What to Do after a Car Accident in Portugal

Last verified: October 2026.

Who this is for

• You have just had a car accident in Portugal, or want to be ready for one.
• You are claiming against the other driver's insurer, or your own.
• You were hit by a driver who had no insurance or drove off.

Not for you if: you were hurt while working or on your way to or from work. Read Work Accidents in Portugal as well, because a separate insurance applies.

After a car accident in Portugal, make the scene safe, call 112 if anyone is hurt, and swap identity and insurance details with the other driver. If you can, fill in and sign a joint accident report (declaração amigável). It halves most insurer deadlines. Tell your own insurer within the period in your policy, or within eight days if the policy sets none. The insurer must contact you within two working days and decide on liability within 30 working days, or 15 with a joint report.

At the scene

1. Stop and stay calm. Turn on your hazard lights.
2. Put on your reflective vest before you step onto the road. Every car must carry one, plus a warning triangle.
3. Place the warning triangle at least 30 metres behind the car, where drivers can see it from 100 metres away.
4. Clear the road. If the cars block traffic, move them to the side as soon as it is safe. If they cannot be moved, keep everyone off the road.
5. Call 112 if anyone is injured. The call is free. If someone is hurt or killed, you must wait at the scene for the police.
6. Swap details. The law requires every driver involved to give the others their name, the vehicle owner's name, the insurer, and the policy number. Show the documents if asked.
7. Fill in the joint accident report, if the other driver agrees. See the next section.
8. Take photos of the cars, the damage, the road, and the plates. Write down any witnesses' names and phone numbers.

Fines at the scene. Not giving your details costs €120 to €600. Leaving the scene when someone is hurt is a very serious offence, with a fine of €500 to €2,500. Not using the vest or triangle when you should costs €120 to €600.

Alcohol tests. The police test the drivers involved in an accident for alcohol, if their health allows. If people are killed or badly hurt, drivers are also tested for drugs.

For the triangle and vest rules in full, see Driving in Portugal.

The joint accident report

The joint accident report (declaração amigável de acidente automóvel) is a form both drivers fill in and sign at the scene. Keep a blank copy in the car.

Why it matters. When there is a joint report, the law cuts the insurer's deadlines for surveys and its decision by half.

Signing it is not admitting fault. It records the facts. You fill in:

• the date, time, and place
• both vehicles, plates, insurers, and policy numbers
• the point of impact and the direction each car was travelling
• the boxes that describe what each driver was doing
• a sketch of the accident

If you disagree about something, write your version in the observations box. Do not sign anything you do not agree with. Keep your signed copy. Do not leave with a blank form or a promise to sort it out later.

If the other driver will not sign, still collect their details and plate number. If the police come, their report becomes the record.

Telling your insurer

You must tell your own insurer about the accident within the period set in your policy. If the policy sets none, you have eight days from the day you learned of it.

In your report, include:

• what happened and where
• what may have caused it
• the damage and any injuries
• a copy of the joint report or police report, if you have one

Answer any further questions your insurer asks.

If you are late. Your policy may reduce what the insurer pays, in line with the harm your delay caused it. It can only refuse cover entirely if the delay was deliberate and caused it serious harm. Neither applies if the insurer found out another way within the eight days, or if you could not reasonably have reported sooner.

Victims are protected. A late report never reduces what an injured third party receives from compulsory insurance. The insurer pays the victim and can then recover the money from the person who reported late.

The insurer's deadlines for damage to your car

The law sets the deadlines below once the accident is reported to the insurer. They are in working days.

A few rules change these deadlines:

• Bad weather or many accidents. The deadlines double after exceptional weather, or when an exceptionally high number of accidents happen at once.
• Your own garage. If you chose the garage, the survey deadlines start when the garage is ready and you have authorised the work.
• Fraud. All deadlines stop while the insurer investigates a well-founded suspicion of fraud.

