joco7777

As an expat and non-UK resident but a UK citizen with a full UK licence I am looking for some advice on the best companies/brokers to get car insurance for my UK car which I plan to keep at home at my UK Holiday home and only use when we are in the Uk for 1-3 months per year. Any suggestions welcome as it seem to be a big issue being non-resident.

larrabee

Try http://www.cityinsurance.co.uk/

Three years ago I decided that it only made sense to buy a car in the UK as car hire was costing me a fortune but I found it almost impossible to find anyone who would insure me if I did.
I tried almost every company on those comparison websites and they all told me that as I was not resident by their standards (which incidentally are not the same as those of HMRC) they would not insure me.
I think that my search must have triggered something though as I was contacted by phone by an insurance broker. I explained my situation and he came back to me with a really good quote from City.
I had no no claims bonus in the UK. I had driven on my dad's family policy before I left for the USA but I still got credit for a full no claims bonus.
It's gone up a bit each year but to the best of my recollection I paid around 350gbp when it was last due in August 2012. This was for a Polo.

ElizabethK

I wish I'd know this years ago as we must have spent a fortune on car rentals over the last 17 years. each time I enquired about it, all the insurance company's "computers said no" So in the end I gave up on the idea of buying a small banger there.
What always amazed me though was the fact that we could easily get insurance on our house that we owned there, but not one of the insurance companies would insure a vehicle !
Mental if you ask me

janeyk

Be warned,


and when you return its no easier believe me we run 2 cars and its been the bain of my life getting insurance and also as we have no claims bonus but no convictions or bans they can not get their head round it, they do not like foriegn licences albeit we cuould drive on our NZ licence for a year (our UK photocard expired while we were abroad and is not valid until you renew you can not do this until you have a permanent address etc)
we get a phone call a week from each insurance company checking that we have no lied

(in NZ insurance is not compulsory, we had it but our company went bust and the new company we only had for 6 months so we could not bring any history although the insurers told me it would not be of us as its an non EU country!)

ElizabethK

Did you ultimately get insurance in UK though ? If so who did you get it through

janeyk

I have mine through Arriva through a broker called Bewiser, OH has his through Admiral

joco7777

called cityinsurancefor a quote and unfortunately they are saying they are unable to quote to non-resident of UK so I'm afraid its back to the drawing board.

any other agents/brokers out there anyone else has used ?

larrabee

Wow, that's good to know, I'm really sorry to hear that though.
I had them put it in writing for me, that I was not normally resident in the UK as it is such a big issue. I just looked it out and it's there in black and white.
I do need to correct myself though. It appears that City Insurance were the brokers and Aviva the insurers. I was writing this from memory and I remembered that City were the ones that I pay the premium to. Sorry.
It was City though that found the insurance for me in the first place so things must have changed?

mcm1

http://www.superquote.com/foreign-li...nal-insurance/
Might be worth a read.

Sid8

There are many insurance companies in UK. All have different rules and policy, you can check online which suits you better and then insured you car..

mikelincs

Please be aware that if you drive on your UK licence while back here on holiday, you are driving illegally. UK licences are only valid if the licence holder is NORMALLY RESIDENT in the UK. This why most of the insurance companies will NOT give you a quote, even if you do get a quote, then, if you have an accident etc, you may well find that as you were driving with an invalid licence, then your insurance would be invalidated.

mikelincs

Once you have taken up residence in any other country than the UK, then according to the DVLA your UK licence becomes invalid, and the photo licence SHOULD be returned to the DVLA, your paper licence does not become invalid and you can keep that and, when/if you return to the UK to live, you just get a new photo one from the DVLA. There have been several threads on this recently.

holly_1948

Some of us, especially retired people, are dual residents though. With homes in both countries and seasonally based residence in both.
And pay taxes in both :-(

Is anyone aware of an online forum anywhere for people who are dual residents of UK and other place(s)?

holly_1948

It's not taking up residence elsewhere that is the issue. It is ceasing to be resident in the UK.
For people who travel a lot it is definitely possible to be resident in more than one country. And don't the income tax people know it!

mikelincs

I suppose in that case it will be left to the courts to decide whether your licence is valid or not.