Vehicle Owner Responsibilities

In order for a vehicle to be roadworthy, its owner must have a registration certificate or a temporary permit. The vehicle must meet the technical conditions, have legalized registration plates and a control sticker. In the case of a motor vehicle with a permissible total weight of up to 3.5 tons with a trailer, bus and trailers, the registration document should contain an appropriate annotation. Find out what the most important responsibilities of the vehicle owner are.

Vehicle Owner Responsibilities - Registration

To register a vehicle, you must have:

• proof of vehicle ownership;
• the vehicle card, if issued;
• registration certificate if the vehicle has already been registered;
• for import customs clearance, if the vehicle has been brought from abroad and has not been registered before.

In some cases, registration also requires the presentation of an extract from the approval certificate or approval exemption decision and a certificate of positive technical examination. If the vehicle is registered in Poland, it is not necessary to have an extract from the approval certificate. In the case of purchasing the vehicle after forfeiture to the State Treasury or local government unit or purchased from the police or the army, you do not need to present the previous registration certificate. When the car owner loses the registration certificate, he should use the appropriate certificate issued by the registration authority. This certificate should confirm the data contained in the lost ID. The staroste is responsible for vehicle registration, in accordance with the place of residence of the vehicle owner. The staroste issues a registration certificate, a license plate and a control sticker.

The staroste also carries out temporary registration, issuing a temporary permit and a registration plate. Temporary registration is issued for 30 days to, for example, allow the owner to export the vehicle abroad or to drive the vehicle from the place of its purchase to the territory of Poland.

Vehicle technical research

Carrying out a technical inspection of the vehicle is one of the responsibilities of the vehicle owner. It is the owner of the vehicle who pays the costs for carrying out such a test. The first technical inspection of the vehicle should be carried out before its registration. Thereafter, such an examination should be carried out once a year. The exceptions are passenger cars, trucks and trailers with a maximum permissible weight of 3.5 tons - the first periodic inspection is carried out within 3 years from registration, then up to 2 years from the first inspection, and each subsequent one every year. It may be necessary to perform an additional technical inspection of the vehicle. The vehicle may be referred for additional tests by the road control authority or the staroste, if the vehicle, for example, poses a threat to road safety or the environment.

Motor liability insurance

Liability insurance for vehicle owners is mandatory. The vehicle owner has the right to conclude an insurance contract with any insurance company that conducts business liability insurance. Usually, the contract with the third party liability insurance company is signed for a year, except for contracts for a vehicle registered temporarily or abroad. Third party liability insurance should be concluded on the day the vehicle is registered.

The vehicle owner is entitled to compensation under third party liability insurance for damage caused by road traffic, which results in death, bodily harm, disruption or loss of health, destruction or damage to property. These are also damages caused when getting in and out of the vehicle, when loading and unloading the vehicle, when parked, stopped or parked in the garage. Any person who caused the damage while driving the vehicle during the insurance coverage period is covered by the civil liability.The insurance does not cover the loss of, for example, cash, jewelery or securities.