firestorm

Moving to lagos , portugal in the next few weeks and planning to bring the car . Does anyone know what the situation is regarding house & car insurance and what the premiums are for right hand drive cars . Also (despite my best efforts at the languages lessons) any insurance companies who have english speaking customer services

zel

It's against EU law to charge differently for Left or Right hand drive vehicles so be aware of this.

My advice is to buy a left hand drive vehicle in the UK before you leave as it's so much easier.

din

Hi! Are you sure about that law - and would you have some sort of source for that by any chance? Had the problem last year with a left hand drive in Ireland - and the insurance company was really kicking up a fuss over the side of the steering wheel, so any additional info on that would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers
din

zel

Yup I've had many a LHD car and at least in the England insurances companies used to make you pay a premium then about 5 years ago the EU commision found this to be illegal and now at least on mainland england they can not charge you more for a LHD vehicle...

So i would assume this to be just in any EU country.

bourgogne

well i have to say in france a RHD english plated car is insured in france with french insurance, all risks, no issue in numberplate and 70% less than UK price! plus no tax and its CT'd (MOT'd) for 2 years too

some deal about the tax yes or no, but no tax in france why would it matter in an accident ??? dvlc ............... who????

yogayogi

Please can I ask - name & address of the insurance co you use? Sounds useful. Thanks.

Do insurers not insist you are resident in France? And if you are resident, care with keeping UK plates - a friend had the gendarmes at his door 12 months after his arrival.

Having a current UK tax disk should not be an issue unless the car is at that moment being used on a British road.
I always surrender mine when leaving the UK.
Especially in France where there is no road tax so the country is not potentially losing revenue if the car isn't on local plates.
BUT some countries (especially Spain) have be known to stamp down: I believe that technically, whilst in any EU country, your UK registered car must conform to home country requirements. This can be interpreted that it should show a VED (excise disc). Certainly it must have MOT (or controle technique).

regards
YogaYogi

gedscottish

This post is probably a bit late(new to this site), the advice you were given about buying a left hand drive in th UK is good advice as you will struggle to sell a right hand drive here(when the day comes that you want another car). My advice is buy a diesal as no one wants petrol cars here(unless its a small engine or sports car). Since you are giving up your residency in the UK you will not have to pay the taxes that normally apply when importing a car(this can only be done with one car). We stupidly bought a new car here in Portugal,but for the next one we will buy in the UK as if we bought the present car there we could have kept if for 2 or 3 years and sold here and got what we paid for it new back.
You should not have to pay extra for RHD insurance...
Ged

moving man

Also (despite my best efforts at the languages lessons) any insurance companies who have english speaking customer services[/QUOTE]

speak to Joaquim (Joe-a-keem) company is Medal (insurance broker) he speaks very good english

[email protected]
Medal, Lda
Rua Dr.Teófilo Braga, 3 A - 1º A/B
Apartado 948
8501-919 Portimão
Tel : 282 430 800 Fax : 282 430 809

jdr

Firms are still insuring UK plated cars in Spain, but the insurance isn`t worth the paper its printed on.
The cars are illegally in the country, that is why they are being pulled up by the guardia and taken off the road and crushed. As soon as they see no UK tax disc then they know the car is illegal and you will get stopped.
A UK car has to have a valid MOT and Tax in the country of origin and British insurance which is only valid for 3 months outside the UK.
I expect you will get the same happening in Portugal.

A Errington

Sorry, I have to pick you up on that one. The insurance sold for British registered cars in Spain, that we provide anyway, is worth all it states to be. This is born out by the thousands of people who have been unfortunate enough to have to claim on their policy, and go through the legal system with it’s support. The main one available is underwritten by Lloyd's of London (there are a total of 3 providers of insurance for UK plated cars that I am aware of), and we as an FSA Authorised & Regulated firm would not offer any policy unless we were happy with it’s validity. We provide this for both Spain and Portugal, and we have offices in both countries. As Insurance mediation is a regulated activity in EU countries (covered under the Insurance Mediation Directive – IMD, which the UK FSA is the UK version of), can I respectfully suggest you leave the advice on insurance matters to the experts sir ! With regards to the legality of British registered cars in Spain and Portugal, this is an interesting one, and I would not purport to be an expert, but perhaps the many thousands of people who do have British registered cars in Portugal and Spain, and those who have been stopped for whatever reason over the last 10 years or so, may want to comment. Of course in Spain and Portugal the law is not as clearly enforced, or understood as in the UK. As such, there is often confusion. However, both are part of the EU which requires transparency and freedom, but implementation is a different matter. I have personally not seen evidence of cars being confiscated and crushed by the police, which I think is a very scary statement to make, and could be misleading.

gedscottish

I know nothing about Spain but here in Portugal it is only possible to insure a foreign car here with a Portuguese company if you are in the process of registering it into Portuguese plates. I know someone who was fined heavily for having their French plated car here(it was here for 6 months and they admitted it)

jdr

Tell that to the Guardia
I stand by what I say. How can a car be legally insured when its illegally in the country ?
You can only use a UK plated car in Spain if it is taxed and mot`d in the Country of origin and then only for up to six months, but the UK insurance will only cover you for three months.
If you live in Spain then you have to import your car into Spain and put it on Spanish plates.
There have been loads of threads on the Spain forum covering this.
One of... UK reg cars