Check an electronic fine in Bulgaria: series К explained

A letter arrives and you do not even remember where you were a month ago. Or you are getting ready for a technical inspection and want to know whether anything is waiting for you.

The check takes two minutes and is free. What matters more is what you are holding in your hands afterwards: an electronic fine notice (електронен фиш) has its own deadlines, its own bank account and its own appeal procedure, which differ from an ordinary fine. If you are looking for all the ways to check at once, see also checking speeding fines. This article is about the document itself.

Short answer: how to check an electronic fine notice

The check shows the obligations under documents that have already been issued. A fine notice that has not yet been served on you may appear as unserved: this means the periods for payment and appeal have not yet started to run for you.

Step by step: checking in the МВР portal

This is the check with the МВР. Toll charges, the blue zone and obligations already transferred to the National Revenue Agency (НАП) are checked elsewhere: they are covered in the guide to checking speeding fines.

What series К means (and why series Г is something else)

The letter before the number is not a technical detail. It determines which law the document was issued under and whose account your money goes to. This is the difference that in practice nobody explains, and it costs money. (К and Г are Cyrillic letters, as printed on the documents.)

The letters “К” and “Г” themselves are not written in any law. They come from the template of the electronic fine notice approved by the Minister of the Interior. The law does, however, confirm where the money goes: the revenue from violations of the ЗДвП captured by cameras goes to the Traffic Safety Fund, and the fines for having no third-party liability insurance go to the Guarantee Fund.

The practical rule is one: pay into the account printed on your own notice. Do not reuse an account from an older document and do not follow someone else’s advice on a forum. The current accounts are also published on the МВР page on paying fines.

What an electronic fine notice is

An electronic fine notice is issued on the basis of a recording by an automated technical device or system, that is, by a camera, fixed or mobile. It is issued in the absence of a control officer and without the offender being stopped on the spot.

The law does not list specific violations but gives a general criterion: a violation captured by a camera for which disqualification from driving a motor vehicle (МПС) is not provided, with the express exception of the violations under Art. 179(3) to (3в), for which an electronic fine notice is issued nonetheless. It is therefore wrong to claim that electronic fine notices exist only for speed and third-party liability insurance. They are the most common, but the same law provides for an electronic fine notice also for toll and vignette, for running a red light, driving in the emergency lane, not wearing a seat belt or helmet, and using a mobile phone.

The notice is issued to the owner of the car, and where a user is entered in the registration certificate, to the user. The sanction can be a fine or a property sanction, which means the addressee can also be a company, not only an individual.

The mandatory contents of the notice are listed exhaustively in the law and are nine: the МВР structure, the place, the date and exact time of the violation, the registration number, the person, the description of the violation, the provisions violated and the sanctioning provisions, the amount of the sanction, the number of control points deducted, and the period and account for voluntary payment. The name and signature of an official and the date of issue are not required. Be careful with the wording: the law does not require them, but it does not forbid them either.

Deadlines and the discount for paying

The right to the discount belongs to the owner, and where a user is entered, to the user. The discount is lost only if the notice is appealed and upheld by the court. Merely filing an appeal does not take it away.

The car is mine, but I was not driving

The notice arrives at the owner, even when someone else was at the wheel. You have 14 days from receipt to transfer responsibility to the person who was actually driving.

A new electronic fine notice is issued to the person named, and the original one is cancelled. Since September 2025 the declaration and the copy of the licence can also be submitted electronically through the Secure Electronic Delivery System (Система за сигурно електронно връчване) with a qualified electronic signature, without going to the counter.

If the car belongs to a company or a sole trader and the legal representative does not declare to whom they gave the use of it, the penalty is imposed on them personally. This is a consequence of the declaration not being filed, not an automatic rule.

For series Г a declaration is not possible at all. The Insurance Code expressly excludes this procedure for electronic fine notices for having no third-party liability insurance. The notice stays with the owner, even if someone else drove the car. The sanction for a first violation is BGN 250 (€127.82) for an individual and BGN 2,000 (€1,022.58) for a company, and for a repeat violation BGN 800 (€409.03) and BGN 4,000 (€2,045.17).

How to appeal an electronic fine notice

Before the court there is a free administrative step that almost nobody mentions: a written objection to the director of the relevant МВР structure within 7 days of receiving the notice. The director rules within 7 days.

The objection leads to cancellation of the notice in five cases: when the car has been declared wanted; when the violation was committed with a motor vehicle with a special traffic regime; when the notice was issued to a person outside the circle of those liable by law; when an electronic fine notice has already been issued for the same act; and when there are technical errors in issuing it that are significant for establishing the violation. In the last three cases the cancellation can also happen ex officio, without you having objected.

Forget the claim that fines of up to BGN 50 cannot be appealed. The provision that provided for it was declared unconstitutional back in 2012. Every electronic fine notice can be appealed, regardless of the amount.

