What to do if the insurance turns out to be fake

What to do if the MTPL policy turns out to be fake?

As of 2016, there were up to one million fake OSAGO policies in Russia. It is not surprising that such letters come to our editorial office; very often car owners themselves do not realize that they have purchased a “fake”.

Due to the increase in the number of counterfeit MTPL policies on the market, the Russian Union of Auto Insurers (RUA) lobbied for the introduction of new forms in the country - now they are not green, but pink. In addition, they have additional security features, which, as RSA assures, will nullify the attempts of attackers to forge a document. Can an ordinary person distinguish a normal policy from a fake one?

Fake OSAGO policy

Here it is worth saying that not only a policy printed anywhere but at Goznak is fake, but also one that was filled out incorrectly or with changes (therefore, the car owner first of all needs to carefully check the information entered in the form when purchasing compulsory motor liability insurance). In addition, a policy issued by an insurance company after its license to operate in the MTPL market has been revoked may fall into the category of fictitious ones. In this case, free forms should be canceled, but there are cases when they end up on the market. In this case, the car owner can be recommended the following: before buying a compulsory motor liability insurance policy, check whether the license issued to the insurance company to carry out compulsory motor liability insurance activities is valid. And at the same time, does the agent where you buy the policy have the right to work with her?

As a rule, there are no bores among our people. Drivers do not scrutinize the form to check its authenticity. But in vain. You can find many resources on the Internet that explain in detail: where you can check your MTPL policy and how to distinguish a fake policy from a real one.

“Fake” noticed in time

If you discovered that you purchased a “fake” before you ran into a traffic inspector or got into an accident, consider yourself lucky. You go to a trusted insurer and buy a new MTPL policy, after which you go to the police with a statement of fraud and the old policy as evidence. Law enforcement agencies will conduct the necessary checks and initiate a criminal case regarding fraudulent activities. Next, those responsible for distributing fake MTPL policies are searched for and punished. The main thing for you is that the culprit must reimburse you for the full cost of the policy sold.

Punishment for a fake OSAGO policy

If the traffic inspector who stopped you on the road has suspicions about the authenticity of the MTPL policy, if they (suspicions) are confirmed, measures will be taken to remove you from driving the vehicle, and the vehicle itself will be sent to an impound lot. Next, you will have a trial, following which law enforcement agencies will decide whether to impose administrative or criminal liability on you.

Even if it turns out that you “have no idea” that you were driving with a fake MTPL, you will probably have to pay a fine of 800 rubles (Article 12.37 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation “Failure to comply with the requirements for compulsory civil liability insurance of vehicle owners”). But if it turns out that you deliberately used a fake document, in this case the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation comes into play. According to Article 327 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, it provides for a fine of 80 thousand rubles, arrest for 6 months or correctional labor for 480 hours. Moreover, if the “linden” is opened when the policy owner applies to the insurance company for insurance compensation, in this case the fine can be increased to 120 thousand rubles (Article 159.5 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

Most often, a car owner finds out that he is driving with a fake MTPL policy after his car has been involved in an accident - at the stage of analysis by the traffic police, when drawing up an application to the insurance company, or after opening a case for payment of insurance compensation to him. Is it worth relying on it at all in this case?

Please note that two or more participants are involved in an accident and each of them must have a motor vehicle liability agreement. A situation may well arise in which your compulsory motor liability insurance policy is in order, but the person at fault for the accident turned out to have a fake one.

Your policy is fake

If you were injured in an accident, but your compulsory motor liability insurance is fake, in this case you also have the right to compensation. It's simple: OSAGO insures the civil liability of the at-fault participant in a car accident. It is important that the registration of the accident is carried out by the traffic police (the European protocol provides for the presence of compulsory motor liability insurance for both participants in the accident, but your compulsory motor liability insurance is “fake” - the insurance company will certainly refuse to pay you).

Another important circumstance: you cannot count on direct compensation for damage from your insurance (you are moving without a policy - remember?). You will have to contact the insurance company where the person at fault for the accident purchased the policy. This must be done quickly; otherwise, the insurer may “happily” deny you compensation due to failure to comply with accident reporting rules. It will not be difficult to contact the culprit: his details are indicated in the certificate of the accident issued by the traffic police. The documents that you must provide to the insurance company of the person responsible for the accident are a certificate of the accident, documents for the car, your license and the compulsory motor liability insurance policy of the person responsible for the accident.

