A car insurance help question (another one..lol)
Mar 31st 2012, 6:48 pm
#1
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Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 2
A car insurance help question (another one..lol)
Need some quick advice - this is a bit of a mess.
I've just bought a UK plated vehicle - a 1999 VW Golf - only worth £1k for getting all my stuff from here in the UK to France and a cheap runabout while I'm there. It needs taxed for the journey through the UK to the ferry and insured (somehow)
Do I get French insurance? (that will cover the UK leg of the journey) as I have a temporary "seasonaire" residence in France that I could use for the address till the end of April when I am due to sign a lease for a more permanent place. So my UK address could go down as the address - or the temp French one (do the french penalise on your location - eg high street is more expensive to insure?)
Do I take out UK insurance on my current address and "import" the car within the 6-12 month time period I've heard about - once I've got my longer term place in France sorted?
The MOT is due up in July in the UK - I take it I just get it re-done in France someplace?
Anything else I should think about/consider? I may just keep the vehicle in France for 6 months, bring it back to the UK and sell it on around winter time as having a car in the snow is a bit of a pain - I can then buy a proper French car the following spring.
But I have it now so any advice would be appreciated as well as any good insurers!
Take care
Sarah
I've just bought a UK plated vehicle - a 1999 VW Golf - only worth £1k for getting all my stuff from here in the UK to France and a cheap runabout while I'm there. It needs taxed for the journey through the UK to the ferry and insured (somehow)
Do I get French insurance? (that will cover the UK leg of the journey) as I have a temporary "seasonaire" residence in France that I could use for the address till the end of April when I am due to sign a lease for a more permanent place. So my UK address could go down as the address - or the temp French one (do the french penalise on your location - eg high street is more expensive to insure?)
Do I take out UK insurance on my current address and "import" the car within the 6-12 month time period I've heard about - once I've got my longer term place in France sorted?
The MOT is due up in July in the UK - I take it I just get it re-done in France someplace?
Anything else I should think about/consider? I may just keep the vehicle in France for 6 months, bring it back to the UK and sell it on around winter time as having a car in the snow is a bit of a pain - I can then buy a proper French car the following spring.
But I have it now so any advice would be appreciated as well as any good insurers!
Take care
Sarah
Mar 31st 2012, 7:25 pm
#2
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 10,551
Re: A car insurance help question (another one..lol)
Need some quick advice - this is a bit of a mess.
I've just bought a UK plated vehicle - a 1999 VW Golf - only worth £1k for getting all my stuff from here in the UK to France and a cheap runabout while I'm there. It needs taxed for the journey through the UK to the ferry and insured (somehow)
Do I get French insurance? (that will cover the UK leg of the journey) as I have a temporary "seasonaire" residence in France that I could use for the address till the end of April when I am due to sign a lease for a more permanent place. So my UK address could go down as the address - or the temp French one (do the french penalise on your location - eg high street is more expensive to insure?)
Do I take out UK insurance on my current address and "import" the car within the 6-12 month time period I've heard about - once I've got my longer term place in France sorted?
The MOT is due up in July in the UK - I take it I just get it re-done in France someplace?
Anything else I should think about/consider? I may just keep the vehicle in France for 6 months, bring it back to the UK and sell it on around winter time as having a car in the snow is a bit of a pain - I can then buy a proper French car the following spring.
But I have it now so any advice would be appreciated as well as any good insurers!
Take care
Sarah
I've just bought a UK plated vehicle - a 1999 VW Golf - only worth £1k for getting all my stuff from here in the UK to France and a cheap runabout while I'm there. It needs taxed for the journey through the UK to the ferry and insured (somehow)
Do I get French insurance? (that will cover the UK leg of the journey) as I have a temporary "seasonaire" residence in France that I could use for the address till the end of April when I am due to sign a lease for a more permanent place. So my UK address could go down as the address - or the temp French one (do the french penalise on your location - eg high street is more expensive to insure?)
Do I take out UK insurance on my current address and "import" the car within the 6-12 month time period I've heard about - once I've got my longer term place in France sorted?
The MOT is due up in July in the UK - I take it I just get it re-done in France someplace?
Anything else I should think about/consider? I may just keep the vehicle in France for 6 months, bring it back to the UK and sell it on around winter time as having a car in the snow is a bit of a pain - I can then buy a proper French car the following spring.
But I have it now so any advice would be appreciated as well as any good insurers!
Take care
Sarah
Mar 31st 2012, 7:36 pm
#3
Just Joined
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 2
Re: A car insurance help question (another one..lol)
Right so perhaps best to take out the "extended 180 days cover" and then just take the car back to the UK (as was only going to get 6 months road tax too) and just sell it on and get something back in France?
Apr 5th 2012, 1:52 pm
#4
Forum Regular
Joined: Apr 2012
Location: France/Russia
Posts: 150
Re: A car insurance help question (another one..lol)
I would certainly get the French cover if the company will do it. You can explain that you will matriculate it within the time period. It's much cheaper than getting UK insurance AND road tax, which we don't have in France.
I bought a new car in France three years ago and imported it. The Brits tried every trick to get me to make temporary UK insurance cover and road tax. I was already resident in France so I just asked for insurance cover for the new car, which I took with me to the UK complete with greet ticket for the windscreen. I matriculated it in France a month or so later.
I bought a new car in France three years ago and imported it. The Brits tried every trick to get me to make temporary UK insurance cover and road tax. I was already resident in France so I just asked for insurance cover for the new car, which I took with me to the UK complete with greet ticket for the windscreen. I matriculated it in France a month or so later.
Apr 6th 2012, 11:56 am
#5
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Joined: Mar 2008
Location: SE Dordogne France
Posts: 982
Re: A car insurance help question (another one..lol)
Need some quick advice - this is a bit of a mess.
