Is your UK car in France insured?
Back in April I posted about a problem with house insurance – or rather the startling finding that our (and probably many others) gites were not properly insured. You can read about that at ‘oops I forget to insure my property‘ (as it should have been called).
Now a new and equally startling insurance quirk has been brought to our attention, relating to UK registered cars that are kept and run in France.
People living in France but driving UK registered cars are supposed to get them re-registered in France – but many don’t bother. There are certainly plenty of expats living around here that have been driving UK cars for a long time, presumably to avoid the hassle of re-registration.
The number has increased recently since quite a few expats have also been returning to the UK this year just to buy a car and bring it out to France, since apparently second-hand cars are much cheaper in the UK at the moment.
The story I heard was that somebody had an accident in such a car – UK registered, based in France, but no UK road tax or MOT, although it had been having the French equivalent of the MOT: the Controle Technique.
The insurance company have now said the car was being driven illegally, since a UK car must also have UK road tax and MOT certificate – hence they have declined to replace either of the two damaged vehicles!
Can this be true? It’s not my car or my accident so I’m not sure…but I do know that if I was driving around France in a UK-regsitered car I would get it re-registered pretty darn soon, and meanwhile check that my insurance was really going to payout if I had an accident…
Reminds me a bit of another story where a father and son drove into each other, writing off both cars – which were both listed as owned by the father, and on the same insurance policy. The insurance company refused to payout, on the basis they didn’t know whose fault it was, but it was certainly either the fathers or the sons. Another one to think about if you have two cars!
I have long wondered when the day would come when this “loophole” of Brits driving uninsured cars would come.
A couple of years ago I heard rumours that the Gendarmes were being trained to be better able to deal with U.K. driving details so that they could target the U.K registered cars that come over and don’t get re-registered or re-tested (MOT or CT.)
In a strangely sadistic way, I almost look forward to a purge against the Brits who “forget” to comply with their host country’s driving regulations – It would make for interesting reading and exciting eavesdropping in some of the bars and on the forums frequented by the Brits.
All the best
Keith
In my opinion its far easier to purchase your car in your new country. The EU has done nothing to help people in these areas at all.
I saw a Renault Clio the other day with Portuguese export plates. The particularity with this kind of plates is that they have the expiry date on them. These had 04 01, meaning January 2004! I’m sure no insurance company insures a car with plates like that. It surprises me that this car has not been stopped by police long time ago.
Yep, this is a reality but a totally fair and necessary one – we have 2 French cars for business and personal use but we recently also bought a small UK car that we kept on British plates and our insurers have happily insured since we bought 1 year ago – I have already received written notice from my insurers saying they will refuse to renew unless the car is re-matriculated in France and we have already started the process, which is fairly starightforward providing your car is a standard, common make and model – here is a useful link to our guide on how to do it if this affects you! http://www.dordognepropertyagency.com/webfiles/procedure_homologation_vehicles_anglais.pdf
Hi Tony,
Thanks for the guide, should be quite useful to a few people I think, given the number of UK registered cars we see around here.
Wonder if anyone can help me. I am returning to Uk after 6 months in France. My car is running out of MOT before my return. Is it possible to get MOT on my UK car here in France. All documents are with me including car insurance. I am in Brittany. YOur advice would be greatly appreciated.