If the registered owner/holder of a vehicle dies, we will automatically receive a notification via the Basisregistratie Personen (BRP/Personal records database) of the municipality.

We will then send the heirs a letter stating the following:

• If someone else becomes the owner of the vehicle through sale, the registration number must be registered to the name of the new owner within one week.
• If someone inherits the vehicle, they must register the vehicle within 5 weeks to their own name. These 5 weeks apply from the moment they become the owner by succession.

The same goes for the partner

If you are the partner of the deceased and want to keep the vehicle, you must also transfer ownership of the vehicle (registration card) to your name within 5 weeks. You must do this even if you always have been driving the vehicle. If you don't transfer the vehicle to your name and you get involved in an accident, for example, nobody is liable. By putting the vehicle in your name, you become the person who is liable for the vehicle.

For more information on transferring ownership, read the article Registering a vehicle in a persons name after the death of its owner.

As long as the vehicle has not been transferred into the name of a new owner, it is not allowed to drive it on the public road. As a heir, you are still responsible for the third-party liability insurance, the motor vehicle tax and the APK / Periodic Technical Inspection obligation related to the car. This means that you have to pay for this. You also have to make sure that the vehicle remains APK approved. Insurance does not automatically end when the owner dies.

You can only cancel the insurance once the vehicle has been transferred into the name of a new owner (for example, the partner, a family member or a buyer). The motor vehicle tax stops automatically when the vehicle is sold or transferred.

If you accept the estate under conditions or if you renounce the estate, you cannot register the car to your name. In that case, the car must remain registered to the name of the deceased until the estate has been settled. Acceptance under the benefit of inventory means that you only accept the estate if the debts do not exceed the assets.

The costs for insurance and taxes will still be paid,  until the inheritance is settled, from the account of the person who died.

Please note: If one of the heirs registers the car in their name, this is seen as division of the estate between the heirs. This means that the heirs accept the estate with all the debts that may come with it. This cannot be undone.

You are an heir but you don't t know whether the person who died had a vehicle registration number in their name? You can check our vehicle registration register.

You will need a certificate of appointment of executor or a comprehensive extract from the Basisregistratie Personen (BRP/Personal records database) .

Read more about this in Viewing my vehicles  (only available in Dutch).