The policy of the person responsible for the accident is fake

If neither the traffic police nor the insurance company has any complaints about your policy, and the MTPL policy of the person at fault for the accident turned out to be fake, in this case you will definitely be able to receive compensation only if you have CASCO insurance.

What if there is no CASCO? Contact the RSA with a statement - a requirement to confirm the legal validity of the compulsory motor liability insurance policy of the person responsible for the accident. If the answer is negative (the MTPL policy of the person responsible for the accident is fake), lawyers advise conducting an independent examination (to find out how much it will cost to repair your car), and after that making pre-trial claims against the person responsible for the accident - always in writing (by Russian Post with notification). It must be accompanied by fiscal receipts for payment of the examination, tow truck, treatment of victims and other expenses.

If within 10 days the person at fault for the accident does not respond to your letter, you should go to court demanding compensation for damages associated with car repairs, treatment of victims, related expenses, as well as expenses for a lawyer, legal costs, etc.

If RSA confirms the fact of fraud with MTPL policies, you can also write a statement to the police - this is if the culprit himself became a victim of fraud.

The insurance company issued the wrong policy

There is an option when you can demand payment for damages in an accident from the insurance company. This is if your OSAGO policy is real, but, for example, it turns out to have a double. In this case, you can insist that the insurance company pay you compensation. After all, the mistake was made through her fault (or through the fault of her agents, brokers).

If suddenly the insurance company refuses to pay you, based on the absence of your policy (you as its owner) in the insurance company’s database, you need to file a complaint with the RSA - but not by email, but by Russian Post - a valuable letter with notification. If this does not help, the next addressee will be the regulator of the insurance market in Russia - the Central Bank. The final authority is the court.

But if the policy really turned out to be fake (issued on a printed form; electronic MTPL does not count), in this case you can only sympathize. We also advise you to choose an insurance company or its agent more carefully.

Helmet for MTPL

The Supreme Court clarified in what cases, if a car insurance policy turns out to be fake, the insurer must still pay for the damage.

There is a regular injection of fake policies into the car insurance market. When a fake is discovered after an accident, the insurer refuses to pay for repairs to the car.

After all, often the motorist who purchased such a policy turns out to be innocent. The fact is that the forms, as a rule, are filled out not by representatives of insurers, but by their agents, brokers, representatives and whatever you call them.

As a result, it turns out that the car owner purchased insurance, which the insurance company has no intention of providing to him. The form is fake. Or copied. Or hidden from the audit in time.

Moreover, in this situation it is not the culprit of the accident who suffers, but the one who received the damage. After all, it is he who is faced with the fact that his counterpart does not have a policy. And therefore, we have to look for the culprit and his address in order to file a claim.

And the number of such incidents is growing. There was an accident. As a result, the driver who did not have insurance was found to be at fault. Or it exists, but it is illegal. What should a driver who has been injured do? Right. Go to court for compensation.

And this is where some pretty big problems arise. Where to find the culprit of the accident? Where can I find his address and where to send demands for payment? After all, the victim of an accident only has a form of a fake policy in his hands.

The Supreme Court has dealt with similar situations. And he gave clear recommendations. Explained when the insurer is obliged to compensate for damage, even if the person at fault has a fake policy.

Moreover, the decision of the Supreme Court clearly defines what is considered a counterfeit and what is considered dishonest work by the insurer.

The recipe is quite simple. When a car owner buys an MTPL policy at the company’s office, he is more or less protected from fraud.

But there are agents, brokers, and there are also completely unknown sales points for automobile citizenship near the registration departments of the traffic police.

Nobody knows what they will sell you as a compulsory motor liability insurance contract and the corresponding policy in these places. Therefore, you need to be careful about the documents. There are many ways to check the authenticity of a policy. For example, go to the website of the Russian Union of Insurers and find out which company this form was sent to.

After paying the money and concluding the contract, after some time you can find out whether this policy was sold and to whom, for which car.

