UK Registered Cars in France

[Jongleur]

I am posting this as a possible word of warning to those people living here in France who have kept their cars UK registered.

When I moved here, over 5 years ago, I decided to change my car registration to French. Admittedly, it took some time and effort on my part to make sure that I had all the necessary documents.

In November 2007 whilst turning into the local football stadium I was involved in an accident. A young French driver ran into the back of my car causibg severe damage, but fortunately no injuries other than whiplash.

The insurance company, Generali France, had the car looked at by their expert and he decided that the damage would cost in excess of 5000 euros to repair and that it was therefore not economical to have this done.

As part of the settlement I had to sign the carte grise to transfer ownership of the car to the insurance company.

Their letter to me stated that if the car was not French registered that I would have to get this done before I could receive the compensation for the car.

Because the car was French registered I received theie cheque about 16 days after the accident.

I believe that the minor inconvenience of getting all the necessary documents and a quick visit to the local prefecture to re-register my car was worth it in the end.

As an aside I must say that I am very concerned with the number of UK registered cars/vans that I see around, particularly at airports car parks, that either do not have a valid UK tax certificate or French insurance sticker displayed on the windscreen.

I hope that I, or friends of mine, are not involved in an accident with them because even if they are insured with a UK firm they may actually not be insured. When I had my cars insured in the UK the companies always had a get-out clause stating that if the car did not have a valid MOT or Tax disc then the insurance would not pay out in the event of an accident.

These people may think that they are saving themselves money but if they have an at fault accident they, not the insurance company, are responsible for all the costs, including personal injury compensation.

[Bugsy]

Yet another factual reminder, but I doubt if it will register with those individuals who continue to ignore the obvious.

Your last sentence is the one that has most relevance as I would guess most people could survive the financial loss of a vehicle, whilst few could survive a huge personal injury claim against them.

 

[Benjamin]

The insurance company, Generali France, had the car looked at by

their expert and he decided that the damage would cost in excess of

5000 euros to repair and that it was therefore not economical to have

this done.

As part of the settlement I had to sign the carte grise to transfer ownership of the car to the insurance company.

Their letter to me stated that if the car was not French registered

that I would have to get this done before I could receive the

compensation for the car.

To my mind the above part of Jongleur's posting says that Generali France are condoning foreigners not re-registering their vehicles by a) insuring them in the first place  and b) then giving them an out when things do go wrong.

[Sunday Driver]

Something else there, methinks...

Given that Jongleur's car has been French registered for five years, the Generali letter must be an autogenerated one.  If that is the case, how can they apply this condition to, say, those cars which have been recently imported and are going through the proper process of being registered here?  If the accident occured within the legal timeframe for this, then I don't see how they can insist on that process being completed before paying out the compensation.

Besides, if the car was written off, then it'd probably be impossible to get the fresh CT certificate needed for registration, so not really an out....