In practice there are two groups of grounds for cancellation. The first is missing or wrong mandatory contents: an inaccurate description of the violation or the place, wrongly cited provisions. The second is the technology: the camera must have a certificate of approved type and a protocol from the Bulgarian Institute of Metrology, and the procedure for operating it must have been followed. The МВР’s duty to send this data to the court is a real lever for you. For the scale of fines see speeding fines under Art. 182 ЗДвП.

Do not expect automatic success. Case law also shows lawful notices being upheld. Pravko can explain the provisions and deadlines to you with citations to the specific articles, but it does not draft the appeal for you and does not replace a lawyer.

Is there a limitation period for an electronic fine notice

Yes, and there are several clocks. This is the most delicate part of the topic, because limitation is rarely a clean calculation: it is interrupted and suspended by actions of the authorities.

The one-year period is the one most often overlooked. You will come across claims of 3 years: they confuse the base for calculating the absolute limitation with the ordinary limitation. The ordinary limitation for violations of the ЗДвП is one year, because the ЗДвП does not fall within the extended two-year list that covers customs, tax, environmental and currency violations.

One clarification we keep honest: Art. 34 ЗАНН was written for cases in which a record of the violation is drawn up, whereas with the electronic fine notice no such record is drawn up. Applying the one-year period to notices is accepted in practice through the general referring provisions, not because the law says so expressly. That the periods under Art. 34 ЗАНН are limitation periods at all was ruled in Interpretative Decree No. 1 of 27 February 2015 of the Supreme Court of Cassation (ВКС) and the Supreme Administrative Court (ВАС). It does not deal with the electronic fine notice, but with the periods themselves and the reference to the Criminal Code.

If you think your obligation has expired by limitation and it is already with the public enforcement agent at НАП, the request is to write off the claim. If it is refused, the actions of the public enforcement agent can be appealed within 7 days to the director of the competent territorial directorate. Whether you have an obligation there at all, you check through the check of obligations to НАП. Before you do anything about limitation, consult a lawyer: any action by the authorities against you interrupts the limitation period and resets the counter to the start.

What you do NOT see in this check

The compensatory fee for a toll violation is a separate instrument and is not an electronic fine notice, even though toll payment sites show up in the same searches. For these see checking a vignette fine. If your fine has already left the МВР, it is tracked through checking obligations to the Traffic Police (КАТ). And the annual vehicle tax has nothing to do with fines and is paid at the municipality.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a fine notice, an electronic fine notice and a penal decree?

A fine notice (фиш) is issued on the spot by a control officer who has stopped you. An electronic fine notice is issued by a camera, in the absence of a control officer and of the offender. A penal decree (наказателно постановление) is issued after a record of the violation has been drawn up and is the heavier form. All three are paid under different procedures, and only the first two have a discount for quick payment.

Can I pass the annual technical inspection with an unpaid electronic fine notice?

Yes. You will come across the opposite claim on a number of sites, but it is not true. The provision that would have introduced such a block was adopted, but the Constitutional Court declared it unconstitutional even before it came into force. An unpaid notice does not stop the inspection. See also the validity of the annual technical inspection.

What happens if I do not pay on time?

You lose the discount and owe the full amount. After coming into force the notice is treated as a penal decree that has come into force, and the claim is passed to the public enforcement agent at НАП for enforced collection.

Does a photo come with the electronic fine notice?

In practice, no. The photo is physical evidence and is in the file. If you appeal, the МВР is obliged to send the court the photos, the technical data on the camera and its coordinates.

Are control points deducted with an electronic fine notice?

Yes. The number of points deducted is even a mandatory element of the notice itself. And the points are deducted whether you pay voluntarily with the discount or wait for the notice to come into force in another way.

Can I appeal a notice under BGN 50?

Yes. The restriction that forbade it was declared unconstitutional in 2012. Every electronic fine notice can be appealed, regardless of the amount of the fine.

Is there a discount for series Г?

Do not count on it. The text of the law from September 2025 gives grounds for a discount, but so far the МВР and the courts do not recognise it for series Г.

Since September 2025 the Insurance Code applies the conditions and procedure for payment under the ЗДвП to the notice for having no third-party liability insurance (Art. 647(3) of the Insurance Code). It expressly excludes only the declaration naming another driver, not the discount under Art. 189(5г) ЗДвП. Before that, the Code obliged the owner to pay the fine within 14 days, without a reference to the payment procedure under the ЗДвП. Under that old text the courts accept that there is no reduction, and the payment instructions on the МВР site still say that only series К is paid with the discount. We have not found a decision discussing the new text.

That is why, within 14 days, pay the amount stated on the notice or in the МВР portal. If you pay only 70 per cent, the payment may not be recorded as a paid fine. Details and the court decisions are in the article on checking third-party liability insurance.

The other differences between the two series are the bank account and the fact that with series Г you cannot file a declaration naming another driver.

Which bank account is an electronic fine notice paid into?

The one printed on your notice. Series К goes to the Traffic Safety Fund, series Г to the Guarantee Fund, and ordinary paper fine notices to the account of the Chief Directorate “National Police”. Payment into the wrong account does not discharge the obligation.