Taking your car off the road in Greece:
immobilisation, fines and insurance.

Updated 26 October 2026Reading time 12 minBy Leadinsure, registered insurance agent (no. ΧΑΝ/395) · How we are paid

If you leave Greece for months, or simply stop using a car, you can take it off the road officially. In Greece this is called immobilisation (ακινησία, often written akinisia), similar in idea to a SORN in the UK. For private cars and motorcycles it is declared online in myCAR, the vehicle service of AADE, the Greek tax authority, with your TAXISnet codes. You then remove the plates and keep the car in a private closed space at the address you declared. Declare by 31 December 2026 and you owe no road tax for 2027. While the car is immobilised, third-party cover is not compulsory, but wildfire and flood cover still is. If the car is found on the road or parked anywhere else, the fine is €10,000. This guide covers the conditions, the fines, insurance, road tax, the steps in myCAR and a checklist for leaving Greece for the winter. Rules checked in October 2026.

What is digital immobilisation (ακινησία) and who can use it?

Immobilisation (ακινησία) means the car is officially out of circulation. While it lasts, the car may not be driven or parked on the road, and in return:

• you owe no road tax (τέλη κυκλοφορίας) for each year that starts while the car is immobilised;
• third-party insurance stops being compulsory, because Greek law requires it from the day a vehicle gets its plates, whether it moves or not, unless the immobilisation procedure has been followed (art. 2 §1 π.δ. 237/1986, as replaced by art. 4 ν. 5113/2024);
• the car is left out of the electronic checks for uninsured vehicles, which cover vehicles in circulation every March and August.

Who can declare it online

Digital immobilisation in myCAR is only for private cars and private motorcycles (two- or three-wheeled) that show as “in circulation” in AADE’s vehicle system, and whose registration certificate and plates are in the owner’s hands (AADE myCAR FAQ, question 2). The legal basis is article 62 of ν. 5177/2025. Nothing is handed in: you keep the registration certificate and the plates yourself.

Lorries, buses, taxis and other vehicles that are not private cars or motorcycles cannot use myCAR. Some cases go to the tax office (ΔΟΥ) or to KEFODE, AADE’s tax service centre, through the “Τα Αιτήματά μου” (My Requests) application with supporting documents: for example theft of the car, a transfer that was not completed, or a car that is being used abroad (FAQ, question 3; myCAR user guide, §4.1.3). Since 15 November 2024 the plates are not handed in even in these cases.

The conditions: no plates, a private closed space, the declared address

Article 62 §2 of ν. 5177/2025 sets the conditions, and AADE’s myCAR user guide (February 2026) explains how they work in practice:

1. No plates. Right after the declaration you remove the plates. You keep them, with the registration certificate, at your own responsibility.
2. A private closed space. The law refers to keeping the car in a “private closed space” (ιδιωτικό κλειστό χώρο, art. 45 §6 ν. 2992/2002); AADE’s guide describes it as a closed or fenced space. A private garage or a fenced yard fits that description; a street or any other public space does not.
3. The declared address. In the declaration you give the postcode, street and number, and you confirm on your own responsibility that the space is owned, rented or made available to you (FAQ, question 1). So a rented garage is possible.

Correcting or changing the address

A mistake in the address can be corrected with an amended declaration (“Τροποποίηση υφιστάμενης δήλωσης”), but only straight after declaring: AADE’s FAQ allows it until the day after the declaration (question 12). To move the car later, for example to another garage, you first need a plate M, and then you file an amended declaration with the new address (FAQ, question 15).

Plate M: moving an immobilised car legally

To move an immobilised car without lifting the immobilisation, you issue a temporary plate M (πινακίδα «Μ») in myCAR. It is allowed only to:

• take the car for repairs or a roadworthiness test (KTEO);
• move it to a different storage place;
• deliver it to a collection point for end-of-life vehicles.

You get up to 3 days a year, in at most two grants (3 days in a row, or 2+1, or 1+2). The fee is €10 a day for a car and €3 a day for a motorcycle, paid as an electronic fee (e-paravolo), and the car needs an active insurance policy. A plate M starts on the day you apply; you cannot book it for a later date. It is also available for a car immobilised the old way, with the plates at the tax office (FAQ, question 15; art. 62 §12 ν. 5177/2025).

