taking a uk registered car to france & leaving it there

[craigw]

hypothetically if you drove your uk registered car to france & left it there to use when you were there (insured at all times), what would happen ?

ie leaving it on uk plates.

[Ron Avery]

Interested to know how you would get it insured, but  HEY forget that, why bother with insurance, join the hundreds of other English criminals over here who do just the same thing, just look around the ports and budget airline airports

I was gobsmacked the other day to find out that a friend who has a wreck of a UK registered (but not to him) car  has neither insurance nor a CT for it (has been pulled by the Flicks twice but claimed to be tourist who did not speak French) and neither has his well heeled employer got CT's or insurance for their two UK registered cars, when asked about what happens if they kill a kiddy, they just shrugged their shoulders

[Ziggystardust]

In my limited experience I wonder also how you would insure it.  When we bought our english registered Volvo over we couldn't find an english insurance as most insurers will only cover you for a certain number of days.  Also, the french insurance agent we found would insure the car only on the basis that you will get a carte grise within a couple of months.  And they do check!  We received a reminder to do this after 2 months!

It was surprisingly easy to re-register the car, I followed the instructions on the following website to the letter (although not neccessarily in the same order) and it was very straight forward.  (Thanks to Penny for previously posting this last year!)

http://riviera.angloinfo.com/information/1/motoregister.asp

This only my experience thought, someone else may be able to help you on the insurance front!

Good Luck!

Lou.

[craigw]

hi Ron,

If insurance wasnt possible I'd never do it.

Maybe I didint explain it properly (or maybe i'm not 100% sure what I mean!) but, I'm thinking that if my family were going over for the summer I'd drive the car down in jun & leave it there until aug or something, my uk insurance gives me (i think, 60 days or so european cover)

 

[craigw]

Just checked my insurance, we each have up to 180consecutive days cover in france on either of our cars, dont have to tell them when we are leaving uk.

[naps]

I think you answered your own question there then.  If your car has an valid MOT, road tax and your insurer will cover you for the period of time which you plan to leave the car here, then I don't think you'll have a problem.  I can't see it making a difference to if you were actually staying here with the car and touring for the duration of it's stay.

I could be wrong, but it sounds ok.

I can see where the other comments came from though - it really annoys me when I pop to our local airport to find all the Brit registered cars without tax discs. 

Can't UK road tax inspectors come over and check the airports here - they'd make a killing!

[craigw]

i suppose they just leave them with a sorn declaration in the Uk and factor on nothing being done in france.