But few people think of organizing such a check. The happiness from purchasing a car is off the charts. As a result, car owners are faced with the fact that a minor accident through no fault of theirs turns into a long-term headache.

Two drivers did not share the road in the North-West region of Russia. On November 21, 2014, the driver Versalov crashed into a car driven by the driver Bozhedarov. Both cars were damaged. Versalov was found to be the culprit in the accident. The cost of restoring Bozhedarov’s car was just under 60 thousand rubles.

According to the current rules, Bozhedarov turned to his insurance company for compensation for the damage.

After all, only two cars were damaged, both participants were insured under MTPL, there were no injuries.

But his company refused to pay him. Versalov's insurer stated that he did not sell such a policy to this person.

Moreover, a policy with the same number was sold in the Far Eastern region and belongs to another person with a different car.

Bozhedarov filed a claim for damages against Versalov himself. However, he was not lucky here either. The court of first instance did not recognize the validity of his claims.

However, the appellate instance on Versalov's complaint overturned the decision of the lower court. The appeal considered that the driver was insured and the insurance company should compensate for the damage.

At the same time, the court carefully studied the policy forms and found that the document purchased by Versalov may be counterfeit. The seal imprint bears a Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), which has nothing to do with the insurance company.

The court even suggested ordering a forensic examination of the policy, but the participants in the process themselves refused this.

Nevertheless, the court considered that Versalov was not required to know all the intricacies of the MTPL forms. He bought the policy, which means the insurance company took responsibility. It seemed like a dead end.

However, Bozhedarov reached the Supreme Court, which turned out to have its own opinion on this matter. The Supreme Court decided that the appeal court was wrong. The MTPL policy is issued on a strict reporting form. These forms are sold to the insurance company, which distributes them to its agents and is responsible for them. If the form is not sold, the company must dispose of it and this must be reflected in the documents.

Unauthorized use of forms does not exempt the company from fulfilling the terms of the concluded agreement.

Except for one case: when the company contacted the police with a statement about the theft of this policy before the insured event occurred.

Since there is no evidence that the policy was fake, and no one bothered to investigate this, the insurance company must pay for this insured event.

The Supreme Court sent the case for a new trial. But this decision provides a clear explanation in which situation the insurance company compensates for the damage, and in which the culprit of the accident in civil proceedings.

If the culprit of the accident has a fake MTPL policy, contacting the insurer is useless. It is better to contact the police and then sue the culprit in court.

If the policy form is genuine, but the company did not sell it, the company must pay damages to the victim. Namely, we mean the following situation. If the form is genuine - that is, it was produced by Goznak for a specific insurance company and sold by any of the insurance agents or brokers, and no money was received by the insurance company, there is no reporting on this policy, and it is listed as lost, but the company before the Insured event filed a statement with the police that the form with this number was stolen, the victim will have to file a claim against the culprit.

You can check the authenticity of the policy right at the scene of the accident. Either through the RSA website, if the driver has a smartphone, or by calling the RSA or at least your insurance company.

Let us remind you that you can check the authenticity of the policy at the scene of an accident using a smartphone.

Traffic police officers have no restrictions on such checks at all.

What to do if you bought a fake OSAGO policy

According to statistics, for every hundred compulsory insurance policies there are approximately 2-3 falsified documents (forgeries). Some car enthusiasts deliberately try to purchase a fake in order to save on official registration, while others find themselves victims of deception by an unscrupulous insurer. Using a falsified vehicle license is a punishable offense that threatens the culprit with penalties. Therefore, it is advisable to understand the question of what to do if the MTPL policy turns out to be fake and who is responsible for it.

Which policy can be considered fake (fictitious)

An insurance policy is an official document issued to the policyholder (the owner of the vehicle) by an insurance organization (insurer) to confirm the fact of concluding a contract with him under compulsory motor liability insurance. The object of the agreement is the civil liability of the insured person, which occurs when harm is caused to the life, health of third parties and their property.

The compulsory insurance policy will be considered invalid if:

it duplicates a policy previously officially issued to another person;
the document does not meet the established requirements (expired, an old form was used when applying for car insurance, etc.);
the contract was not concluded through the official website of the insurance company;
the policy was issued on an invalid official form that was lost or stolen from the insurance company;
the document was issued in violation of the established regulations (for example, the issue was not recorded by a company representative);
the policy was issued after the official suspension of the activities of the insurance company or the revocation of its license;
the document is used after the policyholder has learned of its fictitiousness.