Its decision. The insurer must tell you in writing, or by email, whether it accepts liability. It must also say that you can order the repair yourself, and pay for it until liability is settled.

If it blames you. If the insurer decides you were liable, against what you said on the claim form, you have five working days to send more information. It must give you its final decision within two working days after that.

The insurer must also keep you regularly informed about how your claim is going.

If someone was injured

Injury claims have their own deadlines, counted in calendar days:

• Medical exam. The insurer must say whether it wants you seen by its doctor within 20 days of your claim, or 60 days from the accident report if you have not yet claimed.
• Exam report. It must give you the doctor's report within 10 days of receiving it.
• Decision. It must accept or refuse liability within 45 days of your claim, once you have a hospital discharge report and the damage can be fully valued.

If you have not been discharged, the insurer makes a provisional offer. It must cover the costs and lost time so far. Seek proper advice on serious injury claims.

The offer, or a refusal

If the insurer accepts liability, its answer must be a reasonable offer (proposta razoável) of compensation. The law defines this as an offer that does not leave you at a significant disadvantage.

• If the offer comes late, the insurer owes interest at twice the legal rate.
• If the offer is clearly too low and a court later awards more, the insurer owes interest at twice the legal rate on the difference.

If the insurer refuses liability, or liability or the damage is unclear, it must send a reasoned reply on every point in your claim. If that reply is late, the insurer owes interest plus €200 for each day of delay. Half goes to you and half to the insurance regulator.

If your car is a total loss

Your car is a total loss (perda total) if one of these applies:

• it has disappeared or been completely destroyed
• repair is impossible, or not advisable because the car's safety is badly affected
• the repair cost plus the value of the wreck is more than the car's value: 100% for a car under two years old, or 120% for an older car

You then get money instead of a repair. The amount is the car's market value just before the accident, meaning what it would cost to replace. If you keep the wreck, its value is taken off.

Ask for all three pieces of information. When an insurer proposes a total loss, it must give you, at the same time:

1. who estimated the repair cost and judged whether repair was possible
2. the car's market value just before the accident
3. the estimated value of the wreck, and who has agreed to buy it at that price

A total loss also means the car's registration must be cancelled. See Scrapping a Car in Portugal for the certificate of destruction.

A replacement car

If your car cannot be driven, you are entitled to a similar replacement car. This starts from the day the insurer accepts sole liability. The insurer tells you where to collect it and the conditions. It must have the same insurance cover as your own car, paid by the insurer.

• Total loss. The right ends when the insurer makes the payment available to you.
• Your own garage. The insurer provides the car only for the repair time stated in the survey report.

If you paid extra transport costs while you had no replacement car, you can also claim those.

Getting paid

Unless you agree otherwise, the insurer must pay within eight working days of accepting liability, once you give it the documents it needs. If it pays late, it owes interest at twice the legal rate.

Total loss. If the insurer buys the wreck, it pays only once you hand over the vehicle's registration documents. Find them before you chase the money.

Your own insurer may handle it. Insurers can sign agreements to settle claims faster. If your insurer handles the claim for the other insurer under such an agreement, it takes on all these duties. In a simple two-car crash, you may deal only with your own insurer.

If you disagree, or want to complain

The insurer must tell you whether it uses voluntary arbitration, and which bodies it uses. If you reject its decision and refuse arbitration, the insurer is no longer bound by the payment deadline.

ASF, the insurance supervisor (Autoridade de Supervisão de Seguros e Fundos de Pensões), receives complaints about how insurers handle accident claims. Insurers that break these rules can be fined.

For a money dispute, the peace courts (julgados de paz) handle smaller civil claims at low cost. If you cannot afford a lawyer, see Legal Aid in Portugal.

If the other driver had no insurance or drove off

The Motor Guarantee Fund (Fundo de Garantia Automóvel) pays victims when there is no insurer to pay. ASF manages it. It covers accidents in Portugal, up to the compulsory insurance minimums.