Fines: €10,000, and €30,000 for a repeat

If an immobilised car is found being driven, or parked anywhere other than the declared address, the immobilisation is lifted automatically and you pay (art. 62 §4 ν. 5177/2025):

• the road tax for the year, plus the penalty for paying it late;
• an administrative fine of €10,000.

AADE’s myCAR guide adds that the same applies if the car is found with its plates on (§4.1.6). For a repeat, the fine is tripled to €30,000, and the owner’s driving licence is removed for 3 years. A repeat means the same owner commits the offence again with the same car within 5 years of being notified of the first fine.

How cars are found

Checks are carried out by AADE’s tax and customs services, on the spot or through electronic cross-checks. The law lets them use data from the motorway operators and mobile devices that scan number plates (art. 62 §5 ν. 5177/2025).

Do you still need insurance? Wildfire and flood cover

Third-party liability insurance stops being compulsory once the car is properly immobilised: Greek law requires it from the day the car gets plates, whether it moves or not, “unless the immobilisation procedure has been followed” (art. 4 ν. 5113/2024). One insurance obligation remains.

Wildfire and flood cover stays compulsory

Since 1 June 2025, every vehicle normally kept in Greece must be insured against wildfire and flood (art. 5Α ν. 5116/2024). For an immobilised car, ΚΥΑ 94798 ΕΞ 2025 limits the obligation to these two risks only, at the car’s current market value. There is no fine, but if the car is damaged by a wildfire or a flood without this cover, you cannot receive state disaster aid (κρατική αρωγή) for it.

Cancelling third-party cover: immobilise first

Keep this order: first the immobilisation is final in myCAR, then the third-party cover ends, so the car is never in circulation without insurance, not even for a day. Ask for the wildfire and flood cover to stay in place, or to be issued separately. If your insurer asks for proof, print the declaration as a PDF from myCAR and keep the application number.

Whether part of the premium is refunded depends on each insurance company’s terms, and so does the effect of the gap on your claims history (bonus-malus). The same goes for the question many people ask: can the policy be paused instead of cancelled? That depends on the insurer and on your policy, so ask us and we check it.

Theft and other damage

An immobilised car is not driven, but it can still be stolen or damaged where it is kept. With wildfire and flood cover alone, those losses are yours. Whether you can keep theft cover, or fire from any cause, without third-party cover depends on the insurance company, and some do not accept it. If an immobilised car causes damage to others, the victims are compensated by the Auxiliary Fund (Επικουρικό Κεφάλαιο), as with uninsured vehicles.

Road tax: when immobilisation saves you the year’s fee

Road tax (τέλη κυκλοφορίας) for a year is paid from 1 November to 31 December of the year before. Immobilisation saves you a year’s road tax only if it is declared before that year starts (art. 62 §1 ν. 5177/2025). For 2027, that means by 31 December 2026. A declaration made later is accepted, but it does not count for that year’s road tax. You can declare immobilisation even if you still owe road tax for this year or earlier years (AADE myCAR user guide, §4.1.1).

If the car stays in circulation and the road tax is paid late, AADE adds a penalty. For private cars and motorcycles:

In every case, the penalty for unpaid road tax is at least €30 (art. 60 §3 ν. 5177/2025).

Driving for a few months: monthly road tax from 1 April

Coming back for the summer? From 1 April each year you can lift the immobilisation once in the year and pay in advance only the twelfths of the annual road tax for the months you will drive (art. 62Α ν. 5177/2025; AADE decision Α.1059/2025).

• The months count from your lifting request, not from the payment. AADE’s example: put the car back on the road on 25 June for two months, and you can drive it until 31 July. So lift at the start of a month if you can.
• Re-immobilise by the last day of the period you paid for, or the next working day if that day is a holiday. Otherwise AADE immobilises the car automatically at 23:59 that day, at the storage address on your declaration, and tells you by email. If the car is now kept in another private space, declare the new spot in myCAR by the next day (AADE decision Α.1059/2025, art. 3).
• No refund of monthly road tax you paid if you then do not lift the immobilisation within the year, or if you re-immobilise the car early.
• If the monthly period ends on 31 December and you have paid the next year’s road tax on time, you do not need to re-immobilise.

