police. You must attach a photocopy of your vehicle license to the envelope. Then, the amount of the fine will be reduced from eight hundred rubles to five hundred. Today, any traffic inspector can easily determine whether a person has a valid motor vehicle license using a special program based on the RSA database.

Attention! To avoid unnecessary problems, it is wise to have a copy of the policy in your glove compartment. A vehicle license issued online should be printed.

Situation: the car is driven by a driver with expired insurance

Most often, a motor vehicle license is issued for a year. If the vehicle owner does not plan to drive the car for the entire insured period, he can shorten it. For example, it is reasonable for summer residents to purchase compulsory motor insurance only for the “spring/summer” period. Then the policy will be much cheaper, but the driver will be able to operate the car only for a limited period of time.

Attention! If the policy has expired, you should immediately issue a new one. After all, to the question: “Is it possible to drive a car with outdated insurance?”, every car enthusiast will give a negative answer. Such a violation is subject to a fine.

There are drivers who deliberately neglect to obtain a vehicle license: they are recognized as malicious violators of the law. If inspectors stop such a driver, this will result in a fine for the latter, and if he gets into an accident, he faces huge costs. After all, there will be no one to figure out who the “violator” is – the culprit or the victim? Therefore, such a driver will have to compensate from personal funds the entire amount of damage, as well as moral compensation.

Situation: the owner of the car is in the car, next to the offender

According to the letter of the law, it is absolutely unimportant whether the owner of the car is sitting in the passenger seat, next to the “violator” driving the car: the fine will be equal to five hundred rubles.

Important note! In a situation where the owner of the “iron horse” is close to an illegal driver, traffic police officers must draw up two reports: one for the driver, if he is not included in the insurance; and the second - in the name of the owner of the car.

If a motorist, for one reason or another, is unable to drive a car, he can call a hired driver. But even a deteriorating health condition will not justify the owner of the vehicle if his policy does not provide for the admission of other persons to drive the vehicle. If documents are checked and a violation is detected, a fine will be issued and it will not be possible to justify the actions based on the prevailing circumstances. In any case, the owner of the car must sit in the front passenger seat next to the called driver - this may allow him to “get off” with a warning.

The terms of compulsory motor liability insurance allow the addition of several persons to the policy. It is advisable to enter the data of all family members into the document or choose the type of insurance “without restrictions”, which will allow you to avoid problems and unnecessary expenses when meeting with the traffic police when the driver is not the policyholder.

Resolving disputes and the consequences of an accident in someone else’s car is much more difficult, even if you have all the documents. Violations of driving rules and driving without insurance aggravate the circumstances of the accident. If an emergency occurs, in addition to the standard fine for driving without insurance, you will have to pay for repairs of the damaged vehicle at your own expense - you will not be able to receive compensation. Therefore, it is not advisable to drive someone else’s vehicle without a properly issued insurance policy - this is a risky undertaking.

Now damage under compulsory motor liability insurance is considered the same for everyone - how is the unified calculation methodology of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation applied?