Significant injuries means death, or a hospital stay of seven days or more. It also covers being totally unable to work for 60 days or more, or a permanent partial disability of 15% or more. Below that level, the fund does not pay for damage to your car after a hit and run.

This is why the other car's plate number matters so much. Write it down, even if the driver will not stop to talk.

The fund does not pay for:

• damage to the car of someone who was driving uninsured themselves
• passengers who chose to ride in a car they knew was uninsured
• anyone who caused the accident on purpose, or who took part in stealing a car involved

Once the fund pays you, it can recover the money from the uninsured car's owner, keeper, and driver.

Keep your own papers in order

Your insurer will check your documents. The ones most often out of date are your road tax and inspection. See Paying Road Tax and Vehicle Inspection. If you live here on a foreign licence, check whether you should have exchanged it. See Exchanging Your Foreign Driving Licence.

Third-party insurance is compulsory for every car on public roads. The minimum cover is €6,450,000 per accident for injuries and €1,300,000 for damage to property.

Checklist

1. Make the scene safe: hazard lights, vest, triangle.
2. Call 112 if anyone is hurt, and wait for the police.
3. Swap names, insurers, and policy numbers. Note the other plate.
4. Fill in and sign a joint accident report if you can. Keep your copy.
5. Tell your insurer within your policy's period, or eight days.
6. Expect first contact within two working days.
7. Expect a decision on liability within 30 working days, or 15 with a joint report.
8. Check any offer. On a total loss, ask for all three pieces of information.
9. Ask for a replacement car from the day liability is accepted.
10. Expect payment within eight working days of acceptance, once your documents are in.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Rules change; check the official source before you act.

Sources

This guide is written from official sources and, where relevant, organisations' own websites.

• Procuradoria-Geral Regional de Lisboa, Decreto-Lei n.º 291/2007, of 21 August, compulsory motor insurance, consolidated text: https://www.pgdlisboa.pt/leis/lei_mostra_articulado.php?nid=973&tabela=leis (article 12 minimum cover; article 36 deadlines, halving with a joint report for paragraphs (b) to (e) only, doubling, own garage, five plus two working days, regular information, fraud suspension; article 37 injury deadlines (20, 60, 10, and 45 days, provisional offer); article 38 reasonable offer and double interest; article 40 reasoned reply and €200 a day; article 41 total loss test, value, three disclosures, registration cancelled; article 42 replacement car; article 43 eight working days, double interest, documents on total loss; article 44 ASF complaints and arbitration; article 45 agreements between insurers; articles 47, 49, 52, and 54 Motor Guarantee Fund, cover, significant injuries, exclusions, recovery; article 86 fines), checked 2 October 2026
• Procuradoria-Geral Regional de Lisboa, Decreto-Lei n.º 72/2008, of 16 April, Lei do Contrato de Seguro, consolidated text: https://www.pgdlisboa.pt/leis/lei_mostra_articulado.php?nid=2657&tabela=leis (article 100 eight days and contents of the report; article 101 effects of late reporting and protection of victims), checked 2 October 2026
• ANSR, republished Código da Estrada (Decreto-Lei n.º 114/94 as republished by Decreto-Lei n.º 102-B/2020): https://www.ansr.pt/sites/default/files/2026-07/republicacao-do-codigo-da-estrada.pdf (article 87 moving the car and warning others; article 88 triangle at 30 metres visible from 100 metres, vest, €120 to €600; article 89 duty to give details (€120 to €600) and to wait for police when people are hurt (€500 to €2,500); article 146(q) leaving the scene as a very serious offence; articles 156 and 157 alcohol and drug tests after accidents), checked 2 October 2026
• gov.pt, Migrantes: cuidados de saúde em Portugal (updated 23 June 2026): https://www.gov.pt/guias/migrantes-cuidados-de-saude-em-portugal (112 free and 24 hours), carried from verified guide W2B-23, checked 2 October 2026

Last verified October 2026. Rules and fees change; check the official source before acting.