How to declare and lift it on myCAR, and insure the same day

Declaring immobilisation

1. Log in to myAADE (myaade.gov.gr) with your TAXISnet codes, the personal login for AADE’s online services.
2. Go to Εφαρμογές → Φορολογικές Υπηρεσίες → Οχήματα → myCAR (Applications → Tax services → Vehicles → myCAR), then “Ψηφιακή Ακινησία / Κυκλοφορία” (digital immobilisation / circulation) and “Δήλωση Ακινησίας Οχημάτων” (declaration of vehicle immobilisation).
3. Enter the plate number and the address where the car will be kept (postcode, street, number), and confirm that the space is owned, rented or made available to you.
4. Submit. If you are the sole owner, you get an application number and the car is immobilised straight away. If there are co-owners, each of them is notified and must approve the request in myCAR before it takes effect.
5. Remove the plates.

You can open the finalised declaration in myCAR at any time and print it as a PDF (myCAR user guide, §4.1.5).

Lifting the immobilisation

In the same service you choose the immobilised car. The system checks three conditions before it accepts the request (FAQ, question 4; myCAR user guide, §4.2.1):

1. Road tax paid: the annual amount, or from 1 April the monthly amount for the months you choose. The payment notice is issued in myCAR.
2. An active insurance policy on the date of lifting. AADE checks it automatically, through a link with the Hellenic Association of Insurance Companies.
3. The lifting request itself. Without it the car stays immobilised, even if the road tax and the insurance are paid, and the fines apply at a check.

If the car has co-owners, they must all approve the lifting request too, as with the declaration (FAQ, question 9).

Refit the plates only after the lifting is complete. If the car was immobilised the old way, with the plates handed in at the tax office, it cannot be lifted online: you go to the tax office (ΔΟΥ) to collect the plates and the registration certificate, with the road tax paid and an active policy (FAQ, question 10).

Insuring and lifting on the same day

It works if the new policy already shows as active when you submit the request, because the check is automatic. To be safe, arrange the policy a day or two before, with cover starting on the day you will drive. For a monthly lifting, the policy must cover the whole period. Short policies of a few months are not offered by every insurance company; we tell you what is available for your dates. Send us the details through the quote form before you lift the immobilisation.

Leaving Greece for the winter: a checklist

If you spend part of the year in Greece and leave for the winter, first decide whether the car stays in circulation or is immobilised. A car in circulation needs third-party cover and road tax even if nobody drives it, and an uninsured car is fined €500 at the electronic checks. Immobilisation saves both, but only if the car can stay in a private closed space.

Before you leave

1. Check the space: a private garage or a fenced yard that you own, rent or have been given to use. Not the street.
2. Check your TAXISnet codes work, and whether a co-owner will need to approve the request.
3. Declare immobilisation in myCAR and keep the application number and the PDF. If you declare by 31 December, you also owe no road tax for the next year.
4. Remove the plates and keep them with the registration certificate.
5. Then sort out the insurance: end third-party cover only after the declaration is final, keep the wildfire and flood cover, and ask about theft cover and your claims history.
6. Taking the car abroad with you? Immobilisation for a car that is used abroad is not declared in myCAR: it goes to the tax office or KEFODE through “Τα Αιτήματά μου”, with supporting documents (FAQ, question 3). While a car on Greek plates is in circulation, in Greece or abroad, it needs insurance with a company that operates legally in Greece (official cross-checks FAQ, question 23). The tax office decides on an immobilisation for use abroad from your documents (myCAR user guide, §4.1.3), so keep the policy until the immobilisation is accepted.
7. Think about the empty home too. Home policies often have conditions for a home left empty for a long time, and some covers, such as theft or water damage, can be limited after a set number of days. See our guide to home insurance in Greece.

When you come back

1. Arrange the car insurance first, with cover starting on the day you will drive.
2. Pay the road tax: the full year if you lift before 1 April, or monthly from 1 April.
3. Submit the lifting request in myCAR.
4. Refit the plates. If you paid monthly, put the car back into immobilisation by the last day of the period.

Need to move the car before you are ready to lift the immobilisation, for example to a garage for a service? Use a plate M, with an active policy.

How Leadinsure can help

The declarations in myCAR are made with your own codes; we handle the insurance side. Before you leave, we tell you what your policy says about cancelling, refunds and the wildfire and flood cover. Before you come back, we ask the insurers we work with for proposals, explain them side by side and set the right start date, so that the policy shows as active when you lift the immobilisation. Whether you are still abroad or already back, we handle it by phone and online and reply within 24 hours on working days. There is no obligation. You pay us no separate fee: our commission is already included in the premium. Ask for a quote, call +30 28210 86065 or email info@leadinsure.gr.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

The laws, decisions and official pages we checked for this guide. Many of them are in Greek.