Motor Insurance Claims in Romania: A Step-by-Step Guide

Legal position as at: 24 October 2026

A road accident in Romania is stressful enough; for a foreign driver, the forms in Romanian, the unfamiliar procedure and an insurer who knows the rules better than you add to the burden. The good news is that Romanian law gives the injured party a direct claim against the at-fault driver's liability insurer, fixed deadlines for the insurer's reply and real penalties for delay. The governing statute is Law No. 132/2017 on compulsory motor third-party liability insurance (asigurarea obligatorie de răspundere civilă auto, known as RCA), last substantially amended by Law No. 181/2025. The procedural detail is set by the Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF), in particular in ASF Rule No. 20/2017 as amended.

Step 1: At the scene

• Secure evidence: photographs of the vehicles, the scene, the number plates and the insurance documents; names and contact details of witnesses.
• Take the other party's details: driver, owner, insurer and RCA policy number. The insured must give you this information on request (Article 16 of Law 132/2017).
• Joint accident report (constatare amiabilă de accident): it is designed for accidents involving exactly two vehicles and property damage only (Article 17). Sign only what you understand. If you cannot read the Romanian text with confidence, write down your own account of what happened as well.
• Call the police (112) if anyone is injured, if more than two vehicles are involved or if the drivers cannot agree on what happened.

Step 2: Who must notify whom, and when?

Two different duties are often confused:

• The insured (the owner of the insured vehicle) must notify their own RCA insurer within five working days of the accident (Article 15(1)). The law sets no 48-hour deadline.
• If the insured fails to do so, it does not affect you as the injured party: your right to compensation is preserved (Article 15(5) and (6)).

As the injured party, you submit your claim for compensation (cerere de despăgubire) to the at-fault driver's RCA insurer, directly or through a representative, and you may do so electronically (Article 20). In some cases your own insurer handles the claim under direct settlement (see below).

Step 3: When a foreign vehicle is involved

You are driving your own foreign-registered car in Romania. Vehicles registered abroad are presumed insured if the national insurers' bureau of their home country is a party to the Multilateral Agreement, or if the driver produces valid international insurance documents (Article 29). Vehicles from third countries without such cover must take out frontier insurance for 30 days when entering Romania (Article 30(2) and (3)). The Green Card (Carte Verde) is the international insurance document issued on behalf of the national bureau (Article 2).

A vehicle insured abroad caused your loss in Romania. You pursue the claim through the Motor Insurers' Bureau of Romania (Biroul Asigurătorilor de Autovehicule din România, BAAR) or through the appointed correspondent (Article 22(3)).

A Romanian-insured vehicle caused your loss and you live in another EU or EEA state. Every Romanian RCA insurer must appoint a claims representative in the other Member States, with full authority to settle the claim and able to deal with it in the official language of your country of residence (Article 24(1), (2) and (4)). In many cases you can therefore deal with someone in your own country and language. Your right to act directly against the person liable or their insurer is unaffected (Article 24(5)).

The other driver was uninsured or cannot be identified. BAAR then acts as the compensation body. Where the vehicle is identified but uninsured, both property damage and personal injury are covered; where it is unidentified, mainly personal injury is covered, and property damage only under additional conditions and subject to an excess of EUR 500 (Article 33(1)).

Compensation is paid even if the injured person has no domicile, residence or registered office in Romania (Article 14(10)).

Step 4: What you can claim

The RCA insurer pays proven losses up to the liability limit (Article 11(1) and (2), Article 14(1)), in particular:

• personal injury or death, including non-pecuniary loss (pain and suffering), Article 11(2)(a);
• property damage, including deregistration and registration costs, stamp duties, the cost of limiting the loss and the loss in value of the vehicle after repair, proven by documents or an expert report (point b);
• repair costs needed to restore the vehicle to its pre-accident condition (point c);
• loss of use, including a temporary replacement vehicle at the injured party's option (point d);
• legal costs or the costs of alternative dispute resolution, where the outcome is in your favour (point e);
• towing costs within the limits the law describes (point f).

Total loss: the insurer assesses the market value immediately before the accident. You may choose to have the vehicle repaired up to that value, or to receive the difference between the market value and the salvage value (Article 14(2)).

Maximum cover: on request, the insurer must tell you the maximum amount of compensation available within seven calendar days (Article 14(1)).

Personal injury: for out-of-court settlement, compensation follows a points system set jointly by the Ministry of Health and the ASF; in court, the judge decides on medical, forensic, psychological and statistical evidence (Article 22(5) and (6)). The general basis for non-pecuniary damages is Article 1391 of the Civil Code.

Step 5: The insurer's deadlines

This is where your strongest leverage lies:

If the insurer wishes to investigate because there are serious doubts about the accident, it must notify you within five working days of opening the claim file; otherwise it loses that right and must pay (Article 21(3)).

Step 6: Challenging a low offer

Typical disputes concern low labour rates, used rather than new parts, ignored loss in value, or injuries assessed too modestly. A practical approach:

• Do not accept an offer in haste. The ten-day payment period runs only from acceptance.
• Obtain your own expert assessment. Repair value is set through specialised valuation systems or documents issued as the law allows, and the repair shop may apply its own published hourly rate (Article 14(3)).
• Object in writing, with reasons and evidence.
• Alternative dispute resolution: consumers can refer disputes with insurers to SAL-FIN, the alternative dispute resolution entity for the non-banking financial sector set up within the ASF. Its costs are recoverable if the outcome is favourable (Article 11(2)(e)).
• Court action: the claim is brought against the RCA insurer, and the person responsible for the accident must be summoned as a forced intervener (Article 22(1)).

Step 7: Limitation periods

Claims in tort are, as a rule, time-barred after three years under Romanian law (Article 2517 of the Civil Code). Time runs from when the injured party knew, or should have known, both of the loss and of the person liable (Article 2528(1)). For claims arising from an insurance relationship, however, the Civil Code provides two years (Article 2519(1)). Which period applies to a direct claim against the RCA insurer should be checked early in each case. The prudent course is to plan around the shorter period and act well before two years have passed.

Direct settlement (decontare directă)

Direct settlement through your own insurer is available only if all of the following conditions are met: the accident happened in Romania, both vehicles are registered and RCA-insured in Romania, only the vehicles were damaged, and nobody was injured (Article 26(1)). It is therefore not available for foreign-registered vehicles. It does not exclude your direct claim against the at-fault driver's insurer (Article 26(4)).

Frequently asked questions

Can I pursue the claim from abroad? Yes. You can file the claim electronically or through a representative (Article 20). With a power of attorney, a lawyer in Romania can act for you.

The accident happened months ago. Is it too late? Usually not. Evidence becomes harder to gather over time, however, and you should keep the limitation period in view.

Does the injured party have to accept a partial payment? No. The undisputed amount must be paid upfront (Article 23(5)); you can continue to negotiate or go to court for the rest.

When to seek legal advice

Advice is particularly useful in personal injury cases, after a total loss, when the insurer lets the 30-day deadline pass or rejects the claim, when a foreign or unidentified vehicle is involved, or when the limitation period is approaching. Insurance claims are a core area of our practice; we act for injured parties in dealings with insurers, before the dispute resolution body and in court, and we can work in English.

This article is general information and not legal advice on any specific case. To have your situation reviewed, please write to us at