As the registered owner of a vehicle, you are obliged by law to take out third party motor insurance regardless of who actually drives the vehicle. Anyone using a vehicle on a public road without third party liability insurance is liable to prosecution. Third party liability insurance covers both damages to the vehicle and personal injuries.

The minimum sum insured regulated by law is:

• 7.5 million euros for personal injuries,
• 1 million euros for material damages
• 50,000 euros for pecuniary loss.

Clarify the amount to be covered and the compensation payments with your insurance company. They can provide you with information on calculating your premiums. The standard insurance policies for your vehicle are full coverage (comprehensive) or partial coverage insurance, passenger insurance and legal expenses insurance.

Tip: More detailed information about the types of insurance mentioned above is available from the German Insurance Association (Gesamtverband der Deutschen Versicherungswirtschaft).

Both the injured party and the authorized user of the vehicle can make claims against the insurance company. Regarding the details, the General Terms and Conditions of Insurance of your insurance company are applicable.

For registration of a vehicle, the insurance company provides you with a 7-digit eVB number (electronic confirmation of insurance) for presentation to the vehicle registration authority. This number is used to electronically retrieve the insurance data from the central database of the Gesamtverband der Deutschen Versicherungswirtschaft (German Insurance Association).

N.B.: When changing insurance, you have to pay attention that the registration authorities receive the new insurance confirmation on time. If it is missing, the authority can prohibit you from using the vehicle or impose another compulsory measure. This also applies if you are not responsible for the missing confirmation, e.g. if the insurance failed to send it.