luckyblackcat

Does anyone know of a British insurance company that will insure a British car in Germany? My current insurance only has 90 days european cover and then I have to return. I thought I would be able to insure it here but I'm told it would need to be registered here and I don't want to do that.

jdr

Legally no.

davesmithsrm

In Belgium we would now ask, what is the non-legal way

jdr

I don`t think it is possible at all, as to legally drive a UK car in Europe it has to be MOT`d, taxed and insured in the country of origin, and only be there whilst touring Europe.
It is also an offence for a resident of an EU country to drive a foreign reg car unless it is in the procedure of being matriculated to local plates etc.
There are firms that will take your money, but.....
You will find most countries have a similar crushing law as the UK for lack of proper paperwork. ;-)

zel

What you have been told is indeed correct, if you will need to register it in Germany but you have 3-6months (I forget which) before you have to do so (from the moment you leave the UK)

For you info the German version of an MOT is called a TUV and the German registration document is called a Fahrzeug Brief.

If the vehicle is a RHD car then you need to have LHD headlights and the rear foglight needs to be on the other side.

You will also need a document from the manufacturer called a Certificate Of Conformity to prove to the German gov it has EU type approval.

luckyblackcat

Thanks for the information. I have no choice but to take the car back to the UK and buy a German one instead. I honestly thought I was able to drive it here for 1 year before it had to be registered. Driving a right hand drive car on the continent is a hair raising experience anyway and not one of my better ideas

Ray51

Or : you could take the car to U.K. for MOT and renewal of road tax , get another year of insurance-cover ( which is probably/most-likely : cheaper in U.K. than anywhere else in the whole of EU ) , drive it to your heart's delight wherewher you see fit to do so , enjoy burning at top-speeds down those excellent Autobahns , if you get given grief by overzealous officialdom , remember : no-one can prove that you did not take the vehichle accross any non-policed border out of that country ( Germany , Belgium , wherever ) on any random or regular basis ...
Don't have experience in Germany , but in BeNeLux certainly the authorities do not appear to show much interest with any such matters- if anything , they seem to enjoy to see the U.K. plates around , as opposed to zillions of Romanian , Bulgarian , Polish , Russian , Serbian , Ukrainian , Azebeijani and other newly-arrived exoticae...
Cheers !

zel

Complete nonsense I'm afraid.

Like with a lot of EU countries now UK,DE,FR,ES,PT etc they ask for evidence of when the vehicle LEFT the country it was registered in (ie UK in this case)

I've even been stopped in Belgium several times to ask about the status of myself and my vehicle, granted not as much as most other EU countries.

What you said would have worked several years ago and you're likely to get away with it here and there now, but if you get stopped by proper highway/motorway Police instead of local plod then they will ask for such information.

I know this as I import/export vehicles throughout europe for a living and constantly get stopped in France,Germany,Netherlands,Spain,Portugal now.

The EU law states the vehicle time frame is from when the car leaves the country it is registered in, so it's not as simple as going over the border and coming back with a petrol receipt.

You only have to be stopped by a informed Policemen and that's it.

As you mentioned countries have stepped up their random stopping of non-local plates due to the amount of Eastern European 'illegal' vehicles and unfortunately we're all suffering. Not to mention local governments have cottoned onto how much money they could make forcing expats to register their vehicles in their new home.

You will also find that the VAST majority of UK insurance only covers you for driving abroad short term and whilst on holiday and if you have to prove it the insurance company will wash their hands on you when you show the a ferry/chunnel ticket for 8 months ago, etc. Most people fail to read the small print on their insurance cover.

Ray51

Thanks , "zel" , for a fine input , very much : to the point !
Indeed , such posts are the stuff that makes frequent visits to forae like this one : invaluable , for expats like us !
There's no point , nor profit in arguing with the info you so very kindly offerred , and for which I have no doubt , that it is probably at least 99,99% correct.
By the similar token :
if any of us remain alive for long enough , in this EU as experienced nowadays , there'll without doubt be newer and fresher experiences of continuos removal of every one of last remains of liberties , as we once knew them , incl. those of free speech , opinions , freedom from pauperism etc...
( continuation of Mein Kampf , by any other means ? )
- all ensured by sharp-suited , unelected , hugely-overpaid , thousands of pampered pen-pushing EUrocrats , whose numbers and powers appear to be in unstoppable exponential growth !
But , before the taxmen and the Grim Reaper get us all ,
do consider this little , yet : True , episode :
- a trustworthy , reliable , thorougly-decent Client has been living in this here Bruxelles , Capital d'EUrope , since 1997 ; and also driving his R -reg car , which he has been MOT-ing , taxing and ensuring in U.K. , for about all the time I mention , whilst driving it daily , locally and EUro-wide !
Last month , he received his 1st Ever traffic fine , in uptown Brussels ;
sure , he had any number of earlier offences , speeding , wrong turns , parking etc...but the friendly Bru-cops always seemed keen to just dish out a little warning ( practise their English ? ) then : wave the " Englishman" go !
But his last henious crime was that he parked the said car , in its usual parking spot , in a leafy avenue he resides in ; sometimes later that evening , some portable bariers were deposited , 5-6 meters on either side , proclaiming that length of the parking space to be a temporary loading zone ;
by the time he got to the vehicle next morning , there was already a leather-clad motorbike policeman present nearby , who had just tele-called a removal truck and was to write out a spot-fine ; my mate , although thoroughly perplexed , nevertheless cooperated in a friendly and obliging manner , which ended up costing him 60 Euros for fine and further 70 Euros for a ( "uncancellable" ) truck call-out ;
N.B. although he duly gave his local address and the local ID-document showing this local address to both the ( traffic ) policeman and to the truck-firm , noone blinked any eyes to the U.K.-reg'd car , spending almost it's entire driving life on Bru-avenues...
- is there a message in there , somewhere ?
That Nothing is Forever , maybe ?

zel

Another true story to further aid the discussion ;

One of my best friends and business associates in Luverne (spelling?), Brussels (just off the R0 ring road) purchased a LHD Lamborghini off us with UK registration.

