Do you have your grandfather's car parked in a garage, in a backyard or even on the street without insurance but registered, waiting for you to gain the patience and budget to restore it? Well, you better go get insurance, because according to the ruling of the Portuguese Supreme Court of Justice, all cars that are parked on private land or on public roads in conditions of circulation and registered must keep their insurance up to date.
The news was advanced by Jornal de Notícias, and refers to a 2006 case that has only just seen the courts reach a definitive decision. In this case, a car whose owner was no longer driving (and therefore without insurance) was involved in an accident that resulted in three deaths, when a family member used it without authorization.
Afterwards, the Automobile Guarantee Fund (which is the entity responsible for repairing damage caused by uninsured vehicles) compensated the families of the two dead passengers for a total of around 450 thousand euros, but asked for reimbursement to the driver's relatives.
Stationary car, if you have a license, you must have insurance
Now, twelve years later and after several appeals, the Supreme Court of Justice based the decision with the help of the Court of Justice of the European Union, which in a decision of September this year confirmed that it is mandatory to have civil liability insurance even if the vehicle ( being registered and able to circulate) is, at the owner's option, parked on a private plot of land.
Subscribe to our Youtube channel.
It can be read in the judgment that “The fact that the owner of the motor vehicle that took part in a road accident (registered in Portugal) has left it parked in the backyard of the residence it did not exempt it from complying with the legal obligation of signing a civil liability insurance contract, since it was able to circulate”.
Subscribe to our newsletter here
Now you know, if you have a parked car, but registered, in a land and for some bad luck it gets involved in an accident, if you don't have insurance you will have to answer for the damage caused by the vehicle. If you want to keep a car that is not used on private land, you must request the temporary cancellation of registration (note that it has a maximum period of five years), which exempts you not only from the need to have insurance but also to pay a single circulation tax.
See the opinion of the Court of Justice of the European Union on the case.
Source: Jornal de Notícias