Car accident in Spain: claiming compensation from Italy

If you live in Italy and a Spanish-insured car hits you in Spain, you don't have to run the claim from Spain. The Spanish insurer must have a representative in Italy who handles the claim in Italian and has to answer you within three months. What distance doesn't change is the law: compensation is worked out under Spanish rules, with Spain's baremo (the statutory injury tables) and Spain's one-year deadline.

What you need once you're home

Almost everything a claim needs is gathered at the scene. The European Accident Statement is the same form in Spain and in Italy, with the boxes in the same places, so you can fill it in with a Spanish driver even if each of you reads a different language. The other vehicle's plate and insurer matter too, along with photos of the cars and where they ended up, witness details, and the A&E report if anyone was hurt.

If the police or the Guardia Civil attended, there is an atestado, the police accident report. Spanish law requires the police to hand a free copy to any injured party who asks, even after they have sent it to the court (article 7.1 of Spain's consolidated Motor Liability and Insurance Act, the LRCSCVM).

Who you claim from: the representative in Italy

Article 21 of the LRCSCVM requires every insurer authorised in Spain to appoint, in each European Economic Area state, a claims representative (representante para la tramitación y liquidación de siniestros; in Italy, the mandatario). The representative must be based in that country, have the power to pay the full compensation, and deal with you in the official language of the state where you live.

The plate is enough to find out who it is. In Italy, the Centro di informazione italiano at CONSAP (article 154 of the Italian Codice delle assicurazioni private) uses the plate to identify the Spanish vehicle's insurer and its representative in Italy. In Spain, the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros does the same job.

You can send the claim either to the insurer in Spain or to its representative in Italy; the choice is yours (article 22.1 LRCSCVM and article 153 of the Italian code). Spanish law doesn't ask you to put a figure on it: the details of the accident, the vehicle and the driver are enough, plus whatever medical or expert evidence you have.

Three months for an answer

From the day it receives the claim, the insurer or its representative has three months to reply. If liability is clear and the loss quantified, the reply is an oferta motivada, a reasoned offer. If not, a reasoned reply explaining why. Once the three months pass without an offer, late-payment interest starts to run (article 22.2 LRCSCVM).

The offer has to meet specific requirements (article 7.3 LRCSCVM). It separates personal injury from property damage, values the injury under the baremo, and attaches the documents it relies on, including the final medical expert report. It must also state that accepting the money does not stop you from claiming more if the amount turns out to be lower than what you are owed.

And if there is no representative, or no answer? Then the Organismo di indennizzo italiano, run by CONSAP, steps in. You can turn to it if the insurer has not appointed a representative in Italy or if three months go by without a reasoned reply (article 153(2) of the Italian code). It settles the claim and then recovers the money from its Spanish counterpart.

Which law decides how much you get

The representative in Italy changes the language and the office, not the rules. Article 22.4 LRCSCVM says so outright: their involvement does not change the applicable law or give jurisdiction to the courts of the injured party's country.

In a collision in Spain between a Spanish vehicle and someone who lives in Italy, the general rule is Spanish law, the law of the place of the accident. Spanish courts get there through the 1971 Hague Convention; Italian courts through article 4 of the Rome II Regulation. The most common exception is when the person at fault also lives in Italy: then another law may apply, and that has to be checked case by case.

Spanish law means the baremo: the valuation system set by Ley 35/2015, with tables for temporary injury, lasting after-effects and death. The amounts rise every year with inflation. For 2026, a resolution of Spain's Directorate General of Insurance dated 3 February 2026, published in the BOE on 18 February, raised them by 2.9%. The result may differ, up or down, from what an Italian court would award under its own tables for the same injury.

The deadline: one year, not two

This is the difference that catches people living in Italy off guard. In Italy, the right to compensation for road traffic damage expires after two years (article 2947 of the Italian Civil Code). In Spain, the direct claim against the insurer expires after one year (article 7.1 LRCSCVM), and the limitation period follows the law that governs the claim.

For injuries, Spanish courts usually start the year from when the full extent of the harm is known, meaning the date of final medical discharge. Sending the claim to the insurer stops the clock, and once the offer or reasoned reply is served, a fresh year begins. If negotiations drag on, that second year is the one to watch.

If it goes to court

If there is no agreement, you are not obliged to sue in Spain. In Odenbreit (case C-463/06, 13 December 2007), the Court of Justice of the European Union held that an accident victim can sue the insurer of the person at fault directly in the courts of the victim's own domicile, provided the insurer is based in an EU state and national law allows a direct action. Spanish law does.

The Italian judge will still apply Spanish law, baremo and one-year deadline included.

And if you live in Spain and the accident is in Italy

The system works the same way in reverse. The Italian insurer of the vehicle at fault has a representative in Spain, whom the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros can help you identify. If none has been appointed, or no reasoned reply arrives within three months, you can claim from OFESAUTO, Spain's compensation body (articles 23, 26 and 27 LRCSCVM). In that case Italian law usually governs, with its own criteria and deadlines.

If you have any doubts, Riondato & Partners is here to help

For over 45 years, Riondato & Partners has worked with Italian and Spanish clients on matters that sit on both sides of the Mediterranean. If you had an accident in Spain and live in Italy, or the other way round, get in touch: we will go through the claim, the insurer's offer and the deadlines running with you.

Sources

• Spain's consolidated Motor Liability and Insurance Act (Royal Legislative Decree 8/2004), BOE
• Italian Codice delle assicurazioni private, chapter V: accidents abroad (articles 151-155)
• CONSAP, Italian compensation body
• OFESAUTO, Spanish Motor Insurers' Bureau
• Court of Justice of the EU, FBTO Schadeverzekeringen v Odenbreit, C-463/06
• Spain's 2026 baremo update: DGSFP resolution of 3 February 2026 (in Spanish)