Second Hand Car Buyers to Inherit Higher Cost of Third Party Liability Insurance

Buyer of second hand cars will inherit the cost of the third party liability insurance from the seller, reports BNT. 

This means that potential buyers need to be careful when buying a car - it may have been the property of a road traffic rules offender. The car will remain in the risky category, or the so-called "malus", until its new owner drives long enough without road traffic rules violations. It may take up to 8 years to clear the 400% mark-up on insurance.

Road traffic violations are described in seven categories depending on their severity. The lightest offence is to exceed the speed limit outside settlements by 10 to 30 km / h.

Among the worst offenses that will significantly increase insurance costs are drunk driving, hooliganism on the road, deliberate and negligent damage to property, personal injury and death.

The new system affects drivers and cars. The risky past of the car will be preserved, and the price of the new owner's insurance will be formed based on it.

On 6th of November, the Financial Supervision Commission proposed a draft regulation for the introduction of the bonus malus system. The draft provides for drivers with risky behaviour on the road to pay compulsory Third Party Liability insurance with up to 400% mark-up, and those who strictly comply with the rules to be entitled to a discount of up to 1/4 of the insurance cost.

The document is published on the Commission's website for public consultation for a period of 30 days. According to it, the premiums for compulsory third party liability insurance will be four times higher than the basic premiums for Bulgarian drivers with biggest number of road violations.

The new bonus-malus system aims at reducing the high number of road traffic accidents...