Deregistering a car and cancelling the registration document

Deregistering means the number plates go back to the road traffic office. From that moment the car may not be driven — not even for the single trip to the buyer (Art. 10 para. 1 SVG). Third-party cover is dormant from the return of the plates by operation of law, but your contract only ends when you cancel it. And road tax runs until the plates are handed back — not just until the day of the sale.

How deregistering works

Hand the plates back at the road traffic office of the canton the vehicle is kept in (Art. 22 para. 1 SVG) — its location is the place where it usually stands overnight after use (Art. 77 VZV). For most people that is the canton they live in. You only hand in the registration document as well if you are not putting the vehicle into service again — it is then cancelled («stamped off») (Art. 8 para. 1 VVV). If you are selling the car, the buyer needs the old document in order to register it (Art. 74 para. 1 VZV).

From that day the vehicle stands still. Without valid plates and document it may not be driven at all, not briefly, not to the buyer, not to the test centre. For journeys like that there are day permits, valid for 24, 48, 72 or 96 hours (Art. 20 para. 4 VVV).

Cancel or suspend the insurance. The office does report the deregistration, but your contract does not end with it. That is the item people forget most often.

Cancelling the registration document

Cancelling is the official half of deregistering: the office stamps the document and the vehicle is no longer admitted to traffic. Four questions come up again and again.

How long may I drive afterwards?

Not at all. There is no grace period and no day of goodwill: a vehicle may only be put on the road with its registration document and its plates (Art. 10 para. 1 SVG). For the one journey you may still need — to the test centre, to the buyer, into a garage — the same office issues day permits.

Who can cancel it?

Two parties can, and the second surprises people. The holder, by handing back document and plates. And the authority on its own initiative: if the insurer reports that liability cover is suspended or has ended, the authority must seize the registration document and the plates as soon as that report arrives (Art. 68 para. 2 SVG). Miss your premium and you lose not just the cover but the admission.

Can I do it by post?

Yes. Document and plates may be handed to the authority at any time or sent to it by post — that is federal law, not cantonal goodwill. For the insurance what counts is the sending: the cover is dormant from the day following the handover or the dispatch (Art. 8 para. 2 VVV). For road tax that does not follow automatically — the tax is cantonal, and which day counts there is for your canton to decide. If you are in a hurry, go to the counter.

And when selling?

Before handing the car over, not after. While it is registered to you, holder liability, insurance and tax stay with you — even if someone else is driving. Either you deregister and the buyer registers the car anew, or the two of you file a change of holder with the office. In both cases a new registration document is needed (Art. 11 para. 3 SVG).

Hand the plates back, or have them held?

If you expect to register another vehicle soon, ask the office to hold your number rather than surrendering it — then it stays reserved for you. How long exactly differs from canton to canton, but it is at least one year from the day you hand them back (ch.ch, the portal of the Confederation and the cantons). You do not have to hand in the registration document when you have the plates held — only if you are not putting the vehicle into service again (Art. 8 para. 1 VVV). What having them held costs we have not surveyed for all 26 cantons, so we do not print a figure. Give the plates up entirely and the number is gone, which is why holding is usually the calmer choice for a number you have had for years.

Holding them has a second advantage written into the law: while the plates are with the office the insurance is dormant, and the office tells your insurer so itself (Art. 68 para. 3 SVG). You do not have to cancel the contract to stop the premium.

Insurance and road tax

The cover is dormant, the contract is not. Once the plates are with the office the insurance is dormant by operation of law, and the office notifies the insurer of it (Art. 68 para. 3 SVG); on a deregistration the report travels through the Federal Roads Office to the insurer (Art. 3a paras. 4 and 5 VVV). Your contract does not end with it. Whether any premium comes back, and how much, is in your policy, not in the law.

Road tax runs until the plates are handed back — not just until the day you sold or parked the car. It is a matter for the cantons (Art. 105 para. 1 SVG): which day exactly counts, and how much is refunded, your canton decides.

The vignette is not refunded. Taking the vehicle off the road and handing the plates back gets you nothing back — neither for the sticker nor for the E-Vignette (Federal Office for Customs and Border Security). The sticker belongs to the car and may not be moved to another one; the E-Vignette is tied to the number plate you hand back. If you later get a new plate for the same car it can be transferred to it, as long as vehicle and holder stay the same — how, is on the Swiss vignette page.

Registering again — with or without an inspection

The usual question is whether the car has to go back to the vehicle inspection (MFK). Federal law ties the periodic re-inspection not to the deregistration but to fixed intervals counted from the first registration: for a passenger car five years after it (six at the latest), then after three years, then every two years (Art. 33 para. 2 let. c VTS). It is the office that summons you; whether it summons before you register again is a question for that office — the address is below.

Either way you need proof of insurance: without it the admission authority may not issue a registration document (Art. 74 para. 1 VZV), and after the plates have been held it has to be submitted again (Art. 3a para. 2 VVV). What that document contains, and what a replacement costs, is on our page about the vehicle registration document, with the fees for all 26 cantons.

Selling: two clean routes

Either you deregister and the buyer registers the car in their own name — the simplest route and the cleanest break — or it runs as a change of holder with a transfer of plates, which needs both of you and has to be filed with the office.

If code 178 is in your registration document, neither works without the lessor's consent: the entry means «change of holder prohibited» and stops the vehicle from being transferred to another person or company (road traffic office of the canton of Zurich). Deregistering first does not get around it: if a document carrying the entry is presented, the office issues no registration document to a new holder at all without the leasing company's request to delete the code (vehicle inspectorate of the canton of Solothurn). What it means, and how it differs from code 78 on the driving licence, is explained in the section on the codes.

The office in your canton

Responsible is the road traffic office of the canton the vehicle is kept in (Art. 22 para. 1 SVG) — its location is the place where it usually stands overnight after use (Art. 77 VZV). For most people that is the canton they live in. The table shows which office that is and which cantons offer an online counter for vehicle matters — counted in our own ToDrive survey of 16/17 September 2026.

Whether deregistering itself can be done online is each canton's own decision — the column says an online counter exists, not that every procedure lives inside it. Fees for a duplicate or a change of address, with amounts and sources, are on the vehicle registration document page. Survey and upkeep: Dima Makukha, ToDrive, as of 16/17 September 2026.