The obligation to get car insurance rests on the owner
Every owner of a motor vehicle is required to have it insured when the vehicle is admitted to traffic:
- on public roads
- on land accessible to the public, for example a shop car park
- on premises accessible only to a certain number of people who have the right to enter.
This is the mandatory civil liability insurance (BA insurance or WAM insurance) or - in human language - car insurance. This insurance pays for the damage you cause to others with the vehicle.
What does the law say?
The obligation to take out insurance rests with the owner of the motor vehicle. This insurance obligation arises from Art. 2 of ‘the WAM-Law’ or ‘the BA Motor Vehicles Law’ (Act of 21 November 1989 on mandatory motor vehicle liability insurance, B.S. 08/11/1989).
It is permissible for a person other than the owner to take out the insurance, for example the driver. In that case, the owner's obligation is suspended for the duration of the contract entered into by the other person.
To enforce this insurance obligation, both the owner, holder and driver of a motor vehicle can be criminally prosecuted before the Police Court and punished with prison sentences of eight days to six months and/or fines of 100 to 1,000 EUR, to be increased by the surcharge fees (art. 22 WAM-Law).
Moreover, in case of an accident involving an uninsured vehicle, the financial consequences are often incalculable.
Which motor vehicles are not covered by the insurance obligation under the WAM-Law?
But does this insurance obligation apply in every place?
The legal insurance obligation for motor vehicles does not apply everywhere.
Vehicles used only on private premises fall outside the scope of the legal insurance obligation (Cass. 6 February 1997, JLMB 1997, 1318).
Examples of private premises include:
- Private residential garages used by residents of the property
- The workshops of garages
- Yards and fields of farmers
To qualify as private land, the land must be truly ‘private’: the private land must not be accessible to the public.
Even private areas with limited access for a certain number of people who have the right to enter are not completely private, and so the insurance obligation does apply there. There is one exception to this: if there is no permanent access to the private area because an application/registration must always be made for each visit, it is not an area within the meaning of art. 2, §1 of the WAM-Law and the vehicles are not subject to the statutory insurance obligation.
If there is permanent access to the private premises (such as on the premises of a wholesaler, where suppliers are not required to have additional permission to drive), vehicles are subject to the statutory insurance obligation.
Fact issue
Whether a place is private land is a question of fact and not always easy to determine. In cases of dispute, the court will decide on a case-by-case basis whether the site is private or not.
For example, the Court of Cassation ruled that a busy campsite, where it is normal for pedestrians and playing children to circulate permanently, is an area accessible to a certain number of people, as referred to in Article 2 of the WAM-Law (Cass., 2 June 1981, Arr. Cass., 1980-81, 1142).
Is a motorbike in a race at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit subject to the legal BA insurance obligation?
In a judgment of 7 October 2015, the Court of Cassation ruled that a motorbike driven on a circuit that is entirely exempted for vehicular traffic is not subject to the statutory motor vehicle insurance obligation (Cass. (2nd k.) AR P.15.0384.F, 7 October 2015). Only the vehicles of the participants of this race are exempt from the legal insurance obligation.