What the inspection covers, and who may carry it out
APK stands for algemene periodieke keuring. It is a legal condition of keeping a vehicle on the public road, and British readers will recognise it as the MOT wearing a different name. Cars are its main business. Mopeds and motorcycles fall outside it, as do trailers weighing up to 3,500 kg.
The test has two halves. The safety half works through brakes, suspension, steering, tyres, lights and bodywork, where lights means the ones that shine out of the car: a lamp lit on the dashboard is a separate question, and whether it costs you the test depends on which system switched it on and on how old the car is. The emissions half depends on fuel: a diesel has its particulate filter measured, while petrol and LPG cars built from 1993 onwards sit the four gas test. There is a third job the station does that sellers tend to forget, which is comparing the register against the car standing in front of it, including the mileage, the chassis number and the declared fuel. No paperwork is needed from you for any of it.
Only a garage the RDW has authorised may perform an APK, and a garage holding that authorisation is an APK test station. They each set their own price, so ringing round is worth the ten minutes, and their diaries fill up, so book ahead of the date and not on the day itself.
How often the test falls due
The clock starts at the date of first registration, and what happens next depends on what the car burns. These are the RDW intervals for vehicles up to 3,500 kg that have not yet turned 30.
- Petrol, alcohol and electric cars. Nothing at all until the car turns 4, then a test, then two further tests spaced 2 years apart, and yearly from then on.
- Diesel, gas, and any other fuel on its own or paired with electricity. A first test once the car turns 3, and annually from then onwards, with no tapering off.
- Vehicles of 30 years and over. Once every 2 years.
- Vehicles of 50 years and over. The APK obligation has gone entirely.
Those are the rules. The Kentekencheck is the fact, so look your own plate up and work from the date the register gives you, which is the one that counts against you.
Reading the date off the register yourself
Open ovi.rdw.nl, type the plate in, and go to the tab for expiry dates and inspection history. There is no login and no charge, which also means any prospective buyer can look your car up before they so much as message you. Assume one already has.
The RDW does send a reminder, roughly six weeks ahead, by post or into your Message Box, and the RDW Vehicle App will set one too. Treat both as a courtesy and not as a safety net. The duty to book in time rests with the owner, and a letter you never opened is no defence.
You may sit the test up to two months early without being punished for it. Going in early costs you no time, because the new expiry is reckoned from the old date plus the interval, not from the day you happened to attend. Buyers use the same lookup as sellers, and where it fits into a handover is covered under transferring the car.
Two different fines, only one of them about driving
Nothing here can be put off. Once the date has passed, the car is not permitted on a public road, and the police can fine the driver for taking it out. If the car went in before the date and failed, the lapse itself is not fined until the old date passes, but driving a car known to fall short of the requirements can be fined on its own account, and an insurer may decline a claim arising out of it.
The fine most owners never see coming has nothing to do with driving. Let a registered car go more than two months beyond its APK date without an inspection and the CJIB, the agency that collects Dutch fines, can bill the registered owner. The car can be sitting on a driveway the whole time, untouched, under a cover. One thing stops this happening, and that is suspending the registration, set out under taking a car off the road.
Suspension also answers the obvious problem of how a lapsed car is meant to reach a garage at all. The RDW permits exactly one route: suspend the registration, after which the law lets you drive it to the test station close to your booked time. Third party cover has to be live on the car that day, and you take the appointment confirmation along with you.
What a lapsed APK does to a sale
It does not block one. A transfer runs on the card and the code and nothing else, which is why a car with an expired APK remains entirely saleable. What the paperwork requires lists the conditions, and a current inspection is absent from that list. The RDW does ask the seller to pass on the most recent APK report, so find yours before the buyer arrives.
What a lapsed APK changes is the handover. Nobody may drive the car off your street, so the buyer has to arrange a trailer or book an inspection before it moves at all. Say the real date out loud early in the conversation, because a buyer who finds it on the register after agreeing a price will want to discuss the price again. We buy cars whether or not the APK is current, and that situation has a page of its own describing how the handover is organised.