Selling a car, traffic fines and motor insurance in Austria

Austria has no notice of sale to an authority: the seller deregisters the car at a registration office and tells the insurer (notice to the motor insurer), whose contract passes to the buyer until then (§§ 69 to 71 VersVG). Until the car is deregistered, the seller remains its registered keeper and must answer every request to name the driver, so the sale contract and the handover record note the hour the car changed hands. Between private parties the warranty can be excluded (§ 929 ABGB), but not for what was assured or fraudulently concealed; the contract has the seller say expressly whether the car is assured to be roadworthy.

The documents are written in German, under Austrian law, and each one's page describes it in English. Against a penalty order (Strafverfügung) an objection lies within two weeks of service, oral or written, e-mail included, with no reasons needed; an objection to the amount alone leaves the finding of guilt standing (§ 49(2) VStG). Against a penalty decision an appeal goes to the Land's administrative court within four weeks, lodged with the authority that issued it; if it fails, 20 % costs are added (§ 52 VwGVG). A fine that cannot be paid at once can be deferred or paid in instalments (§ 54b(3) VStG). The driver identification is due within two weeks, relatives included (§ 103(2) KFG 1967).

After an accident the injured party claims directly from the other car's liability insurer (§ 26 KHVG), which must make an offer within three months or give written reasons why not (§ 29a KHVG); the claim suspends limitation (claim to the other insurer). One's own insurer is told as the policy requires (claim notice). Motor liability insurance can be cancelled at the end of the insurance year, after a premium rise, after a claim, or by the buyer of the car (cancellation). None of it is legal advice.