snikpoh

Not having a "valid" address on your UK driving licence is NOT an offence if you are no longer a UK resident. DVLA make this quite clear on their web site.

The address only has to be valid if you are still a UK resident.

Simples!

Rosemary

It is this member

bfg69bug

Very wise words.

Rosemary

UKMS

would be interested to see where that’s written by the DVLA …. I have always been under the impression that your address has to be up to date.

bobd22

I would guess that would be acceptable to give you time to exchange your licence? I say that as you can't register an overseas address on UK licence. Also it may apply to those that are employed overseas on government business so civil servants military etc. I seem to remember I was posted to Cyprus for 3 years and used a family care of address for my UK licence. In Germany I seem to remember keeping UK address on UK licence however one did also require to hold a British Forces Germany licence as well which had your unit base address on. All these things were long ago I would add.

SanNico

I did not say it was an offence, I stated that I was refused a hire car because they couldn't match my name to the address on whatever system they use. That mistake cost me 90 for a taxi to my hotel plus a train to Luton to pick up a car with another agency and half a day of my time. Exchanging my license cost me a lot less than that.

Not sure where you're reading the DVLA making it clear it's not an offense on their website. Under the legal obligations page it clearly states you must inform them of your address change. Legal obligations of drivers and riders - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Red Eric

Well this is what the DVLA says in one part of its website on that matter :

Change the address on your driving licence

Portugal has a system where licences of residents from other EU member states are recognised but must be registered with the national licensing authority, who issue a document to be carried with the foreign licence, until that licence expires. So in my case it was perfectly legal to retain and continue to use a UK licence with an old UK address.

SanNico

I'm not a legal expert but you need to read the entire page before picking and choosing the rule you want to apply. On the same page it states:

Before you start

You need:

• your driving licence
• to be a resident of Great Britain - there’s a different process in Northern Ireland
• to give the addresses you’ve lived at in the last 3 years
• to not be banned from driving

Provide your driving licence number, National Insurance number and passport number if you know them.

Since a non UK resident can't satisfy all 4 requirements then they can't satisfy the legal obligation to notify them of their address change. Therefore when I changed mine I had unwittingly broken the law for many years but ignorance is not a defense.

On the Spanish side, if a person is a Spanish resident for over 6 months it is illegal for them to drive in Spain on a UK license. I don't know why people keep looking for loopholes. If the Spanish police stop you they will apply their law. If the UK police stop you then they will apply the law of their land. You can't bring marijuana to the UK and say it's OK because you bought it legally in an Amsterdam cafe.

Red Eric

Sure, but that applies to changing an address for a UK resident.

The suggestion was that retaining a UK licence and not changing the address was somehow illegal for a non UK resident. It isn't - and the excerpt I quoted makes that explicitly clear. If it were forbidden, there would be a statement to the effect that if you move abroad you must surrender or exchange your UK licence. However, different destination countries have different rules about the validity or otherwise of UK licences and some allow drivers to continue using them despite the fact that the address on the licence no longer applies. Under those circs no illegal act has taken place in either country.

growinspain

I have over 20 years in the EU and "looking for loopholes" seems to the "thing to do" when moving to another country for some nationalities.

Mark604

"If it were forbidden, there would be a statement to the effect that if you move abroad you must surrender or exchange your UK licence."
Your responsibility to know you can't have one if you aren't a resident.

I interpret all this that -
a) if you are a UK resident and you don't change your address you can be fined up to £1000
b) you cannot register a foreign address
c) If you become a resident of a different country it is a moot point what address you have on your UK licence because you can only hold a UK licence if you are a resident of the UK. Thus as not a UK resident you have no right to hold a UK licence - so if you do have one, it is in theory, invalid.

So if you still have one it may well be "valid" in another country under any UK address, but if you fail to give it up and fail to notify DVLA you are in reality resident abroad the risk is the foreign country/authorities, can/will find out you do not have a valid UK driving licence you are touting around as ok.
Addresses don't matter as not being eligible to have one anyway trumps if the address is right or not.
Addresses only matter if you are a UK resident and you fail to notify the change to another UK address.
It's not like dual citizenship where you can legally hold two passports. You can only legally hold one - the country you are classed as a resident in (regarding the UK and Spain).

Red Eric

You can only obtain a UK licence if you are UK resident. And you can only change the address on a UK licence to a UK address.

But there's nothing to say you can't retain your UK licence if you move abroad.

You'll have to point me in the direction of an authoritative source stating that you are required to notify the DVLA if you move abroad. I've given the link to the DVLA statement saying they don't want to know if you move abroad and that you deal with the authorities in your new country of residence. And the scenario I outlined involving my circs and the perfectly legal arrangements I complied with would have been replicated across the EU in various countries to the tune of I don't know how many whilst the UK was a member.

Mark604

You can retain your licence if you move abroad, no problem. The problem with it though is if you are not resident of GB it isn't valid. It becomes invalid the moment you are not a GB resident and become a resident of elsewhere. A pre-requisite of it being valid is being a resident of GB. Take it with you, no problem, but to repeat here and above, if you are not a GB resident it isn't valid. Can't make it any clearer than that.

I understand what you say about Portugal - "Portugal has a system where licences of residents from other EU member states are recognised but must be registered with the national licensing authority, " - note it says residents of other EU states - once they are not residents of that country their licence is invalid.
You also say - "So in my case it was perfectly legal to retain and continue to use a UK licence with an old UK address." - as long as you are still a UK resident. You can take your licence with you because you are still a UK resident and it is still then valid.
But if you are a UK resident and the address on it is wrong, you 'could' get a fine. If you are not a UK resident the licence is invalid and the address then matters not.

Once you become a resident of a different country than the UK you should obtain licence of that country and in doing so your UK licence is sent back either by yourself or the licencing authority of the new country. No, it doesn't say anywhere you have to notify DVLA if you 'move abroad' as you can move abroad but still be a UK resident under certain circumstances. There is no legal requirement to return your licence, but if you don't when you become a resident of a different country, in theory, you've failed to notify DVLA of a change in circumstances - I very much doubt anything would come of that but that's the theory - but if you are not a resident of the UK you cannot hold a UK licence - it plainly says residency is a requirement to hold one - which is all well and good flashing it around as being valid when you are a resident of a different country until the albeit unlikely event that someone really checks.

Mark604

Not direct evidence but an anecdote, I have a UK friend who is resident in Germany. Years ago he exchanged his UK licence for a German one. When he went to pick it up he was asked for his UK one. He wanted to keep it and said he'd sent it back when he hadn't. He had to pay a fifty euro 'fine' for not giving it to them.
My brother is British and is a Spanish resident. He changed his licence and just kept his UK one, again many years ago.
Years later both wanted to renew their UK licences, applied and were told they couldn't because somehow the DVLA knew they both had different licences.
So they were left with the physical licence card, which eventually ran out but whilst still in date were told by DVLA because they no longer were UK residents and had new licences from their new countries their UK licences weren't authorised as such.

Lefty2021

I have a question, if you have residency and live in Spain but are unable to drive because of the ongoing licence exchange but you still hold a UK licence, you also own a house in the UK which your children live in are you able to drive on a UK licence when you are back in the UK visiting?

growinspain

Yes... The license is valid in the country of origin.