Uninsured or hit-and-run driver in Poland. Claiming from the Insurance Guarantee Fund

When the Insurance Guarantee Fund pays

The Fund covers damage that arose in Poland in three main situations (Article 98 paragraph 1 of the Compulsory Insurance Act).

• Personal injury caused by an unidentified driver. The Fund pays where the circumstances justify the liability of the possessor or driver of a motor vehicle, but their identity was never established (Article 98 paragraph 1 point 1).
• Damage to property caused by an unidentified driver, only in serious cases. The Fund pays only if in the same incident someone died or suffered an injury or health disorder lasting more than 14 days, confirmed by a doctor specialising in the relevant field. For damage to a vehicle, the payment is reduced by the equivalent of EUR 300 (Article 98 paragraph 1 point 2).
• Damage caused by an identified vehicle without compulsory insurance. The Fund covers personal injury and damage to property (Article 98 paragraph 1 point 3 letter a).

The Fund also pays for damage caused by an uninsured vehicle registered abroad, in a country whose national bureau is a party to the Multilateral Agreement, if the vehicle had no registration plates or the plates had not been assigned to it (Article 98 paragraph 1 point 3 letter b).

How to file the claim

You do not send the claim to the Fund itself. You file it through any insurance company that offers compulsory motor insurance in Poland. That company may not refuse to accept the claim (Article 108 paragraph 1).

Within 30 days of receiving the claim, the insurance company examines whether it is justified and how much it is worth, and promptly sends the documentation to the Fund, informing you that it has done so (Article 108 paragraph 2). The Fund must then pay within 30 days of receiving the file from the insurance company (Article 109 paragraph 1).

If the car was registered abroad

If the vehicle at fault was registered in another country, a different body may be responsible. The Polish Motor Insurers’ Bureau (Polskie Biuro Ubezpieczycieli Komunikacyjnych, PBUK) is liable for accidents in Poland caused by vehicles registered in countries whose national bureaux have signed the Multilateral Agreement (Article 123 paragraph 1 point 1). You can claim directly from the Bureau (Article 19 paragraph 3).

Which body is responsible depends on where the vehicle was registered and whether it was insured. This is worth establishing at the very beginning, because a claim sent to the wrong body only delays the case.

What you can claim

The scope of the claim is the same as against an insurer. If you were injured, you can claim all costs resulting from the injury (Article 444 § 1 of the Civil Code), an annuity if you lost the ability to work or your needs increased (Article 444 § 2), and compensation for the harm suffered (Article 445 § 1). See the guide compensation for pain and suffering in Poland.

If someone died, the family can claim funeral costs, an annuity, compensation for a worse living situation and compensation for their harm (Article 446). See the guide fatal road accident in Poland.

Evidence in a hit-and-run case

In a hit-and-run case there is no driver whose account can be checked and no insurer who has the vehicle’s documents. The claim rests on what was recorded at the time. That is why it is worth reporting the accident to the police at once and keeping the case number, the names of witnesses, photographs of the scene and the medical records from the first day.

If your injuries lasted more than seven days, the accident is a criminal offence and is investigated even when the driver is unknown. The criminal case file is often the best source of evidence for the claim. As the victim, you can take part in it. See the guide your rights as a victim in the criminal case.

Time limits

A claim for damage caused by a tort becomes time-barred three years after you learned, or could have learned with due care, about the damage and the person liable, but no later than ten years after the event (Article 442¹ § 1 of the Civil Code). If the damage resulted from a criminal offence, the period is 20 years from the offence (Article 442¹ § 2). For personal injury, the period cannot end earlier than three years after you learned about the damage and the person liable (Article 442¹ § 3).

Questions we are asked most often