Where the car is parked decides what you are able to do about it. That is the whole of this problem. A car on a driveway, in a garage or on a yard has three exits open to it. A car at the kerb has two, and one of those is selling it.
Everything else follows from that, so read the guide to suspending a registration with the parking question in mind, because the suspension route carries a condition people discover too late.
What keeps running while you are gone
Road tax does not pause because you are not here. The Belastingdienst says that if you go abroad temporarily you remain obliged to pay motorrijtuigenbelasting on time, whether or not the vehicle went with you, and it lists three ways of arranging it: pay the bills in advance for the period, authorise somebody else to pay them, or authorise the Belastingdienst to take the money by direct debit. Asking somebody to pay for you does not move the responsibility off you.
The same page covers the practical problem, which is that a direct debit authorisation can be given digitally from abroad. Do that before the Dutch bank account closes and before the post starts going to an address you no longer hold.
Third-party insurance stays compulsory the whole time. The obligation under the Wam, the Dutch civil liability insurance act, falls on the owner of a car, motorbike or scooter. A car that will not move for a year is still a registered car, and the duty to insure it does not notice that it has stopped.
The APK, the Dutch roadworthiness test, keeps falling due as well. It expires on its date with no regard to whether anybody is driving.
How the fines actually find you
They are generated by a comparison. No police officer has to walk past the car. The RDW matches insurance data and inspection data against the registration register, and states that every vehicle is checked at least once a year against both duties. Where the register says a vehicle is registered to you and no insurance is recorded against it, that is the whole of the evidence required.
The fine comes from the Central Judicial Collection Agency (CJIB). The RDW publishes the amounts for the uninsured case and the lapsed APK case on its own page. The letter goes to the address in the register, which is the address you gave up, and a fine that is never read is still a fine that is growing. That is the part that catches people, more than the amounts.
There is now a date attached to leaving
If you have signed out of the Personal Records Database (BRP), the registration itself has become time-limited. On 22 October 2026 the RDW published a notice, Einde tenaamstelling na uitschrijving Basisregistratie Personen, saying that on 18 November 2026 it ends the registrations of vehicles held by people no longer registered at a Dutch address, beginning with those signed out on or before 30 April 2026.
The consequence is blunt. Once the registration has ended, the notice says the vehicle may no longer stand on or be driven on a public road, and the police can seize it at a check. The actions the RDW lists are transferring the car to somebody with a Dutch address, exporting it, suspending the registration, or registering yourself at a Dutch municipality (gemeente) again.
Suspension, and the condition that rules it out for most people
Suspension (schorsing) is the obvious answer and it works, for one, two or three years. The RDW sets out the trade on its suspension pages: no road tax for the period, and no requirement that the vehicle be insured or hold a valid APK.
Then comes the sentence that decides it. During the suspension the vehicle may not stand on or be driven on a public road. That holds for every day of the term. A car suspended while parked in your old street is in breach from the first day, and the thing you did to stop one problem has started another.
So a suspension needs somewhere private for the car to stand for the entire term. A friend’s driveway, a rented space, a family garage. If you have that, suspension is a good answer and the registration stays yours, dormant, with the suspension falling away by itself the moment the car goes into somebody else’s name.
If you do not have it, suspension is not available to you, and saying so early saves a lot of wasted thinking.
Street parking has its own rules, and they are local
There is no single national rule on how long a car may sit in one place. How long a vehicle can stand unmoved, what counts as a wreck, and when the municipality can have it towed are set in each municipality’s own by-law, the algemene plaatselijke verordening, and the answer in Amsterdam is not the answer in Maastricht. Ask your gemeente before you assume the street is a free car park for the next two years.
Two other things end on the day your address does, whatever you intended. A resident parking permit is tied to living there, and a car parked on a permit that has lapsed collects penalties quickly. And neighbours report cars that have not moved since the spring, which is how a quiet plan becomes a correspondence.
The ways out, ranked by how little they ask of you
Selling before you fly is the one that closes everything at once. The register releases you, the road tax stops from the moment the vehicle is no longer in your name, the insurance duty goes with it, and the proof of transfer (vrijwaringsbewijs) stays in your hand as the record.
Export is the route if the car is going with you. You have the vehicle deregistered from the registration register, and the Dutch rules state that after deregistration the road tax, the liability insurance and the inspection obligation all stop. It is a real procedure with real conditions, and it only makes sense if the car is genuinely being registered somewhere else.
Suspension is third, and only with private parking behind it.
Leaving the registration alone and hoping is not a fourth option. It is the first three, delayed, with fines on top.
We collect from anywhere in the Netherlands, villages included, and a car that does not start goes on a transporter and never has to move under its own power. If the car is standing where you left it, ask us for an offer.
Frequently asked questions
Does road tax stop if I move abroad and leave the car here?
No. The Belastingdienst says you remain obliged to pay on time while you are temporarily abroad, whether or not the vehicle went with you, and it lists paying in advance, authorising somebody else, or a direct debit as the ways to arrange it.
Do I have to insure a car that will not be driven?
While it is registered to you, yes. The Wam obligation attaches to the owner of the vehicle. The exception is a suspended registration, during which the RDW says no insurance and no valid APK are required.
Can I suspend the registration if the car is parked in the street?
No. The RDW states that during a suspension the vehicle may not stand on or be driven on a public road. Suspension needs private ground for the whole term.
How would anyone notice an uninsured car that never moves?
Through the register comparison. The RDW matches insurance and inspection data against the registration register at least once a year per vehicle, and the CJIB sends the fine to the registered address.
How long can a car legally stay parked in one street?
Your municipality’s by-law sets that, and the answer differs between municipalities. Ask the gemeente where the car is standing.