If the policy turns out to be false and you discover it

If you discover that the purchased MTPL policy turns out to be counterfeit, it is recommended:

Do not use the document when operating the car in order to avoid penalties from traffic police officers.
Immediately notify the insurance company that the MTPL policy is fictitious.
At the same time, send a statement about the falsification to the Russian Union of Auto Insurers (RUA) so that it can begin an official verification of the situation.

If you need to use a car during the investigation, it is advisable to immediately purchase MTPL insurance from another insurer, without waiting for a decision on a fake policy and the return of your money.

You were stopped by traffic police officers with a fake license

If, during the process of checking your documents, a traffic police officer discovers that your compulsory motor liability insurance policy is fake, you will be suspended from driving until the circumstances are clarified. As a rule, this situation is regarded as operating a vehicle without documents, which entails a fine of 800 rubles. On our website you can find and check your unpaid fines.

If law enforcement officers manage to prove that you used the fake deliberately, then, according to Art. 327 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, you may be awarded:

a fine of up to 80,000 rubles;
arrest for up to six months;
480 hours of correctional labor.

If you use a false insurance policy unknowingly, and the contrary has not been proven, you will be considered a witness in a case of dishonesty or fraud of the insurance company.

If you yourself contact law enforcement authorities with a statement about a false insurance certificate or file a complaint against the insurer, sanctions will not be applied against you. This is the only way to avoid administrative liability.

You are at fault for an accident with a fake insurance policy

If you have a fake insurance policy in your hands, and you find yourself at fault for an accident, then you will be responsible for full compensation to the injured party for the damage caused.

Since the use of a fictitious document is regarded as the operation of vehicles without a vehicle license, in accordance with paragraph 6 of Art. 4 of the “Law on Compulsory Motor Liability Insurance”, as well as paragraph 1 of Art. 1064 ch. 59 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the guilty person is obliged to pay for damage caused to the life (health) or property of another road user.

If a fake policy was sold by an insurance company, you can try to prove that you did not know about it. That is, the fault is transferred to the insurer, and he will compensate for the damage. But only if you can prove your innocence in acquiring a car license.

You are the party injured in the accident, and the culprit has a fake policy

If you have been injured in an accident, and there are suspicions that the person at fault has a fake MTPL policy, you need to:

Make sure the car insurance is authentic and check the policy on the official RSA website at the scene of the accident. If there is no opportunity to use the Internet on the road, call any insurance company with a request, and they will provide you with the information you need.
If you have established that the insurance policy is fake, the issue of compensation for the damage caused to you should only be resolved in court (a claim directly against the person responsible for the accident).

If you have suspicions about the authenticity of the MTPL policy of the person responsible for the accident, you also need to contact the insurance company specified in the document with an application to provide you with payment based on the accident. This must be done, since in order to file a claim in court, you will need to receive a written refusal from the insurer of the guilty party to compensate for the damage caused to you, explaining the reasons for the refusal.

What to do if the insurance company issued a fictitious policy

The insurance company is legally responsible for issuing auto insurance policies at its official office and through authorized representatives (agents).

If the purchase of compulsory motor liability insurance raises suspicions about the authenticity of the issued document, and RSA cannot clearly confirm or refute your suspicions, you need to write an application to law enforcement agencies and attach the policy itself and the result of the verification to the application. In accordance with Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Fraud in the field of auto insurance”, the police are obliged to open a criminal case and find insurance sellers.

Typically, it takes no more than 2-3 weeks to consider such requests and conduct investigative actions to confirm the fact of fraud. After this, the case goes to court.

How to distinguish a fake from a real policy

It is quite difficult to recognize a fake compulsory insurance policy on your own. To do this, you need to know very well the features of the original document:

High quality letterhead paper (falsies are printed on cheap paper to save money).
Mandatory presence of watermarks with the RSA logo (an organization that regulates compulsory insurance).
The inscription at the top of the original form of the motor vehicle “Insurance policy for civil liability of vehicle owners.”
Protective ornament of the form in the form of a mesh.
A unique metallized stripe on the back of the form, which can only be created in the factory.
Flints in the texture of letterhead paper, which are difficult to recreate in artisanal conditions.
The series and number of the insurance policy form have a convex and three-dimensional shape (you need to swipe it with your finger).

