Can I be fined for driving a day after my rego expires?
Water, electricity, gas, internet, car registration – the list of bills we have to pay seems endless. It’s no wonder they occasionally slip our minds.
It happens to the best of us, and usually we remember to pay after a couple of days – no big deal. But for vehicle registration, it’s a different story.
If you don’t pay on time you could be driving an unregistered, and potentially uninsured, vehicle on the road.“It doesn’t matter whether your rego has been expired for a day or 2 weeks, you can still be charged for the offence,” RAA’s Road Rules Consultant Stuart Churchill says. “If you’re caught on the road, driving an unregistered vehicle, you can actually be fined for a couple of offences.” In fact, your hip pocket could be a whopping $1292 lighter for the offence.
A costly mistake
How? Firstly, if your rego has recently run out, you could be charged with driving an unregistered vehicle and fined $411 plus a $60 Victims of Crime Levy. If you’ve let it go for more than 30 days, you’ll no longer be covered by compulsory third party insurance. This means you could be up for a further $761 and another $60 Victims of Crime Levy. And just because you haven’t been pulled over doesn’t mean you’ve evaded the consequences. All road traffic cameras can detect unregistered and uninsured vehicles in South Australia. Last year, 6885 motorists were fined for driving an unregistered vehicle on the road. If you crash an unregistered and uninsured vehicle, then the consequences can be far more severe. When a driver crashes their vehicle and isn’t covered by compulsory third party insurance, they’re liable for the cost of personal injury to anybody involved.
Red light and speed cameras can detect expired rego. Image: RAA