Uninsured vehicle fine in Greece:
how the checks work and what to do.

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

If a vehicle on Greek plates has no valid third-party insurance, the fine is €500 for a car, €250 for a motorbike and €1,000 for a public-use bus or truck, doubled for a repeat within 3 years (art. 23 ν. 5113/2024). You no longer need to be stopped by the police to get it: the state cross-checks the vehicle register against insurance data twice a year and notifies the owner by SMS, email or letter. The vehicle does not have to move to be caught. Only a vehicle that is officially immobilised (ακινησία) or deregistered is outside the rule. If it is still uninsured at a second check within 3 months, its registration certificate and plates are taken away. This guide explains the checks, the fines, a roadside police check, how to appeal, what to do with a car you do not use, and who pays after an accident with an uninsured vehicle. Rules checked in October 2026.

How does Greece find uninsured vehicles?

The electronic cross-checks (ηλεκτρονικοί διασταυρωτικοί έλεγχοι) are run by the General Secretariat for Information Systems and Digital Governance at least once every calendar half-year (art. 22 ν. 5113/2024). They come on top of roadside police checks, not instead of them. Insurance data come from the Auxiliary Fund (Επικουρικό Κεφάλαιο), road tax data from AADE, the Greek tax authority, and roadworthiness data from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, so the same check also looks at road tax and the ΚΤΕΟ test.

• Reference date. The data are taken on one day within the first ten days of March or of August (ΚΥΑ Α.1052/2026), and the fine states that date. In the round announced on 24 July 2026 the reference date was 10 March 2026, and 32,205 fines were sent for uninsured vehicles.
• What counts as a breach. Under the joint ministerial decision on the checks (ΚΥΑ 175625 ΕΞ 2025), a breach is the absence of an active policy within the last six months up to the reference date, while the vehicle was in circulation. No fine is imposed for a period when the vehicle was immobilised.
• Which vehicles. In the current phase, privately used cars, trucks and motorbikes with a valid registration number. The scope is being widened step by step.
• Who is liable. Whoever appears as owner or keeper in the vehicle register on the reference date, not whoever actually drives the vehicle. Changes made after that date are not taken into account.

From notice to fine

1. Notice of non-compliance (ειδοποίηση). It often comes first. It carries no fine and cannot be appealed. If you insure the vehicle within the deadline it gives, nothing else is needed. The notice is not compulsory, though: a fine can arrive without one.
2. Fine (πράξη επιβολής προστίμου). If a later check finds the vehicle still uninsured, the Financial and Economic Crime Unit of AADE (ΣΔΟΕ) issues the fine. Messages about it contain the word «κοινοποίηση» (notification).
3. Appeal or certification. You have 10 working days to appeal. Without an appeal, or if it is rejected, the fine is certified as a debt and can then be paid.
4. Re-check within 3 months. A second check within 3 months of the notification is compulsory. If the vehicle is still uninsured, its registration certificate and plates are removed (art. 23 §2 ν. 5113/2024).

Fines: €500 for a car, €250 for a motorbike

The amounts are set by article 23 of ν. 5113/2024 and depend only on the type of vehicle, not on its engine size or value:

A 2.4% digital transaction fee is collected together with fines imposed by the state (art. 26 ν. 5177/2025, applied to these fines by ΚΥΑ 175625 ΕΞ 2025); the totals in the table are rounded. The electronic checks currently cover privately used vehicles; the €1,000 fine for public-use buses and trucks also applies at a police check.

• Repeat offence means a new breach for the same vehicle, by the same owner or keeper, within 3 years of the notification of the first fine (art. 23 §3).
• Re-check within 3 months. If the vehicle is still uninsured, the police collect the registration certificate and plates. You get them back only by showing an insurance policy and proof that the fine has been paid (art. 23 §2).
• Paying is not enough. Paying the fine does not release you from the duty to insure; the vehicle can be caught again at the re-check or at the next round.
• Co-owners are each liable for the whole fine. One policy in the name of one co-owner is enough: it covers all the co-owners and the legal drivers.
• Your driving licence is not affected by the electronic process. Licence removal applies at a roadside police check, explained in the next section.

Stopped by the police without insurance

The electronic checks have not replaced roadside checks. If the police stop a vehicle without valid insurance, article 5 §4 of π.δ. 237/1986 (as replaced by ν. 4286/2014) applies, and the consequences go further than a fine from the electronic process:

These administrative penalties come on top of criminal liability: article 12 of the same decree provides for imprisonment and a monetary penalty for anyone who puts, or allows, an uninsured vehicle on the road. Whether a criminal penalty is imposed, and which, is for the court to decide.

Driving a car on foreign plates? Different rules apply to its insurance and to how long it can stay; see our guide to foreign plates in Greece.

Got a notice? Check, insure, appeal

1. Open it in the app. Log in to oximata.gov.gr with your TAXISnet credentials and note the reference date and the deadlines. A message with the word «ειδοποίηση» is a notice, with no fine yet; one with «κοινοποίηση» is a fine or a road tax debt.
2. Check the insurance record. The Information Centre of the Auxiliary Fund lets you check a vehicle at hic.gr with the registration number and the owner's tax number (ΑΦΜ). It shows whether the vehicle is insured, with which company and for which period. If you are insured but appear uninsured, ask your insurer to check that the registration number, the vehicle category and the period are recorded correctly.
3. Insure the vehicle now, or immobilise it. This is what saves your plates at the re-check, which can happen at any point within 3 months of the fine. At least third-party liability is needed: that is the cover the checks look for.
4. Appeal only if you have grounds. An appeal makes sense if, on the reference date in the fine, the vehicle was insured or did not need to be, for example because it was immobilised or its theft had been reported to the police. Insuring it afterwards does not help, because changes after the reference date are not taken into account.
5. Pay once the fine is certified. If you do not appeal, or the appeal is rejected, the fine is certified as a debt and can then be paid. You can challenge the certification before the Administrative Court of First Instance within 30 days of its notification.