In addition to the listed details, pay attention to the brightness of the print: the original OSAGO policy has no color differences, and the color and size of the symbols are identical.

It is impossible to reproduce all the protection methods on a fake policy form - you will definitely notice design defects or the lack of necessary degrees of protection. In addition, the fake is always offered at a discount of 50% from the price of the original. In the original OSAGO policy, only a discount of the bonus-malus coefficient is allowed, which depends on the class of the driver and the quality of the ride.

Thus, the MTPL policy is one of the mandatory documents for the driver, without which he does not have the right to drive. The absence of a motor vehicle license is an administrative offense that is punishable by fines.

Attempts to save on compulsory motor liability insurance and purchase a craft will save you before the first accident. A fake insurance policy is much worse than no insurance policy: falsification is punishable under criminal law, and you will have to try very hard to prove your innocence.

In addition, when concluding an insurance contract, you should carefully study the document so as not to become a victim of fraud. Proving that an insurer is guilty of falsifying insurance documents will be difficult and expensive. Therefore, you should buy MTPL policies only from proven and trusted insurance companies.

Fake OSAGO policy: where does it come from and what is the penalty for it?

Some time ago, the sale of counterfeit MTPL policies became widespread. Although at first I was scared to buy - what if they check it. – buyers were found.

Most of them had been using the fake paper successfully for a long time, and the excitement grew. Where do such documents come from, and what threatens those who bought them?

Reasons for the spread of counterfeits

If we talk about the reason why such policies have become in demand, everything is elementary - people are trying to save money . OSAGO is compulsory insurance, but few people want to pay for it, especially since in most cases it is not useful. Since the cost of purchasing such a policy has increased significantly, the question of how to save has become even more pressing.

Where do fake OSAGOs come from?

Their first source is forms left with insurance agents, as well as those stolen from the offices of insurance companies. They are sold as ready-made documents, in which you just need to enter the details of the new owner.

Since they have their own unique numbers, with a superficial check the policy will be valid. Problems will arise if insurance payment is required or someone decides to “punch through” the document in detail.

Also, at the moment, there are dozens of underground companies that produce such forms. Mostly they are foreign - from European to Chinese, but there are also Russian ones. These policies may be “completely fake”, which, upon a superficial check, will immediately turn out to be invalid. But more often there are others in which the real number is entered. For this purpose, combinations of numbers that have not yet been used from insurance company forms that have not yet been filled out are used.

What to do if the MTPL policy turns out to be fake?

When purchasing such papers, a citizen must be aware that he is breaking the law . This policy is purchased from insurance companies, which is a guarantee of authenticity.

However, situations occasionally arise when the owner of the document claims that he did not know about the counterfeit and believed that he was purchasing real insurance. Theoretically, this can happen in two cases :

Unknowingly, when a policy is sold through deception. If a person is not at all legally savvy and does not understand insurance issues, he may be forced to purchase such insurance.
In case of deception directly by the insurance agent. This is also a rare situation, but possible.

Many insurance companies have gone bankrupt in recent years. And in the period before the closure, chaos reigned in many of them. Rapidly leaving employees, staff reductions, non-payment of both insurance and wages... There were also those who tried to make money dishonestly.

A person who believes that he was fraudulently sold fake insurance should go to court. However, this only makes sense if the policy was purchased from some organization, or at least there are contacts of the seller and the ability to find him. In other cases, actions will be a pointless waste of time.

Having such a policy in hand, you should not count on payment. This sometimes happens, but only if the document was actually issued by the insurance company the client is contacting. When it is easier for an organization to pay money than to sue, it can accommodate. But not necessarily. Therefore, it is not worth taking risks and waiting for the moment when you need insurance.

Judicial practice on fake insurance

Such a purchase has no consequences... exactly until a situation occurs where payment under compulsory motor liability insurance is required. Then the owner will face a trial to find the culprit.

