15619

Hi everyone, we have an old car we are considering taking to France. We have found out pretty much everything required to legally transfer it to France. However, we arent quite sure whether it is possible to register it to our holiday home as we are not really French residents. Also the problem of insuring it, is it true you can insure the car so that any one could drive it? Or is there a way to insure it so that maybe 4 or 5 separate people would be able to drive it.

Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated

EuroTrash

I registered a car here before I actually lived here, not sure it is strictly legal but it is easy to do and I can't see a problem with it. You need proof of address but things like utilities bills are accepted, at least they used to be and AFAIK nothing has changed.

French car insurance normally covers the car not the driver. However you can add named drivers if you want. If a unnnamed driver has an accident in the car the excess is normally higher than for a named driver.

If you want to use your UK no claims bonus to reduce the premium in France, you need paperwork going back for about 10 years I think to get max discount. Sometimes UK insurers are funny about issuing the letters while your UK policy is still in force, the first person I asked said no we can't do that so I rang again a few days later and got somebody else who said yes no problem.

cardi

It is an EU rule that you can register vehicles to a holiday home and all countries have ratified it. Some countries, mainly Italy, can make it difficult, but France is no problem.
French insurance usually states 'vous et vos proches' as normal drivers but anyone can drive the car.
They do want to give you maximum no claims so if you can produce anything reasonable such as a letter from a broker you should get it.

cardi

It is an EU rule that you can register vehicles to a holiday home and all countries have ratified it. Some countries, mainly Italy, can make it difficult, but France is no problem.
French insurance usually states 'vous et vos proches' as normal drivers but anyone can drive the car.
They do want to give you maximum no claims so if you can produce anything reasonable such as a letter from a broker you should get it.

cyrian

I am not French resident and I just registered my car to my French address -no problem.
As stated above the insurance is more of a problem.
I ended up using a small broker who just wanted a piece of paper with an official stamp stating the no-claims bonus.
Uk insurance company did not want to issue a statement while we were still insured with them.
I found that my renewal documents stated that I had maximum no-claims and the broker was delighted to accept that.
It saved me about €1000.
If you can't get the certificate them change your UK insurance and they will give you the certificate.
Car insurance in France can also include roadside assistance.
Other drivers can use the car - just notify the insurers first.
You need the Controle Technique when the car is 4 years old and every 2 years after that.

15619

Thanks for all your help everyone, registering shouldn't be a problem it seems.
So is there an excess for additional drivers? im a little confused still
And perhaps more importantly what can we expect as a rough price for insurance for relatively regular short visits from England?
Thanks again

15619

Thanks for all your help everyone, registering shouldn't be a problem it seems.
So is there an excess for additional drivers? im a little confused still
And perhaps more importantly what can we expect as a rough price for insurance for relatively regular short visits from England?
Thanks again

EuroTrash

You can't start and stop the insurance, cars have to be continuously insured, but you can take out a limited kilometrage policy and if you won't be using it much, set a very low kilometrage and it will bring the cost down vastly.

And if your car clocks them up in miles, and your policy is in km, and your insurer does what mine did and decides it's all too complicated and says 'oh just take the odometer reading' - you're quids in.

EuroTrash

Edited

Im_and_Er

The situation for keeping or using cars outside their country of registration is supposed to be changing next year, I'm not suggesting that you hold your breath for it though.

http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/secto...n/index_en.htm

Properly you should declare to an insurer that the car will be left at an unoccupied property for extended periods.

It's a material fact which will influence their assessment of the risk and therefore the premium.

Novocastrian

+1 on all the earlier advice. I can't answer the bolded part in full because it will depend on where your holiday home is (city vs rural and general location) and on the puissance fiscal. But one tip is to ask about premium reductions for limiting the kilometres per year you'll be doing. I got a 25% reduction by opting for a max of 8000 km. I think one poster on here mentioned he/she had a 5k limit.

EuroTrash

With MMA you agree a limit, and if you do less you get a refund at the end of the year for your kms not travelled. I always undershoot and I got over 40€ back this year (but that's cos I forgot to claim last year).

cardi

It will be in your policy. It will be detailed.
If you make a claim then the amount which you have to pay towards that claim (the excess) will be higher than that for a family member (vos proches} also if one of your family is young or a new driver then the excess is also higher for that person.

Novocastrian

Oh, is that how it works? I understood (or misunderstood) that I could carry the remaining kms over to next year, not that there'd be a cash refund.

I only did 7k of the 8k this year.

Perhaps the mechanism varies between insurers. I'm with AXA. Is MMA another insurance company or some devious french acronym that's gone over my head?

EuroTrash

no it's another insurance company, from Le Mans, Mutuelles du Mans Assurance.

I did accidentally carry mine over from the previous year but the theory is that you report your kilometrage (or mileage ) at each renewal so it doesn't get too far out of synch, and they settle up. You can do it all online and they refund the money into your bank. That's how MMA do it anyways, other companies may work differently.