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Is french resident insured to drive uk car ?


listless eric
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I'm on a uk driving licence but living permanently in France. How do I stand regarding insurance if a visitor with a uk registered car asks me to drive his vehicle ? (assuming the uk insurance has the standard any driver etc).

I read somewhere I can't find now ,that uk insurance will not cover foreign residents .Is there any general truth in this ?  or a case of talk to the particular insurance company ?   Apologies if been covered before.

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Is it still a standard thing in Uk policies? I havnt had one for 6 years or so but recently a pal in the UK was telling me that I am well out of date and it has been dropped from practically all policies, at the same time as they hoiked up premiums to £4K for a 17 year old.

from memory how it used to be worded was "any driver who holds a full license or is not banned from holding one", my concerns would be not your residence status but whether the wording is actually "UK driving license" if yo have a French one for instance and more importantly the territorial restrictions, is it any driver in any european country or just the UK.

I too would like to know the answer to this as I am loathe to drive or borrow other peoples cars in the UK.

As a side issue I know that anyone here in France can drive my car and be covered by my insurance but to do so in the UK I have to write their name on the green attestation that the vignette is torn from, presumably to identify if the vehicle is stolen or being driven without my consent.

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I suspect it was the company they were with, but in addition my sister wanted to insure her car to allow an Australian to drive and although she managed to do it in the end it took her quite a few phone calls to different companies - I'm not sure there is anything 'standard' these days !
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Gardian is correct, you need to check with the UK insurer, however to expand on that a little:

Private motor policies in UK rarely were for 'any driver' and certainly it was never 'standard'. Usually it only came about if you added multiple named drivers as we did a few years back when we had myself, both our kids, and my sister on my wife's insurance, after about 3 as I recall the company made it into an any driver policy - but it cost us.

So, unless you are a named driver on your UK visitors policy, you will nor be covered to drive their car. As a non UK resident, and to drive the car other than in the UK, I think the chances of you being accepted as such by most UK companies will almost certainly range from slim to nil.

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Yes come to think of it I had confused myself, not hard these days, my policies up till the last in 2004 said that I the policyholder could drive any other car not belonging to me and with the policyholders permission. The cover would only have been act only.

So back then when someone said go on, give her a spin! (the car not their partner) it was my insurance that would keep me legal and my pocket that would have had to repay my friend although not any 3rd parties for damage to their vehicle. 

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Not everybody's UK car insurance covers "any driver".  It's essential to ring your insurer and check.

I've added a visiting Canadian friend to the (short) list of named drivers on my UK car insurance with no problem, for a spell that included a visit to France in the said car.

I had to pay a small amount extra, and answer various questions on how long she had been driving, date of last insurance claim/accident (if any), etc. 

Angela

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