The stories of friends that the fake insurance was recognized, but the driver was found innocent, should not be taken into account. The reason is simple: judicial practice on fake compulsory motor liability insurance has changed a lot over the past couple of years.

If previously the responsibility was placed on insurance companies, now it is on the drivers. This doesn't always happen, but most of the time.

This is due to the fact that in the recent past, purchases of fake policies were most often the work of unscrupulous agents. Today this is a whole business put on stream, and the product is in demand among buyers.

How to distinguish a fake policy from a real one?

Nowadays they have learned to forge policies so well that it is usually not possible to distinguish them from real ones by eye. If the “fake” document is made poorly, then there is such a chance.

You need to pay attention to the following nuances :

The quality of the paper used. In particular, its low density should give rise to suspicion.
In fakes, the word “owners” in the title is often replaced with “owner”.
Presence of RSA watermark. A fake may not have it, or it may be of poor quality.

How to check the authenticity of documents?

To be completely sure of the authenticity of a document, it must be checked against databases. In particular, at RSA and at the insurance company itself, by contacting the main office. This is easy to do via the Internet.

There are often cases when the insurance company itself no longer exists and did not exist at the time the policy was issued. Simply invalid forms were used, or the organization’s license was revoked, and the client did not know about it. Therefore, checking the insurance company is the first important step.

What to do if you bought a fake electronic MTPL?

The best course of action when a violation is detected is as follows:

Buy a new, this time real, policy.
Then contact the police, reporting the company or person under Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Fraud”.

In the application, indicate the requirement for the culprit to reimburse the cost of the policy .

It is advisable to act in exactly this sequence. This will eliminate the possibility that the driver himself will be suspected of breaking the law. He will not be accused of knowingly purchasing counterfeit insurance.

Responsibility for using counterfeit

During legal proceedings, each party is under the threat of conviction under the same Article 159 of the Criminal Code. Liability may also be imposed in accordance with Part 3 of Art. 327 CC.

This entails possible penalties from the following :

fines up to 120 thousand rubles;
arrest up to 4-6 months, depending on the article;
compulsory work up to 360-480 hours or correctional work up to 1-2 years.

Even if it turns out that the driver did not know about the falsification of the document, based on current judicial practice, he is unlikely to remain innocent. At a minimum, you will have to prove the guilt of the seller or company. Art. 12.37 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, regulating non-compliance with requirements when preparing insurance documents. The punishment for it is significantly less - a fine of 800 rubles .

What if the person at fault for the accident does not have real insurance?

If an accident has already occurred and it turns out that the culprit’s MTPL policy turned out to be fake, the victim should draw maximum attention to this fact. It doesn’t matter whether the issue is resolved through the courts or through agreements. In the first case, notify the judge ; in the second, notify the culprit himself. This will work equally effectively.

If you persistently prove that you are right, then there is an opportunity to compensate for the damage in full. More often this has to be done through the courts, since buyers of fake policies do not want to part with money, even if they themselves are at fault.

It should be remembered that the restoration of cars after an accident falls on the shoulders of the culprit. And without a real MTPL policy, it will be difficult for him to pay for repairs. When buying fake insurance, you should not forget that it does not provide anything other than immediate benefits.

Useful video

Here they tell you how to distinguish a genuine insurance policy from a fake one:

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Fake MTPL policy. Consequences of invalid insurance in case of an accident

A participant in an accident may not even realize that he has a fake OSAGO policy. Next, we will talk about what consequences await participants in an accident if it turns out that the victim or person responsible for the accident has invalid or false insurance, with examples from judicial practice.

How to check if the MTPL policy is valid

We will not dwell in detail on how to distinguish a fake MTPL policy from a real one by appearance. Moreover, it can be difficult to identify a fake by eye and it is not always possible to carry out a quality check. Then how do you know if the policy is valid? You have the opportunity to check the validity of the insurance on the RSA website, where by entering the policy number you will receive information on it. However, as practice shows, the “correct status” of an MTPL policy according to the RSA does not mean the absence of problems, while at the same time, a policy status other than “correct” does not mean that insurance compensation cannot be achieved.

