can some one help with my car tax issues

[La Roche]

Hi guys i move to france full time next month and am trying to find out about the legal side of my car . It is a GB car has MOT GB but insured by a french company as my UK insurance only allowed 90 days cover . My question is as i will live in france and have it insured in france do i have to buy british road tax to be legal in france as the car is not coming back to the UK ?? many thanks in advance

PS i am thinking of putting the car on french plates but have been told this is very expensive due to my engine size 4600cc ??

[Suandpete]

    I'm sure others will say the same - but as I understand it you don't have a choice - if you are resident in France you must put your car on to French plates.

[La Roche]

yes i think you are correct as i have just been reading on the other pages about that . do you know how it works because i was told they charge different prices depending on engine sizes is this correct .

[Benjamin]

Stop banging on about cost La Roche.

There's a great wheeze that I read on an internet forum; just whack everything on your credit card and then don't bother to pay it.

Easy peasy.

[Bob T]

You will pay a one off registration fee but this will be cheaper than a couple of years road tax and you don't pay road tax for a French registered car. To drive on UK plates you would need to keep the car UK road legal, so that means UK road tax too.

You have no choice in the matter though as you will be French resident, you must register the car in France.

[Sunday Driver]

If you can afford to buy and run a car with a 4.6L engine, then you can afford to register it in France.

They take credit cards at the prefecture.....[8-)]

 

[opas]

...and you took the words right out of my mouth.......

[img]http://bestsmileys.com/cars/2.gif[/img]

 

[La Roche]

many thanks for all the postive replys again and those that really need to get a life with stupid and snide comments . so any idea how much to convert to french plates on a 2002 range rover 4.6  vogue , and also my wifes car a Audi Q7 4x4 4.2 V8  2006 model  and yes i will pay the bill on my french credit cards before you start ..........

[La Roche]

[quote user="Bob T"]You will pay a one off registration fee but this will be cheaper than a couple of years road tax and you don't pay road tax for a French registered car. To drive on UK plates you would need to keep the car UK road legal, so that means UK road tax too.
You have no choice in the matter though as you will be French resident, you must register the car in France.
[/quote]  many thanks bob for your help

[BJSLIV]

The Audi and the Vogue will be around 26 / 27 CV. So allow about 1000 Euros each  to get them onto  French plates.

[La Roche]

many thanks for a fast response , pheww 1000 euros is steep but not as bad as i was told . How do you work out the costs is it cc or hp as i am intrested ?? if its horse power that may explain why the french killed off the nissan skyline ( best car in the world )

[Will]

For your vehicles the CV will be based on carbon emissions and horsepower (see my answer in the other place you have asked this). If you can hang on, like many seem to do, until the vehicles are 10 years old, the cost of the carte grise will be halved.

To answer your question from elsewhere, the reason some of us have more than 2000 posts is that we have been with the forum since its beginnings, most of us have better things to do than read most of the crap on the France forums.

[La Roche]

thanks Will was not a snipe at you . I have just been online to renew my tax disc for the car and DVLA will not allow me to tax my car as i have french insuance and not british insurance , it looks like i am going round in circles here and my tax disc runs out at the end of the month .i am going to call my french broker and see what he thinks i should do .

[La Roche]

ok problem sorted I WILL NOT REQUIRE A TAX DISC IN FRANCE . Have just spoken to my french insurance company and they have stated as my main house is in France i can drive my car legal on british MOT and their insurance not a problem and NO TAX DISC . They went further and said as my main house is in France i can even drive in the UK without a tax disc . They did say however i should go on french plates ASAP but it is not critical as they said moving house is stressful and they would write to me in 6 months time to remind me of this . any one that doubts me please call them  

Sylvie Lespagnol
Cabinet Bruno Sellier
Assurances & Placements
9 Place Jean Monnet / 10 Rue du XIV Juillet
16100 COGNAC
Tel : 00 33 (0)5 45 82 03 20
Fax : 00 33 (0)5 45 82 34 40

[Bob T]

I am glad that your French insurance thinks that you can drive your car in the UK with UK plates and no tax disc. Do you think that the British police will believe that?

What you need to remember is that insurance companies take money off you and do not make laws, nor are they policemen and do not always know the law.

[cooperlola]

When I first moved here, my French insurance company also said I could have 6 months to change my plates (I did it immediately though) - but I would not have risked driving in the UK without a tax disc as Bob says.  I can't see the word of a French insurer holding much water with the average British traffic policeman!

[La Roche]

cheers Bob but the chances of me driving back to the UK are remote as i would fly back thus making my car 100% road legal in france of course i am going to be told different now . Think i will stick to what i have in writing from my insurance company

[Sunday Driver]

[quote user="La Roche"]ok problem sorted I WILL NOT REQUIRE A TAX DISC IN FRANCE . Have just spoken to my french insurance company and they have stated as my main house is in France i can drive my car legal on british MOT and their insurance not a problem and NO TAX DISC . They went further and said as my main house is in France i can even drive in the UK without a tax disc . They did say however i should go on french plates ASAP but it is not critical as they said moving house is stressful and they would write to me in 6 months time to remind me of this . any one that doubts me please call them  

Sylvie Lespagnol
Cabinet Bruno Sellier
Assurances & Placements
9 Place Jean Monnet / 10 Rue du XIV Juillet
16100 COGNAC
Tel : 00 33 (0)5 45 82 03 20
Fax : 00 33 (0)5 45 82 34 40

[/quote]

Problem not sorted, I'm afraid.  Your French insurer has given you incorrect advice.

