If you want to drive a car in Malaysia, you need to have a valid driving license. The government requires everyone to renew their licenses at regular intervals? What happens if you miss renewing your license and you participate in an accident? Here are the details required to get you ready for that situation.
Not Renewing Your Driving License Is Subject To A Fine
You should make sure your driving license is valid, so you are following the law. An expired license means that you are subject to a fine, which can be severe in Malaysia. According to the regulations, you might pay MYR1,000, and the potential punishment might even involve spending three months in jail. Apart from the risk of paying a fine, a valid driving license provides you peace of mind. The law exists for a reason, and everyone should follow it.
What Happens If I Participate In An Accident, And My License Expired?
You might not be aware that your license expired because you forgot to check the date on it. Perhaps it slipped from your mind to renew it. However, the law doesn’t care about the reason, and the important thing is that your license is not valid at the moment of the accident. Now, let’s imagine that you were driving the vehicle and did everything by the book, but someone hit you from behind. It is always better not to be at fault for the accident, especially since that means the insurance will cover any damage. But is that true? It is tough to render an accurate answer because it might depend on the insurance company and policy you choose. That is why the best thing you could do is to read the terms and conditions of your deal. You want to look for the part with the exceptions to the policy. Many agencies won’t compensate for the damage if your driving license isn’t valid. It means that the driver who participated in an accident without a license won’t receive compensation for the damage. There were few exceptions made by the insurance companies in the past, which is why reading the terms of your deal is the best answer we can give you.
What If Somebody Else Was Driving The Car?
Let’s say that you participated in an accident, but a friend was driving. The insurance companies and the police will always consider the license of the person who was behind the wheel. That means your insurance policy will be valid in this case. The expiration of your driving license doesn’t breach your insurance policy. It is you driving the car without a valid license that could be a breach of the deal.
COVID-19 Pandemic And Why Expired Driving Licenses Are Valid In 2020
While the COVID-19 pandemic affected the entire world, the Malaysian government are trying their best to get their acts together with the movement control order (MCO). At the moment, we are in the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO) time. According to the information provided by the authorities, you are not obliged to renew your license until RMCO is active, which will be until 31st December 2020. That means the law will treat your license as valid even though it expired. However, please note that you will have 30 days from the last day of RMCO to renew the document.