How to appeal, and the deadline

• Where: in the same app, under Κοινοποιήσεις › Κοινοποιήσεις Προστίμων › Προβολή Διασταυρωτικού Ελέγχου › Υποβολή Ένστασης Προστίμου, attaching your evidence, such as the policy.
• Deadline: 10 working days from notification (art. 24 ν. 5113/2024). The fine counts as notified 10 calendar days after it is posted in the app, or earlier if you open it first; for a letter, the period is doubled and runs from the date it was sent. The app shows your exact last day in the column «Καταληκτικές Ημερομηνίες Ένστασης».
• August: 1 to 31 August does not count, either for your appeal or for the time the authority has to decide.
• One appeal per fine. Within the original deadline you can withdraw a submitted appeal and file a corrected one. A draft that was only saved is not an appeal and cannot be submitted after the deadline.
• Decision: within 30 working days, in the app. If the appeal is accepted, the fine is cancelled. Since July 2026 an artificial-intelligence system also reviews the documents and makes a recommendation, but the decision stays with the officials, who are not bound by it.

Special cases

Car not in use? Immobilisation instead

"It just sits in the garage" is not a defence. The duty to insure starts when the registration certificate and plates are issued and continues whether or not the vehicle moves. It ends only with immobilisation (ακινησία) or final deregistration.

• Digital immobilisation in myCAR. A private car or motorbike can be declared immobilised online in myCAR, AADE's vehicle service (art. 62 ν. 5177/2025). The plates come off and the vehicle stays in a private closed space at the address you declare. Third-party cover is then not compulsory.
• €10,000 if it is found elsewhere. If the vehicle is found being driven, or parked anywhere other than the declared address, the immobilisation is lifted and the fine is €10,000, plus the year's road tax and its penalty. A repeat with the same vehicle within 5 years costs €30,000 and the driving licence for 3 years.
• Wildfire and flood cover still applies. Since 1 June 2025, every vehicle, immobilised or not, must be insured against wildfire and flood at its current value (art. 5Α ν. 5116/2024). There is no fine, but without it the vehicle gets no state aid if a disaster damages it.
• Plates held by the police do not count. If the police keep your registration and plates for another offence, such as a missed ΚΤΕΟ test, the vehicle is not immobilised and still needs insurance until you declare immobilisation.
• Back on the road: insure the vehicle first, pay the road tax, then lift the immobilisation in myCAR.

Leaving Greece for a few months, or keeping a second car you rarely use? Immobilisation is the legal alternative to paying for a policy on a car that never moves. Our guide to taking a car off the road in Greece has the steps, the deadlines and the cover you still need.

Hit by an uninsured driver?

Call the police (100), and 112 if anyone is hurt, so that the accident and the uninsured vehicle are officially recorded: a copy of the police report (βιβλίο συμβάντων) is one of the documents you will need. The insurers' direct-settlement scheme (φιλικός διακανονισμός) works only when both vehicles are insured with companies that take part in it, so it does not apply here.

Compensation comes from the Auxiliary Fund (Επικουρικό Κεφάλαιο), under article 19 of π.δ. 237/1986 as amended by article 11 of ν. 5113/2024:

• Identified uninsured or immobilised vehicle: the Fund pays for death, bodily injury and damage to property. You claim from it directly, and you do not have to prove first that the person liable cannot or will not pay.
• Passengers who knew: people who chose to ride in the vehicle knowing it was uninsured are excluded, if the Fund proves that they knew.
• Unknown vehicle (hit-and-run): death and injury are covered. Damage to property is covered only if the same accident also caused a death, or an injury that needed at least 5 days of hospital care, and the police dealt with the accident.

The claim form for an uninsured vehicle («Αίτηση Αποζημίωσης») is on epikef.gr and goes to claims@epikef.gr, with the documents that apply to your case: for example the police report, an expert's damage assessment, invoices or a repair estimate, photos and medical certificates. Some car policies also include optional cover for damage caused by an uninsured vehicle, with terms that vary by insurer, so check yours. Our guide to what to do after a car accident in Greece covers the first steps at the scene.

If you caused an accident without insurance

This is where the real cost lies. The Auxiliary Fund pays the victims and then claims the money back from the person liable (αναγωγή), so the owner or driver can face the whole bill for injuries and damage, on top of the fines above. At a roadside check after an accident, the registration certificate and plates are removed for 2 years.

How Leadinsure can help

Leadinsure is an insurance agency (registered insurance agent) for individuals and businesses. We cannot cancel a fine, but we can help you get the vehicle insured before the re-check. We ask the insurers we work with for proposals and explain them side by side, from basic third-party cover to the optional extras. Whether the notice reaches you at home or while you are abroad, we can arrange it all by phone and email, and we reply within 24 hours on working days, with 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.