U.K. Driving Licence

[lenny]

If you retain your U.K. driving licence, how do you overcome the difficulty of it still being registered to an old U.K. address? I have been told by the D.V.L.A. that it cannot be changed to my new, French address. As I no longer have redirection of my U.K. mail, any post from the D.V.L.A. will go to my old address. Any advice please?

[suein56]

Why should DVLA want to contact you if you now live in France?

If you need to contact them then I find the quickest and easiest way is to email them - they reply and sort things out really quickly that way eg when I reregistered my car in France and sent DVLA  my old road tax disc and they lost it so did not reimburse me until I contacted them.

Sue

[Sunday Driver]

Spg is correct.  There's no reason for the DVLA to routinely contact you regarding your licence.  They have also confirmed they are content for UK licence holders living abroad to retain their old UK address on the licence.  The licence remains valid for all EU states.

[Salty Sam]

Ah but!!! It is also an offence NOT to provide the DVLA with a change of address, and just to add more confusion - it must be a UK address.

There may seem little point in the need for a notification of address if moving permanantly to France, and if this is the case I would suggest exchanging your licence for a French one. If not a permanant move, in the event you return to the UK and get a routine vehicle check from the Police, they will expect the relevant details to be accurate as per the legal requirements.

[Anton Redman]

The police used to be fairly pragmatic provided it was an address where the people knew where you were and how you could be contacted there was not a problem. I had no fixed abode for a couple of years in the 70s and simply moved to my parent address for my driving license.   

[MargaretD]

I'm  moving to the UK in September, so I phoned the DVLA the other day. The man said I was OK driving in the UK with an EU address, there was no need to change my licence and if I did it would cost £38 for the first time, but would be free from then on... if I needed to change it again.  But that was if it was a photo licence, which mine is.

The French police have looked at my licence here, and although it doesn't have a French address they were happy.  The sous-prefecture wanted me to change it, though, within twelve months of moving...

Would someone somewhere please decide what is supposed to happen!

 

[Ron Avery]

[quote user="Salty Sam"]Ah but!!! It is also an offence NOT to provide the DVLA with a change of address, and just to add more confusion - it must be a UK address. There may seem little point in the need for a notification of address if moving permanantly to France, and if this is the case I would suggest exchanging your licence for a French one. .[/quote]

No NO NO!!!  If you had checked the whole of the DVLA site Sam you would find that it is only an offence not to notify the DVLA of a change of address if that change is in the UK.  All it says which is quite straightforward as far as France is concerned is:

"Moving to another country 

If you move to another country, you should check with the driving licence authorities there for information about driving and exchange of licences".

The rules in France are:  You can continue to use your UK license with old UK address.  It is NOT necessary to change it for a French License unless instructed to by the French Police.

[Cassis]

[quote user="Ron Avery"]

The rules in France are:  You can continue to use your UK license with old UK address.  It is NOT necessary to change it for a French License unless instructed to by the French Police.

[/quote]

For instance if they want to register (deduct in France) points?

[Graham & Brenda]

If you move permanently to France and have diabetes, for example, you will need to change to a French licence before the UK one expires. At least, I found this the easiest way to do it and not end up in limbo with no licence at all!

[Richard-R]

If you travel and use rental cars I would keep your U.K. licence. My wife's got a French licence and when she rents is also asked for a translation/internation driving licence.I on the other hand have never been asked for my international driving licence. We have rented cars in about 20 countries, always with my wife as a second driver.

[Salty Sam]

"Ron Avery" wrote:- If you had checked the whole of the DVLA site Sam you would find that it is only an offence not to notify the DVLA of a change of address if that change is in the UK.  All it says which is quite straightforward as far as France is concerned is:"Moving to another country If you move to another country, you should check with the driving licence authorities tere for information about driving and exchange of licences".

The rules in France are:  You can continue to use your UK license with old UK address.  It is NOT necessary to change it for a French License unless instructed to by the French Police.

Ron, The DVLA may state this but in reality the police may show some additional interest in the event of getting a pull within the UK. The system is subject to abuse and is likely to be changed within the next few years.

Secondly, there are benefits in exchanging a current UK licence for the French equivalent. A French licence is for life!

Finally, as far as I am aware the police can only insist on an exchange to a French licence if under certain circumstances, there has been certain violations or the holder has a non-EU licence.

The issue of driving licences is outside the scope of the police and I know of one instance where the holder of a UK licence was given an official letter to produce to the Police informing them they were wrong and a French licence exchange was not called for.

