In Australia, every registered car must be covered by Compulsory Third Party (CTP) insurance. You can check your car’s CTP cover from your number plate by contacting your state government or your insurer.
If you’ve purchased a comprehensive car insurance policy that not only covers your liability if you’re the at-fault driver, but injuries to you and damage to your car as well, you can check the expiry date on your car insurance certificate.
The car you own needs to be registered in the Australian state or territory where you currently reside. Your registration will usually require you to hold CTP insurance, which covers your liability for injuries caused by you to other drivers. This is the minimum level of insurance required in most states and territories.
While CTP insurance policies are linked to cars and can be transferred to a new owner if a car is sold, other car insurance policies such as comprehensive or third-party fire, theft, and property damage insurance policies are attached to individual customers. If you buy a used car, it may still have valid registration and CTP insurance available for some time, but you’ll need to apply for any extra insurance cover yourself.
Consider visiting your state or territory government’s website and searching for its check vehicle registration page to check your car’s insurance status, such as its CTP policy’s expiry date, insurance provider, and coverage limits. You’ll may need to provide some basic information about the car to check if it is insured, such as its number plate, make, model and year of manufacture. Usually, a CTP insurance policy may only be valid for the term your vehicle is registered, but the validity may include a use-by date that covers the time it takes to renew your vehicle registration.
If you live in New South Wales or South Australia, you can choose your CTP insurance provider, which means you may be able to keep track of the expiry date by checking your insurance certificate. This can be useful for renewing the policy as needed, and also giving you time to compare car insurance quotes in case you want to switch providers. If you’ve bought a used car want to check who it is insured with, you can contact the state government’s vehicle registration department for more information.
If you’ve bought an additional car insurance policy that covers more than just CTP, you can find the expiry date by checking the policy certificate for, or by contacting your insurer,
Carrying an active car insurance policy, especially CTP insurance, is part of your responsibility as an Australian driver. If you are involved in an accident and found at fault, but your insurance policy has expired, you will not only have to bear the cost of treatment of others injured in the accident, you may also be penalised and liable for hefty fines.
In New South Wales, for instance, driving or even parking an uninsured car on the road can result in a penalty of $818 as of 2024. If your uninsured vehicle is involved in an accident that’s reported to the police, or there is a court proceeding, you may face even stiffer penalties.
Remember that traffic cameras can be used to capture the rego details of vehicles on the road and your insurance or registration validity can be randomly checked. You can even get pulled over by the police if your car’s registration has expired, and not necessarily only after an accident.
In most cases, your CTP insurance policy becomes inactive the day your car’s registration expires, which is another reason for you to check when this will occur and make sure you renew the insurance policy and registration ahead of time.
In any Australian state or territory, you should be able to check your vehicle’s registration and insurance details online through the state’s roads or transport department website. You’ll likely need to provide your vehicle’s number plate to find you car’s insurance details, possibly alongside some other identifying information.
In some states, you may be able to buy CTP insurance separately, before you register your vehicle. You may need to check that your vehicle’s registration details accurately reflect the CTP insurance policy details, especially if you’ve bought the policy offline or physically through an insurance agent. You may also be able to call the vehicle registration department to confirm or correct the details if you aren’t able to access the details online.
You can also consider checking the insurance policy details through the insurer’s website, although it may be easier to check the expiry date on either the digital or printed copy of your insurance certificate. If you have filed any insurance claims, you can check the details to see your claims history as well. You may also need to check if your car insurance premium is likely to increase upon renewing your policy, in which case you can also search for fresh car insurance quotes.
This article was reviewed by Alex Ritchie before it was published as part of RateCity's Fact Check process.
