scrubbedexpat056

I've just had a conversation with DVLA, which contradicts pretty much everything I have heard. I can carry on using my UK driving licence in UK until it expires. Only then would I not be able to renew it unless I was a UK resident. I have to say I was gobsmacked having relied on various threads and forums for information without actually phoning DVLA.
What she didn't mention was that if I am resident in France and she confirmed I can't change the address to a foreign one, I must be driving with the wrong address on the licence, which is punishable by a fine. However I am happy to argue the toss about that with my French IDP.
My only personal problem may be that the address on my UK licence does not match that on my credit card, which I have changed to my French address. I'll just have to find a car hire company that accepts the French IDP for that as well.
Happy days.

EuroTrash

Maybe I'm missing something but surely after you've exchanged your UK licence for a French licence, you won't have a UK licence any more.
At present Brits can potentially wait for their current UK licence to expire before they exchange it. After Brexit they will be required to exchange within a short timescale.
So there is no problem in the short term but in the long term you will just need to follow whatever arrangements the UK makes for EU residents who bring their cars to the UK. Unless the UK wants to stop EU tourism dead in its tracks after 31 October they will have to have a system in place very quickly.

scrubbedexpat056

For me this is all about driving in UK not in France where I happily own a car and hire the odd van. The problem Is that the French authorities stopped issuing French licences to Brits over the uncertainties of brexit and on the DVLA website it specifically says that you cannot have a UK licence unless you are a UK resident. It clearly means you can't apply for a UK licence as a non resident, but you can keep your old one, notwithstanding the address will obviously be wrong thus risking a fine if caught.
Obviously, after brexit who knows what will happen? I'm hoping my French IDP will get me through.

Chatter Static

Thats not a license to drive, it's an outdate additional bit of paper to help translate and grease the bureaucratic wheels in countries outside Europe.

I believe it holds no legal holding in Europe because every members state's license has been brought into line that is understandable in each European Member State. Beyond Brexit is murkier than grey because of the lack of agreement.

People are still able to change their licenses the time it takes varies depending on the day you send it in and the way the wind is blowing it's down to who deals with the application.

But if you hand a UK Police officer your French IDP with a UK driving License I couldn't guarantee you would drive away from that traffic stop if they would even rent you a car in the first place......



But to be fair issues only tend to arise once your UK license is out of date, because then you can't rent until you either renew it or get a French one but once it's out of date you need a medical as well here.

scrubbedexpat056

"People are still able to change their licenses the time it takes varies depending on the day you send it in and the way the wind is blowing it's down to who deals with the application."

I'm pretty sure you'll find that the French authorities have stated that in light of the uncertainties of brexit, from around March this year, they are not exchanging any more UK licences from their newly centralised offices in Nantes unless the UK ones are about to expire and they have returned all the unprocessed files (not including mine for some reason).
This was the problem for me before I discovered from DVLA today that my UK licence was still valid even if I ran the risk of a fine for the wrong address on it. My only problem is the last time I hired a car in UK they insisted that the address on the licence and the address on the credit card were the same, which of course now they are not. That's where the French IDP may help.

south_bound

I've never had the problem of not being able to hire a car in the UK with a UK license and French credit card TBH, been doing it regularly for over 10 years. They sometimes won't let me use a debit card to cover the damage excess but that is another issue. I take out annual car hire excess protection insurance, valid for all EU residents and have made one claim which went through without any issues at all - though maybe these arrangements will change post-Brexit. This all seems like a lot of effort to address a non-problem in my view.

Chatter Static

Get a letter of entitlement from the DVLA have it officially translated and use that to apply for a French one one the basis you lost the physical copy of your license.

G-J-B

I got pulled over a few weeks back by a not very friendly Gendarme. He asked for my license, which fortunately I carry with me. It the old British paper one, which has just fallen apart at the seam so is in two pieces. The moment he saw I didn't have a French license he asked me to step out of the vehicle. He asked how long I'd lived in France and why I had this license - I told him it's a valid license in Europe. He then asked me if I'd been drinking (it was 10:30am); I told him I don't drink. So then he asked if I've smoked cannabis. I said no. Then he paused, looked at me sternly through his sunglasses - are you sure (emphasis on the sure) you don't smoke cannabis? Yes, I'm sure. He paused again and asked a third time. I think because because of my slightly scraggly beard he'd profiled me as a pot head. He told me I should get the French license because if I have points, they need to deduct them. I told him I didn't have any infractions, and repeated that the license was valid, and he let me go.
Nothing wrong with driving on a British license, but clearly you might encounter people who don't like it much. I will get around to changing mine at some point, but not because it upset this particular gendarme. It's my understanding if you're not resident in the UK then there is no requirement to inform the DVLA of your address change. They're not going to stick a French address on it anyway.

Chatter Static

I think they are trained to get eggy like that over licenses.

G-J-B

Seems that way.
Either a license is valid or it's not, and if it wasn't valid I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have let me leave, and I'd be taken down to the station. I don't know why they have to be so difficult about it. If I had points to be deducted I'd understand, but otherwise I'm driving on a valid European license, doesn't matter how many years I've lived in France - seems pretty black and white to me, but sadly nothing is rarely that simple. I did tell him if a no deal Brexit happened, I would exchange my license; he didn't seem like my response, but I was polite and civil throughout even during the persistent cannabis interrogation.

Chatter Static

A lot of them don't like to be corrected, what I have learnt is when they ask if you will contest the ticket "Just say No" because the moment you threaten to contest it they throw the book at you.

Play stupid "nothing to see here" I am not the droid you are looking for.

G-J-B

Believe me, I had no intention of contradicting the gendarmes, so I did it in a very polite way. He got little irate when I mentioned Brexit and the possibility of changing the license afterwards, so I just nodded and agreed with him as it was clear I was going down the wrong path bringing that up. When he said I could go, I did get a bonne journée; it was a very coldly worded one, but I think it's as human as he could get. I had my son and dog in the car and was on my way to the vets which was just round the corner. When I was in the vet's waiting room, the gendarmes moved to the corner, so I could see them from the window. They'd pulled over a young ethnic woman, and once I'd finished my appointment, she was still there on the pavement with them 15 minutes later, and it looked like the conversation was escalating, so I figured I'd had a lucky escape.