[The Riff-Raff Element]

[quote user="Richard-R"]If you travel and use rental cars I would keep

your U.K. licence. My wife's got a French licence and when she rents is

also asked for a translation/internation driving licence.I on the other

hand have never been asked for my international driving licence. We

have rented cars in about 20 countries, always with my wife as a second

driver.[/quote]

...though you can run into all kinds of problems these days if the

billing address for your credit card doesn't match the address on the

licence. I've never been asked for a translation of any of the licences

I've held (UK, Dutch, now French), nor for an International licence

when hiring cars anywhere in the world, so its clear people's

experiences differ, but I would feel uncomfortable holding a licence

with the wrong address on it. It's one of those loose ends that some

arkward sod is going to want to tie up on you one day.

[Cassis]

I gather you've now got a French licence, JonD.  What was the procedure for acquiring it, exactly?  I've got an old UK pink and green effort without photocard.

[The Riff-Raff Element]

[quote user="Cassis"]I gather you've now got a French licence,

JonD.  What was the procedure for acquiring it, exactly? 

I've got an old UK pink and green effort without photocard.

[/quote]

I got it about three years ago, though I doubt the proceedure has

changed much. I simply presented myself at the nearest sous prefecture

("Hello!") where there was a seperate window for driving licence

affairs. There were a number of  documents they required, which I

recall were my old licence, a copy of the back pages of my passport

(which they verified against the original), a copy of an EDF bill for

the address (again, take the original so they can verify it), three

photos and a stamped, self addressed A5 envelope. I filled in a

surprisingly short form, handed over a cheque (I don't recall the fee

exactly) and got back a little chit to show the gendarmerie if I got

stopped in the meantime. The new licence arrived about three days later.

It was painless experince.

[Cassis]

Thanks, Jon.  Sounds surprisingly painless.  I wanted to know as I had a speeding fine a few weeks ago and I paid the fine online.  Oddly, I have had no request to surrender a licence for points, but if I do and I need to get a French one, now I know how!

[The Riff-Raff Element]

A record will be kept somewhere...my wife (not me - I have a halo) has

had two speeding tickets since we moved here. She is the registered

keeper of the car and so the points have been taken from her

automatically. There was no need for her to send her licence off

anywhere. Had I been driving (entirely hypothetical you understand)

then I think she would have had to have filled out the form contesting

the conviction, got me to sign admitting responsiblity, and then I

think that they might have wanted to have my licence for scrutany.

It is all disturbingly efficient.

[nimportequoi]

I got a speeding fine from a speed camera a couple of months before applying for my French licence and shortly after receiving the licence I had a letter notifying me of the loss of the points for the offence. However, the fine I recieved earlier in the year from a gendarme with a gun has never been transformed into losing points.

[Cassis]

[quote user="Jon D"] Had I been driving (entirely hypothetical you understand)

then I think she would have had to have filled out the form contesting

the conviction, got me to sign admitting responsiblity, and then I

think that they might have wanted to have my licence for scrutany.

[/quote]

That's exactly what happened in our case.  Her car, me driving.

[Miki]

I have mentioned this on here before !

Go into any sous or main Prefecture and simply ask them how many points

you have left on your permis. Been down to 5 but back to12  now.

Nothing is phsically done to the permis, it is all kept on record.

All the motoring penalties I have ever received have had the number of

points that will be deducted somewhere on the penalty notice.

[Sunday Driver]

Re: UK licences with old addresses.....

E-mail hot from the DVLA this morning:

Drivers who take up residence in another EC/EEA country no longer have to exchange their driving licence, but may continue to drive using their own national licence for as long as is remains valid.  You should however check with the appropriate driving licensing authorities where you are now resident for information on any conditions that the host member state may stipulate.

National licences may only carry an address from the country which issued that licence.  We are therefore unable to re-issue your British licence with a foreign address.  It is accepted that drivers who move to another part of the EC/EEA could be holding driving licences showing an incorrect address.  This is permissible under the terms of the EC Directive on Driving Licences.

I hope this answers your enquiry.

Regards

Mrs B Clarke

 

[Cassis]

Thanks Miki and SD - that would seem to explain it.

[Me0wp00]

My brother got his speeding fine a few days ago and as he only has a holiday home here I phoned up the helpline and explained his license was english and he didnt live here permanently and was told just to pay the fine and theres nothing to do for loss of points.

So now we wait to see if he gets a letter as theres no way to explain the situation on the form.

Perhaps they check to see if he completes a tax form and so is a permanent resident, god only knows....

[Sunday Driver]

If he had been driving a UK registered car at the time, then the Gendarmes would have regarded him as a temporary visitor and wouldn't have pursued the points as there is currently no way of applying them to a UK resident licence holder.  This situtation is likely to change in the next couple of years when French traffic offences will be notified to the UK courts so that UK licences can be endorsed.

If he had been driving a French registered car, then I suspect they would have instructed him to exchange his licence for a French one so they could do the points.....

 

 

[Cassis]

Two months on after paying the fine, I'm still waiting for such a letter ... [:(]

[KenB]

I paid a fine two years ago for a violation. I have a French licence. I have never been notified that points were taken off my licence.