The car park scrape and the lapsed inspection
On a Saturday afternoon you are reversing out of a marked bay in a supermarket car park. You stop because a trolley rolls behind you; the driver of the neighbouring car, also reversing, does not, and his rear bumper scuffs your rear quarter. Both cars are driveable. The damage is a graze about 20 cm long on your car and a cracked light lens on his. Nobody is hurt. The other driver, who speaks little Polish, offers you 300 zł in cash and says there is no need for the police or the insurers. When you ask for his details he shows a registration certificate in his employer's name, an insurance card whose cover ended two months ago, and no driving licence. Your own quadricycle's technical inspection ran out three weeks ago, which you had forgotten. The car park is private property with a 20 km/h limit. Your phone is at 40% and you have already photographed both cars and their positions.
1. Is anyone obliged to call the police here? What are your obligations, and what happens about his missing cover?
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Where the collision produces only property damage, the law does not compel either of you to call the police, and you are expected to clear the vehicles if they can be moved. In practice you should call them anyway, and here you have good reasons: the other driver cannot identify himself with a licence, the registration certificate is in a third party's name, and his third-party liability cover has lapsed. Without reliable identification you cannot pursue a claim and you may be dealing with someone who should not be driving at all. Call 112 or 997, ask for officers to attend, and get the incident reference.
His lack of cover does not leave you without a remedy. Because the vehicle was uninsured, your damage claim goes to the Ubezpieczeniowy Fundusz Gwarancyjny (the Guarantee Fund), which pays the injured party and then recovers a statutory charge from the uninsured owner. That is precisely why a cash handshake is the wrong route.
2. What does your own lapsed technical inspection mean for you?
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Two separate consequences, and they must not be confused.
Administrative: the vehicle had no valid roadworthiness document, so it should not have been on the road at all. That is a matter for the police, who can deal with it at the roadside with a fine under the penalty tariff, and you will have to present the vehicle for inspection before it is legal again.
Insurance: the compulsory third-party policy still operates towards the injured party, so the other driver would be paid. But where the vehicle had no valid technical inspection, the insurer may pursue recourse (regres) against you for what it has paid out if you are found at fault. In other words, your lapse does not void the policy for the victim - it transfers the bill to you. Before you do anything else, check whether you are at fault: on a car park, reversing drivers owe each other the same duty of care, and both of you were reversing.
3. Should you take the 300 zł?
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No, and the reasoning matters more than the refusal. A cash payment is not an admission of fault by either side, and it does not settle anything formally; if the cracked lens turns out to hide a damaged mounting or a cracked bumper bracket, you have waived your claim for the difference and you have no counterparty to pursue, because he is uninsured and you may never find him again. Cash also gives you no verified identity - you have seen an expired card and no licence, and the registration document belongs to his employer, not to him. Third, the sum is a guess on a repair you have not priced. Instead: photograph everything including his documents, write down the time, place and his details, keep any dash-cam or car-park camera in mind, report the incident to your own insurer, and let the Guarantee Fund route carry the claim.