Breaking the law – again
In our third (when will it end) look at why you might be behaving illegally or at least be uninsured without knowing it, it’s back to drivers again.
You know already that your car insurance might be invalid if you are driving illegally, and we have already seen that a UK registered car without UK road tax and/or MOT is being driven illegally. So doubtless you have rushed off to start the process of re-registering your car in France.
But what about your driving licence? Still using that UK licence because it seems such a hassle to change it?
If you are still using a UK licence but resident in France, and you have ever had the pleasure of being stopped for speeding, the jolly gendarmes will have told you to change the licence for a French one. The same principle applies if you got points from a side of the road radar without being stopped
That wasn’t a casual throwaway comment – it was a legal requirement. If you commit an offence in France that involves being awarded points apparently you MUST change your licence so the points can be ‘awarded’.
So guess what? If you never got round to it, forgot, or couldn’t be bothered, then you are driving with an invalid licence – so also perhaps with invalid insurance…
Scary, huh! I seem to remember I had a UK licence for at least a year after getting speeding points.
The good news is, while changing driving licences was quite a hassle a few years ago it is now very straightforward. Just pop in to your local sous-prefecture (I think even town mairies can handle the process but I’m not completely sure) and they’ll have you sorted in no time.
For some strange reason both myself and Mrs B seem to have French licences that also allow us to drive buses or great big lorries. Well you never know when that might come in useful as a second career.I suppose something got muddled in the translation because I would not be great with an articulated lorry, and I certainly shouldn’t be trusted with a bus full of passengers.
In any case, it’s also quite useful to have a French licence as proof of identity, so there aren’t many reasons to hang on to your UK licence if you are living in France.
Note: if you haven’t commited an offence you are allowed to keep your UK licence – but if the address shown on your licence is now incorrect you need to get it changed anyway, and that will almost certainly mean changing it for a French licence…
You want to try doing this in Belgium its a nightmare, Allow at least 2 years for the process.
Wow, what can they be doing for it to take 2 years – that makes French bureuacracy look postively racy!
It also involved re regerstration of the car. You get a metal number plate through the post and than have to take it to have another made for the rear provided that you have the correct piece of paper. It takes about half an hour to tell the full story. It was a nightmare. You had to laugh in the end its the only way to cope. No problems like that back in Norfolk, only G Brown & Co.
I’ve never understood why some people are so resistant to changing their driving licences when they move to France – as you say, it is hardly difficult. The right to drive the buses and lorries lasts only five years. It can be renewed with a doctors certificate, but it is a weird carryover from being able to drive a 3.5 tonne truck and a minibus on a UK licence. That catagory doesn’t exist in France so you get lumped into the next one up!
French people exchanging their licences in the UK gain this catagory when they change back to a French licence without having to take the necessary (and expensive) test. This makes some of them very happy. It’s nice that a few loopholes remain.
You are wrong on almost every point you raise. Most particularly in your last point you suggest that it is illegal to have a UK driving DL with your old UK address on it. It is in fact the only exception to the rule that one must update DVLA with new address, so not at all illegal.
May I suggest that when publishing advice for the herds of idiot Brit expats in France you first aquaint yourself with the facts as opposed to what you may have heard in the pub?
God it is good to be home!
Hi James,
Thanks for stopping by.
If you re-read the last paragraph you will find I didn’t suggest it was illegal. I specifically said ‘if you haven’t commited an offence you are allowed to keep your UK licence’ – but I see that the following part of the sentence might then have been misleading when I wrote ‘but if the address shown on your licence is now incorrect you need to get it changed anyway’ – I wasn’t suggesting it was a legal requirement it is a change backed up by the DVLA.
I am aware that they state ‘You don’t need to notify DVLA of a change of address when moving to live abroad.’…but that is straight after the statement ‘If you move to another country, you should check with the driving licence authorities there for information about driving and exchange of licences.’ So presumably if one of those rules applies so does the other?
The two sentences together read to me that you should go along to the authorities in France and ask about a new licence, and the process will be handled in France rather than by the UK – so no point telling the UK DVLA about the change of address (not surprising, since the UK can’t issue French driving licences).
I am aware that in practice it is not a problem to drive in France on a UK licence, at least in the short term and as long as you commit no offences.
Let me know what else you believe is incorrect in the post and I’ll be happy to double-check – I’m well aware of the amount of misinformation that circulates on the internet that expats have to deal with and I’m very happy to correct anything wrong or misleading
Cheers
ps those wanting to see the rules for themselves please refer to http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/DriverLicensing/DG_10023103 for details
A lot of expats do like to stick their fingers in their ears and go “lalalaé” when told things they don’t like. Whatever they choose to believe, reality can sometimes run contrary to it.
A few weeks ago, a neighbour of mine asked me to come up to the main road where an “English” who spoke no French had had an accident involving someone else in the village.
Mr English was resident in France and had been for years but spoke virtually no French. He had a UK driving licence with his old UK address on it. I know this because I filled in the blue insurance form thingies for him and for the bloke from the village.
Lo and behold, I hear a few weeks later that his insurer is wriggling like mad to get out of paying the claim because the address on his insurance and carte grise do not match what is on his driving licence so his documents are “irregular.”
Will the DVLA intervene? Will the bloke’s insurers give a stuff if they try? No.
I realise I’ve joined this debate a little late, but my husband and I were recently stopped by the police on a general ‘stop and ask’ – it would seem they were teaching novice police recruits at the time! They asked to see his licence (UK of course) and initially didn’t think it was valid in Frane till we showed them the document that says an EU members original driving licence is valid in ANY EU country – and we also carry documentary proof of this – downloaded from internet French Gouv – its called Le Permis Communautaire – . I have manually altered my address to my french one on my UK licence as well as having notified DVLA that I have moved me and my UK vehicle to France. My current vehicle insurers in France, AXA are aware I drive a french re-registeredc UK vehicle on an English licence. So don’t blame the french – just use a bit of common sense and sort it!
Hello Shirley, that reference to the Permis Communautaire is very interesting and useful thanks – it is at http://www2.securiteroutiere.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/dpl._permis_communautaire-2.pdf if anyone is interested and states the rules very clearly i.e. broadly you can continue to use a licence issued in a different EU country but must change it if you get penalty points (see the document for details).
I never heard of someone manually changing their address on their driving licence – although it sounds like common sense I’m surprised that doesn’t raise a few eyebrows. Did someone suggest doing that? Also just out of interest, why do you prefer to keep your UK licences?
Cheers and Happy New Year!