Fake OSAGO policy: liability

What happens to fake car insurance? If the MTPL policy is fake, who is responsible? These questions arise for those who have an invalid policy in their hands, as well as for those who are faced with the fact of a fake after an accident. It should be understood that the policy may be counterfeit or the policy form may be real but unauthorized, and the consequences may be different in different cases. Next, we will find out what happens when a participant in an accident has a fake or invalid MTPL policy.

What to do if your MTPL policy turns out to be fake and you get into an accident

Participants in road accidents, insurance companies, as well as courts, when considering disputes regarding compensation for losses in an accident with a fake policy, can be guided by the following.

An insurance policy is evidence confirming the conclusion of a contract of compulsory civil liability insurance for the owner of a vehicle, until proven otherwise. At the same time, a message from a professional association of insurers about the absence of data on an insurance policy in the automated information system of compulsory insurance does not in itself constitute unconditional evidence of failure to fulfill the obligation to conclude an insurance contract and must be assessed along with other evidence ( clause 8 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of December 26 2017 N 58 “On the application by courts of legislation on compulsory insurance of civil liability of vehicle owners” ).

According to clause 7.1 of Article 15 of the Law on Compulsory Motor Liability Insurance, the insurer ensures control over the use of compulsory insurance policy forms by insurance brokers and insurance agents and is responsible for their unauthorized use, which means the paid or gratuitous transfer of a blank or completed insurance policy form to the owner of the vehicle without reflection in accordance with the established procedure, the fact of concluding a compulsory insurance contract, as well as distortion of information provided to the insurer about the terms of the compulsory insurance contract, reflected in the form of the insurance policy transferred to the policyholder.

The insurer who owned the insurance policy form that was unauthorized used is obliged, at its own expense, to compensate for the damage caused in order to make insurance compensation, with the exception of cases of theft of compulsory insurance insurance policy forms, provided that before the date of the insured event the insurer, insurance broker or insurance the agent contacted the authorized authorities with a statement about the theft of the forms.

Incomplete and (or) untimely transfer to the insurer of the insurance premium received by the insurance broker or insurance agent does not relieve the insurer from the need to fulfill obligations under the compulsory insurance agreement, including in cases of unauthorized use of compulsory insurance insurance policy forms.

A similar position was previously held by the Supreme Court ( Definition of the Judicial Collegium for Civil Cases of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated July 19, 2016 N 57-KG16-5): “Unauthorized use of policy forms does not exempt the insurance company from fulfilling the contract, however, the insurance company is exempt from paying compensation if Before the insured event occurred, she contacted the police with a statement about the theft of policy forms.”

To resolve the dispute, it is important to establish the authenticity of the policy form (through an examination).

Thus, “if it is established that the insurance policy is counterfeit and there is no evidence confirming the conclusion of the MTPL agreement, the insurer cannot be charged with paying insurance compensation” (clause 16 of the Review of judicial practice on MTPL (approved by the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on June 22, 2016). )).

If after the accident it turns out that the participant in the accident has a fake MTPL policy, what to do will depend on whose policy turned out to be fake, as well as on whether the form turned out to be fake or genuine, but unauthorizedly used.

To receive compensation after an accident, you need to know: the MTPL policy is really fake or there has been unauthorized use of it

The victim has a fake MTPL policy

If the culprit of the accident does not have an MTPL policy, then the culprit will have to recover damages to the victim with a fake policy.

If the culprit of the accident has a valid MTPL policy, then the victim who has a fake policy will be able to receive insurance compensation. But can he receive compensation under direct damages or does he need to contact the at-fault party's insurance company?

If the policy is truly counterfeit (fake), then direct compensation for damage is impossible (Decision of the Volzhsky District Court of Saratov (Saratov Region) dated April 21, 2016 in case No. 2-1006/2016), the victim will have to contact the insurance company of the person responsible for the accident.

Sometimes the insurer of the culprit of the accident does not want to make a payment on the basis that no reliable data has been provided about the falsity of the victim’s policy, but the Court may side with the victim (Resolution of the Presidium of the Moscow Regional Court No. 44G-177/2018 dated July 11, 2018 in case No. 2-2626/2017).