If you move to live in France, you must notify the DVLA that your vehicles have been permanently exported.  It is at that point that you can cash in your UK tax discs because your vehicles will be have been deregistered there.

Once you arrive in France, you then have one month in which to register the cars here.  If you fail to do this, you commit an offence of driving without a valid carte grise registration.  Pleading that your insurance girl told you it was OK because moving house is stressfull is no legal defence....

If, whilst waiting to complete the French registration formalities, you return to the UK in your exported but unregistered car, you will be committing an office of driving an unregistered vehicle.  If you do not declare the car for export, then it will still be UK registered and you will be committing an offence of failure to display a valid excise licence, in which case, your car(s) can be seized and crushed if you don't pay the fine.

Whilst you may not intend to return to the UK in your car, it clearly shows that your insurer does not know what they are talking about.  I'd think about looking for another insurer if I was you....

If you had taken the time to read the carefully researched FAQ at the top of this forum section on how to import a UK registered car, then you'd know exactly what you are required to do.

 

 

 

[La Roche]

many thanks sunday driver i have taken that on board and will ring the insurance people again and speak to some one different and see what they say . I have made a few phone calls to the UK police to ask where i stand on the legal side of driving to the ferry in auguest as i will have no road tax then , they informed me i would be braking the law in the UK and would face a on the spot fine and reported , they could not answer about once i am the other side of the water but as far as he knew as there is no road tax in france he could not see there is a law to be broken . Then the police officer said but should i be stopped in the UK challenge the police officer refuse the fine and tell him you want it to go to court , once the CPS see your main house in France they will drop the case . ( that was the UK police advice )

[Onion van man]

The Police here in the UK are targeting UK registered cars without road tax. The equipment now fitted to their cars will notify them if a car is not taxed, MOT'ed or insured by the special camera that reads the number plate of the car in front. I believe it takes about one second for a it to check with the PNC, Then it sounds an alarm to notify them that the Vehicle does not have some of the required documents etc.

As soon as a UK registered car turns a wheel back on UK roads it needs to have a UK tax disc.

[Eslier]

The trouble is, La Roche, that there is such a lack of knowledge on the part of so many people on this subject that even if you speak to policemen, people at the dvla, insurance companies etc. there is a very good chance you'll find someone who just makes up an answer - as you have already discovered.  Those of us who have been around for some time on this and other forums have learnt that the advice given by Sunday Driver is about as definitive as you will get. His explanations are always spot on with regard to the explicit legal situation, and I would strongly recommend that you start from the basis that he is right !

Whether, or not, you choose to do everything to the letter of the law is, of course, a different matter altogether. One might even suggest that, in France, it seems to be a national obsession to work around the law!   If you look around you will see lots of UK plated cars in France which have been driven around happily by their owners for some years without a problem. It does seem, however, that things are starting to change and there may well be a big clamp down on these illegal cars and their drivers soon. The other thing about living in France is that legal things are often more reactive than proactive. It is quite likely that insurance companies will insure your car and gendarmes turn a blind eye to your lack of UK road tax all the time everything is ok. If you are unlucky enough to have an accident however, you could find that everyone wants to take a much closer look all of a sudden. If, at that point, they decide that you are driving an illegal car and therefore without legal insurace the consequences could be very severe.

[La Roche]

many thanks Eslier and i have taken onboard what sunday driver has said and you are correct he/she is very good on this forum and i do trust 99.9% of what they say is true or in good faith . Its just that i also have to ask the question to the right people also to, because if i am stopped and i say to the police officer " Sunday driver on the french forum told me this " i dont think that will hold much weight either . As i did not know the answer thats why i asked the question and i am sure more questions are just round the corner .. in advance many thanks Sunday Driver you are a wealth of knowledge and a credit to this forum .

[Sunday Driver]

La Roche

There's really little point in phoning your insurer for further advice.  How will you know whether or not they are still giving you incorrect information?

The code de la route states that in the case of a change of residence, you must apply to your prefecture for a new carte grise within one month of the move.  The French customs require you to declare the vehicle as imported upon arrival here so that if any VAT is due, they can collect it from you before you can legally drive the car here.  The customs receipt provides your written authority to carry on driving your car on it's UK plates for up to one month whilst you complete the registration formalities.  It's all in the FAQ, which is based on the legal regulations, not on what some insurance agent has to say in order to get your business.

You've spoken to the UK police and they've told you that you will be fined whilst driving an untaxed UK registered car to the ferry port. What will you do if the insurer tells you something different?  

Finally, the issue of being stopped in the UK once you're resident in France won't arise because you'll be driving a fully legal French registered car - won't you?

 

[La Roche]

it appears we have opened a can of worms up here ! I have just had a long chat with the traffic police who are saying my car is now not legal in the UK due to the fact i have french insurance , they said the company had no right to insure me while the car is still in the UK and with DVLA records . They have told me i must get UK insurance to continue to drive my car here . They also said this car insurance and europe is becoming more and more messy by the day do to the influx of Polish and Slovakian cars being sold on in the UK and no records to track the cars , it appears the British people are buying them and using them to avoid paying road tax said the police officer . So it appears i have NO choice i must renew my car insurance and tax it at the end of the month and speak to the french company to cancel as i was told  it is an offence to have the car insured by 2 companies ........ what a head ache i have today

PS  thanks to sunday driver i would have listened to the insurance clerk and thought i was road legal once again SD top person you are for your help and everybody else on the forum .

[La Roche]

update problem sorted by DVLA they told me to get temp cover untill i am in france then run on my french insurance once in france . then return my new tax disk and they will refund the difference to me . voila !