gizmodo

Hello,

We are moving to Ireland in two months time and were thinking of taking our car with us. Unfortunately we have our mot and insurance which are due next week. Although I dont think that I have any option but to get the MOT done, I am not sure how I should approach the insurance dilemma. I am not sure that I can go with the short term insurance option as they are valid only for 28 days. The other option is for me to take out UK insurance and cancel it when I move to Ireland and once I get my car registered in Ireland. Can you please let me know if you can think of any other better option ? Any guidance would be appreciated.

Regards,
G

molly1664

We have recently brought two cars over and whilst it was worth it, we found the process very stressful. Our UK insurers informed us that despite having 28days European cover it did not apply if we were planning to reside in ROI. On speaking with them mine agreed to cover me third party for 24hrs from arrival, my husbands gave him a weeks grace before cancelling the policy. The system in ROI is tricky, first you need to apply for your VRT exception certificate assuming you have owned the car for 6 months or more. You then book a VRT Appointment at your local NCT, they then verify your car and give you your Irish license plate number. This allows you to tax it, best to do that within 24hrs, if you don't receiving your log book will be delay and they will backdate the tax anyway. In order to tax it you will need Irish insurance. Some insurance companies hike up the price as you have not been resident for 12 months so shop around. Once the car is taxed, insured and you have your log book you then book it in for an NCT test. We were very unsure about the validity of our insurance whilst awaiting the NCT test as obviously in the UK your insurance is invalid if the car has no MOT but we also needed to use the car?? It is also an offence to have the car on the road with no NCT. The whole process took approx 6 weeks. Sorry for this long winded reply but hope it helps. Short answer-MOT the car in the UK as you will need to have it legally on the road to get it here, it should also then pass the NCT without any problems. Regards to the insurance, speak to the companies and see what they can do.

gizmodo

That was quite useful information. Thanks a lot.

Can you please let me know which insurance company was your husbands car with ? I was going to talk to Aviva who have a good presence in UK and ROI hoping that it might be relatively easy to move to UK -> ROI insurance if it is within the same company and for the same car. Anyway shall let the forum know the outcome incase it useful for anyone else.

gizmodo

Also can you please let me know if UK No Claim Discount is valid for ROI and if yes , then is there any document that I need to get from the current UK insurer ?

molly1664

We went through chill insurance brokers after trying many directly. The actual insurance is with Allianz. The quote was 200-300 euros cheaper than all the other quotes and that also included breakdown cover. Your UK no claims is recognised and you need to submit proof.