I've just bought a UK plated vehicle - a 1999 VW Golf - only worth £1k for getting all my stuff from here in the UK to France and a cheap runabout while I'm there. It needs taxed for the journey through the UK to the ferry and insured (somehow)
Do I get French insurance? (that will cover the UK leg of the journey) as I have a temporary "seasonaire" residence in France that I could use for the address till the end of April when I am due to sign a lease for a more permanent place. So my UK address could go down as the address - or the temp French one (do the french penalise on your location - eg high street is more expensive to insure?)
French insurance on a UK regged vehicle still in the UK not valid. It has to be provided by a member of the UK's MIB (Motorist Insurance Bureau) and currently I know of no French insurer who is so it would not cover the UK leg at all but instead would render the vehicle liable to seizure and the driver to a fine and 6 points on their licence.
Do I take out UK insurance on my current address and "import" the car within the 6-12 month time period I've heard about - once I've got my longer term place in France sorted?
That would seem to be an option, at least initially, although you should be aware that the moment you leave UK intending to live in France then technically you become French resident and since virtually all UK insurers require you to be UK resident in doing so you will have broken the terms and conditions potentially leaving yourself uninsured.
The MOT is due up in July in the UK - I take it I just get it re-done in France someplace?
No, absolutely not. A French CT has no meaning whatsoever and is not a substitute for an MOT. In any case you will find it extremely difficult to find a CT station to test a UK regged car without a Certificate of Conformity which will cost you perhaps €150 and take a few weeks to get. You would also have to spend money on having the headlights changed.
Anything else I should think about/consider? I may just keep the vehicle in France for 6 months, bring it back to the UK and sell it on around winter time as having a car in the snow is a bit of a pain - I can then buy a proper French car the following spring.
But I have it now so any advice would be appreciated as well as any good insurers!
The problem with these sort of situations is that they don't always neatly fit in with the rules and sometimes there is simply is no easy way to be 100% legal. To do that in this case then you would have to first insure and tax the vehicle for the UK portion of the journey to France but at the same time arrange French insurance to take over when you landed in the country. You would then have to register the car in French within one month of arrival. Unfortunately if you did want to take it back to sell in UK you would have to go through the reverse process of registering back there again.
You might think that keeping it on UK plates and just saying nothing to your UK insurer about moving to France would be the course of least resistance - and expense - and well it might be, but understand that insurance companies are not daft, they know all the tricks and an accident abroad will always be looked at in far more detail that it might be in UK and if they have the slightest suspicion remember the onus will always fall on you to prove anything you claim, not for them to disprove, so it's not a plan I could or would recommend.
Faced with the abundance of UK regged cars circulating in France with (sometimes) French insurance and/or CT stickers in their windows you'd be forgiven for concluding that it's all OK and above board but be under no illusion, unless they are actually actively engaged in the process of registering they are ALL illegal on both sides of the channel
I've just bought a UK plated vehicle - a 1999 VW Golf - only worth £1k for getting all my stuff from here in the UK to France and a cheap runabout while I'm there. It needs taxed for the journey through the UK to the ferry and insured (somehow)
Do I get French insurance? (that will cover the UK leg of the journey) as I have a temporary "seasonaire" residence in France that I could use for the address till the end of April when I am due to sign a lease for a more permanent place. So my UK address could go down as the address - or the temp French one (do the french penalise on your location - eg high street is more expensive to insure?)
French insurance on a UK regged vehicle still in the UK not valid. It has to be provided by a member of the UK's MIB (Motorist Insurance Bureau) and currently I know of no French insurer who is so it would not cover the UK leg at all but instead would render the vehicle liable to seizure and the driver to a fine and 6 points on their licence.
Do I take out UK insurance on my current address and "import" the car within the 6-12 month time period I've heard about - once I've got my longer term place in France sorted?
That would seem to be an option, at least initially, although you should be aware that the moment you leave UK intending to live in France then technically you become French resident and since virtually all UK insurers require you to be UK resident in doing so you will have broken the terms and conditions potentially leaving yourself uninsured.
The MOT is due up in July in the UK - I take it I just get it re-done in France someplace?
No, absolutely not. A French CT has no meaning whatsoever and is not a substitute for an MOT. In any case you will find it extremely difficult to find a CT station to test a UK regged car without a Certificate of Conformity which will cost you perhaps €150 and take a few weeks to get. You would also have to spend money on having the headlights changed.
Anything else I should think about/consider? I may just keep the vehicle in France for 6 months, bring it back to the UK and sell it on around winter time as having a car in the snow is a bit of a pain - I can then buy a proper French car the following spring.
But I have it now so any advice would be appreciated as well as any good insurers!
The problem with these sort of situations is that they don't always neatly fit in with the rules and sometimes there is simply is no easy way to be 100% legal. To do that in this case then you would have to first insure and tax the vehicle for the UK portion of the journey to France but at the same time arrange French insurance to take over when you landed in the country. You would then have to register the car in French within one month of arrival. Unfortunately if you did want to take it back to sell in UK you would have to go through the reverse process of registering back there again.
You might think that keeping it on UK plates and just saying nothing to your UK insurer about moving to France would be the course of least resistance - and expense - and well it might be, but understand that insurance companies are not daft, they know all the tricks and an accident abroad will always be looked at in far more detail that it might be in UK and if they have the slightest suspicion remember the onus will always fall on you to prove anything you claim, not for them to disprove, so it's not a plan I could or would recommend.
Faced with the abundance of UK regged cars circulating in France with (sometimes) French insurance and/or CT stickers in their windows you'd be forgiven for concluding that it's all OK and above board but be under no illusion, unless they are actually actively engaged in the process of registering they are ALL illegal on both sides of the channel