I drove it and parked it up on his driveway without a single problem, the very next day he drove it over to a client still in Brussels and got stopped by the Police and was asked how long the vehicle had been in the country and the status of himself and the vehicle.

I then had to email him a scanned copy of my ferry ticket over which states the registration number of the car so he could give the police to prove how long it had been there.

Ok one could say because of the marque of vehicle it shines out from the crowd and thus got attention, but it does prove if you're unlucky to find the 'wrong' police person who knows his job then who knows where it would end.

It astonishes me just how many expats still don't see a problem with using a UK registered vehicle when they're normally not a UK resident any longer.

As I say to some people, would you say goto Poland buy a car and drive it around in Belgium and not re-reg it? most people would never think of doing such a thing, but it's the same principle.

The laws are there however right or wrong that is, but it's entirely up to the person to take that risk and break the law, as that is what it is..

I'm not here to judge, just here to give the facts for people to decide on what they want to do.

However, knowing how incredibly anal the German taxation and police are about the law, Germany would be the very last country within the EU I would risk such a thing!

Ray51

At least : luckyblackcat had some ( qualified ) input , non ?
Choices to be made , horses for courses and all that jazz ...
Presumably , you "zel" are well up on knowledge and experience of Germany officialdom , in such matters ?
All I seem know , of lately , that it is totally impossible to know whether Karlsruhe tu Muenchen might take two hours , or 6 , in-between the dangerous humunguos never-ending roadworks , that simply MUST happen every high summer season ;
- similar to Salzbuerg to Karawanken , for which you are ordered a dubious pleasure of paying heftily for Austrian vignettes and tunnels , only to then schlepp , super-dangerously , single-line , at 20-30 km/h between pantechnicons , Moldavian scrapheaps , suicidal Turks in 1970's Mercs with bricks tied to their gas-pedals , bleary-eyed all the way from Hamburg or Bremen , hoping to hit Belgrade or Sarajevo in one piece still , InshAllah , all their 9-12 head-scarfed in-car passengers included ......
EUrope today ?
I wish someone would give me kind-hearted hint , of a better place to go to and live out the latter years of my life ...
( Sorry , about hi-jacking the Thread somewhat , anyway ! )

davesmithsrm

How does this affect things if you still have an interest in the UK, ie still have a home address.?

I know there are insurance companies in the UK that specialise in allowing a UK car to spend all year overseas.

Furthermore, what do you do with your UK driving license if you move abroad - should you register a new address ?

Ray51

Hehehe , but , then : the EU legislation really IS a Work in Progress !
thus , it'll continue to pay maximum benefits , in cash , kind etc , to kind of persons ( hell-bent , on ruining the likes of us ) you and I would not choose to have chat , nor a friendly drink with...
For just how long ?
Just how far all that may go ?
Familiar with any works of Orwell ?
Suffice it to say : in this day and age , still ,there ARE many of us who manage , by some temporarily-correct input/s , often by some latest unsolicited info , by legal advice , by "trial'n'error" sadly even , to stay on top of all that mayhem and compounded confusion , as propagated by etatistic , bureaucratic , legally-challenged , mostly entirely self-benefitting money-grabbers ;
Long May You Live to Enjoy : ( inter alia ) the Stella , the moules/frites/choccies/nightlife/travels/fun/history/culture ... and else , the Vlaaams/Wallonian neighbourhood so obviously offers !

zel

Well basically the 'law' is where you have residency (ie where you officially live for the majority of the year) so wherever you official reside that's where you vehicle needs to be registered in, within the correct time frame.

There are 'specialist' insurers but make sure you read the small print very very carefully to see if the policy suits you and your status.

In terms of driving licenses, I have no idea about Belgium, but I know for other places in the EU they ask you to either have a local stamp on your British license or swap it for a local one.

Ray51

A few of us may be guilty , of hi-jacking this Thread , too ;
not least my-self !
This very ( chilly ) afternoon , whilst shopping for essential weekend delicacies , on foot ( as usual ) around here , I've specifically noticed not least that 20-25 U.K. reg-d vehicles , starting from as lowly as 205 Peugeot's and Clios and luvverly newest Schkodas ( no offence , please : to the trifty/sensible ones among us !) to any kind of Mondeos , Beemers , Cayennes , other Porsches , Mercs , Jags , Audis , R-Rovers., one ostentatious bright LY-reg Maybach even !!!...;
alltogether , a somewhat better situation , in relaxation and presentation , mefinkz :
than the dozens of those still remaing Coca-Cola-styled C-reg Cortinas
( probably : never M.O.T.-ed , never road-taxed ? )
which you might want to daily really puke about , upon stumbling upon those revolting rusty scrapheaps , prestigious in so-called Malaga-Marbella-Puerto Banus-Gibraltar vinicieties ?
Still , might we not just summise , peacefully :
much of the similar story-style of successfully "getting away" ,
in as-of-yet-undefined circumstances
( whatever-with ? If the cap fits , etc...) ) ,
or , would you argue : not so ( except : price/cost-wise ) ?