The person at fault for the accident has a fake MTPL policy

As a rule, the victim finds out that the culprit of the accident has a fake MTPL policy or a policy that was unauthorized used when contacting the insurance company for direct compensation of losses (if he has a policy, even if the victim himself is not included in it) . When the victim does not have a compulsory motor liability insurance policy, he contacts the insurance company of the person responsible for the accident. If the victim is refused, he can go to court. At the same time, as can be seen from judicial practice, the possibility of obtaining insurance compensation depends on whether the policy of the culprit is recognized as counterfeit or unauthorized use.

The insurance company may refuse the victim on the basis that the person at fault has problems with the policy, for example, according to the database, the policy of the person at fault for the accident is damaged . If the expert opinion form itself is genuine and there is evidence that the person at fault for the accident entered into an insurance contract, then in this case there are no grounds for refusing direct compensation for losses (Decision of the Blagoveshchensky District Court (Republic of Bashkortostan) dated October 4, 2017 in case No. 2-587/ 2017).

If, according to the official website of the RSA, the policy of the person responsible for the accident is listed as “ destroyed ,” then insurance compensation, as a rule, can be obtained (Decision of the Belorechensky District Court (Krasnodar Territory) dated June 9, 2018 in case No. 2-713 /2018).

According to the insurance company, the policy of the person at fault for the accident may be lost (according to RCA data, it is listed as lost). However, the publication of information about the loss of a document is not a basis for releasing the insurer from liability for obligations based on insurance policies issued and signed by it, in the absence of information about the dishonest behavior of policyholders (Decision of the Issinsky District Court (Penza Region) dated December 18, 2015 in the case No. 2-97/2015).

The insurance company may claim that the at-fault party's policy is fraudulent because... According to the RSA data, it is listed as being owned by the insurer and there are no grounds for direct compensation for losses under the MTPL law. But when establishing the authenticity of the policy of the culprit, the insurance company is obliged to pay insurance compensation (Decision of the Oktyabrsky District Court of Arkhangelsk (Arkhangelsk Region) dated February 14, 2018 in case No. 2-3692/2017).

What to do if the person at fault for an accident has a fake OSAGO policy

If the policy of the person at fault for the accident is really fake, i.e. If the form is false, then the culprit of the accident will have to compensate for the damage. In this case, the victim can send a pre-trial claim to the culprit, or can immediately go to court. The victim may demand compensation for damages from the culprit of the accident in the amount of the cost of restoration repairs without taking into account wear and tear, in some cases, loss of the marketable value of the car, as well as compensation for damage in the event of a complete loss of the car.

The person at fault for the accident has a fake MTPL policy: judicial practice

If the policy of the culprit is false, then the court, as a rule, makes a ruling in favor of the victim (Decision of the Naberezhnye Chelny City Court (Republic of Tatarstan) dated June 18, 2018 in case No. 2-12799/2017).

The culprit of the accident may agree with the claim and make payment without conducting an examination of the authenticity of the policy (Decision of the Volokolamsk City Court (Moscow Region) dated July 10, 2018 in case No. 2-840/2018).

When the culprit of the accident does not admit the claims, an examination may be needed. If the policy is found to be fake, then the person at fault for the accident will have to pay according to the court decision (Decision of the Klimovsky City Court (Moscow Region) dated July 31, 2017 in case No. 2-269/2017).

The culprit of an accident with an invalid MTPL policy who has compensated for the damage to the victim can go to court and make claims against the insurance agent from whom the invalid policy was purchased. The court may recognize the insurance contract as not concluded, recover from the person who sold the policy losses in the amount of damages compensated in case of an accident, unjust enrichment in the amount of the insurance premium paid by the culprit of the accident (Takhtamukaisky District Court (Republic of Adygea) dated July 6, 2018 in case No. 2- 1034/2018).

If you have problems obtaining compensation under compulsory motor liability insurance or collecting damages from the culprit of an accident, you can contact the specialists of this project for legal advice. Assistance will be provided by project participants and partners - practicing lawyers with extensive experience in this area of legal relations.

Thus, the possibility of insurance compensation, as well as its procedure, are often determined by establishing the authenticity of the auto insurance policy form. A fake MTPL policy held by the person responsible for the accident, as judicial practice shows, is the basis for refusal of insurance compensation, as a result of which the person responsible for the accident will have to compensate for the damage.