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Help please to register and insure a car in France


Braco
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Hi

Having checked out LHD car prices and failed to win the Euro millions we have taken the plunge and purchased a four year old UK registered Renault Laguna diesel car. For the foreseeable future we are planning to base it in our house in Pezenas and use it for our, and family visits.

I have a few questions and will be very grateful for your experience’s.

How long will it roughly take to complete the re-registration? I ask this as I suspect that it will probably require us to use it for a few months as a UK taxed and insured vehicle.

I have found German sourced LHD headlamps on Ebay. Are they available in France as grey market (non main dealer supplied).

Can anyone please point me in the direction of an English speaking insurance broker/website as my French only extends to ordering food and drink.

And finally as I have read on this site a certificate of conformity is required, can this be obtained in the UK.

Thank you.
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IT should take about 6-8 weeks to import a car. The steps are (briefly):

1. Obtain a CoC normally from Renault France but you could try UK.

2. Fit LHD head lights, don't forget to check the rear lights - either fog & reversing lights on both sides or change for LHD rears.

3. Get a french MOT (CT) this can be done on UK plates but you will need the CoC.

4. Go to the Centre d'impot and ask for a Quittus Fiscal (foirm no. 1993) IT says all taxes have been paid - nothing to pay if importing from EU country.

5. Complete the demande de carte grise form and hand it in at the Prefectaire with a SAE (4 stamps), cheque for importing costs.

If you PM be I can send a 'how to import documents I wrote'

Finally be prepared to get it wrong and have your request turned down at least once.

Regarding insurance I've used AGF, AXA, Sm3A to insure UK reg, cars
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A lot of the hoary old questions arise here, principal amongst them being the validity of the existing UK insurance which will almost certainly be immediately withdrawn by the issuer when you tell them that you are exporting the car and are no longer UK resident.

That leaves you in a time sensitive position as properly French insurance on a UK car should only be issued initially on a temporary basis to allow time for registration. Normally this is one month as it should not take any longer than that to register a 4 year old car of EU origin. It may be extended to 4 months in case of difficulty say with an unusual vehicle or a grey import but I don't think that is the case here.

I would argue that the actual registration process does not take 6 to 8 weeks because once you have your paperwork in hand it can be accomplished in an hour !

Realistically if you take the necessary steps to get the C of C promptly (normally you would apply to the agent in the country of 1st registration) then once you have that there is no need for it to take more than about a week tops.

I fully endorse Cooperlolas comments about Nick Chubb BTW.

Note to mods: The sticky could do with an update [;-)]

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[quote user="Braco"]Hi

Having checked out LHD car prices and failed to win the Euro millions we have taken the plunge and purchased a four year old UK registered Renault Laguna diesel car. For the foreseeable future we are planning to base it in our house in Pezenas and use it for our, and family visits.

I have a few questions and will be very grateful for your experience’s.

How long will it roughly take to complete the re-registration? I ask this as I suspect that it will probably require us to use it for a few months as a UK taxed and insured vehicle.

I have found German sourced LHD headlamps on Ebay. Are they available in France as grey market (non main dealer supplied).

Can anyone please point me in the direction of an English speaking insurance broker/website as my French only extends to ordering food and drink.

And finally as I have read on this site a certificate of conformity is required, can this be obtained in the UK.

Thank you.[/quote]

We bought a lhd car in Uk, we insured this in UK with a policy which meant we could take it abroad, we got all the necessary paperwork ready before we left for France.

On arrival we got a CT on the car, visited the tax office and then the prefecture, got car re-registed within 2 hours. Got new number plates on the way home. Two days later through the post we got the official registration documents.

Once we got home, we informed dvla that we had exported the car and have now insured the car through CA Britline.

Just one thing I have to check, reading another thread on here.. maybe wrongly... I need to check that the insurance is valid as we are not french residents, although the car is now on french plates and CA Britline know we live in England.

Provided you have the correct paperwork and the car passes the CT you can do the re-registration in one day.
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You can obtain a free EU certificate of conformity from Renault UK by applying on line via the following link.  Your request will be processed within seven working days.

http://www.renault.co.uk/ownerservices/coc.aspx

Meanwhile, order the LHD headlamps from your German e-bay seller.  Allowing for delivery, you can have them all done and fitted by the time your Renault certificate arrives in the post.

Collect your quittus fiscal on the way to your CT appointment.

Leave the CT station and go to your prefecture to obtain your carte grise. 

Be prepared to get it right first time by reading the simple registration instructions provided by the official government information website:

http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/particuliers/F19222.xhtml

As you can see, it's possible to complete the whole import process in less than a fortnight......[;-)]

 

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That's as to be expected as French insurance companies don't seem to care whether you are French resident or not,

It's irrelevant anyway as in the OP's case we are not talking about a French registered and insured car but a UK one and UK insurance companies most certainly do care about residency.

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Not sure about your interpretation of the OP's intentions.....

[quote user="Braco"]For the foreseeable future we are planning to base it in our house in Pezenas and use it for our, and family visits.......[/quote]

Seems like he was looking to take the car across to leave at his 'holiday home' in France and get it registered and French insured...[;-)]

 

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