Importing from the UK - Insurance

[Araucaria]

I've just bought a second hand car at an auction in the UK, and next week I'm off to pick it up. It's currently UK registered and MoTed and taxed.

I've imported a couple of vehicles before but not in quite these circumstances: the others were ones I had owned for some time and were insured by me in the UK before I brought them over.

Is there any downside to insuring in France right from the start? I'm pretty sure that Groupama will insure the car, even before it arrives in France. The agency have always been helpful in the past. I would probably by then have a faxed copy of the registration document (not in my own name though).

What concerns me is that I will be using the car for a few days, maybe a week, in the UK before getting in the ferry. Will those clever traffic cameras flag me up as driving an uninsured vehicle? If they do, would it matter? I'd expect to have the French insurance document (the green thing) and vignette actually in the car.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Sunday Driver]

Those clever traffic cameras are likely to flag up the vehicle as uninsured in the same way as they would flag up any vehicle which had just been bought and where the new owner's insurance details had not yet been updated on the camera database.

In your case, as a foreign resident visiting the UK to purchase the vehicle for export, your Groupama insurance certificate provides evidence that you have the required third party cover.

 

[Araucaria]

Thanks very much SD, I'd hoped it really was as simple as that, but I couldn't quite believe it (EU rules working the way they are supposed to .... wow)

And if they do arrest me I'll just say I read it was OK on this forum. That'll shut them up.              [:D]