Vehicle on French plates that has been in UK for ages

Vehicle on French plates that has been in UK for ages

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TUS373

Original Poster:

4,443 posts

280 months

Wednesday 9th July 2014
quotequote all
We have noticed a car in the vicinity that is on French plates, left hand drive, but been around for about a year. The owner is, I suspect, a woman in her 60s who married someone in France, but came over here in the car and has lent it to her son in law. It is always kept in the same place overnight and seems to have become his daily driver. It therefore has become a bit of a permanent fixture rather than something that is here for a few weeks then disappears for months on end.

I am fairly confident that this is the correct assessment of the situation. I was wondering what the position is with VED and insurance for use like this. Do French cars have their own road tax and if so would it be valid here for months and months or are the users taking the mickey? Is this a matter for plod, after all, we pay our VED to use our roads?

smegmore

3,091 posts

175 months

Wednesday 9th July 2014
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If I were you I would


shep1001

4,599 posts

188 months

Wednesday 9th July 2014
quotequote all
TUS373 said:
We have noticed a car in the vicinity that is on French plates, left hand drive, but been around for about a year. The owner is, I suspect, a woman in her 60s who married someone in France, but came over here in the car and has lent it to her son in law. It is always kept in the same place overnight and seems to have become his daily driver. It therefore has become a bit of a permanent fixture rather than something that is here for a few weeks then disappears for months on end.

I am fairly confident that this is the correct assessment of the situation. I was wondering what the position is with VED and insurance for use like this. Do French cars have their own road tax and if so would it be valid here for months and months or are the users taking the mickey? Is this a matter for plod, after all, we pay our VED to use our roads?
12 months I think but they need to maintain whatever the French require for road worthiness, tax & insurance. Don't worry about it, where do you stop? what about all those nasty foreign trucks running back & forward to frog land and the like??

Roo

11,503 posts

206 months

Wednesday 9th July 2014
quotequote all
If it's here for more than six months in any twelve it should be UK registered.

It's illegal for a UK resident to drive a foreign registered car in the UK unless it is a hire, or company, car.

Some exemptions for foreign students apply.

smegmore

3,091 posts

175 months

Wednesday 9th July 2014
quotequote all
shep1001 said:
12 months I think but they need to maintain whatever the French require for road worthiness, tax & insurance. Don't worry about it, where do you stop? what about all those nasty foreign trucks running back & forward to frog land and the like??
The French 'controle technique' (MOT) is valid for 2 years, every French vehicle must have 2 vignettes displayed in the windscreen one for the CT one for the insurance. A quick check will tell you if its legal or not.

LoonR1

26,988 posts

176 months

Wednesday 9th July 2014
quotequote all
Bloody foreigners, coming over here using our Tarmac and stealing our petrol. I say send them all back to Muslimistan, as they're all clearly jihadists and over here illegally.

Cooperman

4,428 posts

249 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
quotequote all
Roo said:
If it's here for more than six months in any twelve it should be UK registered.

It's illegal for a UK resident to drive a foreign registered car in the UK unless it is a hire, or company, car.

Some exemptions for foreign students apply.
This is not strictly correct. It is correct for vehicles registered within the EU, but a non-EU resident may bring a non-EU registered car into the UK for up to 6 months as a temporary import without any tax or duty being due. During that time, so long as the non-EU owner is in the EU it may be driven by a UK citizen so long as written permission has been given by the owner and the UK resident is covered by insurance. It comes under HMRC regulations covering temporary importation of a 'means of transport', which can include aircraft, boats, cars & motorcycles.

Stedman

7,213 posts

191 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
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Roo said:
If it's here for more than six months in any twelve it should be UK registered.

It's illegal for a UK resident to drive a foreign registered car in the UK unless it is a hire, or company, car.

Some exemptions for foreign students apply.
So you're saying I can't drive my parents cars, which are French registered, when they are over here.

I think not.

deltashad

6,731 posts

196 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
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Take photos, measure the tyre tread also, video the owner/driver and make sure you list the times of departure and arrival. Take this evidence to the Police station and also send it into Watchdog.

tbc

3,017 posts

174 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
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whats the French for curtain twitcher

TheRealFingers99

1,996 posts

127 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
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tbc said:
whats the French for curtain twitcher
Défaiseur, probably: "[J]e suis le valeureux don Quichotte de la Manche, le défaiseur de torts et le réparateur d’iniquités."
... I am the valiant Don Quixote of La Mancha, the undoer of wrongs and the repairer of iniquities.

From somewhere on t'Interweb.

As the Italians say "Chi se ne frega!"



Motorrad

6,811 posts

186 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
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TheRealFingers99 said:
Défaiseur, probably: "[J]e suis le valeureux don Quichotte de la Manche, le défaiseur de torts et le réparateur d’iniquités."
... I am the valiant Don Quixote of La Mancha, the undoer of wrongs and the repairer of iniquities.


In the case of the OP it's 'connard'.

calibrax

4,788 posts

210 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
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Stedman said:
So you're telling me that I can't drive my parents cars, which are both French registers, when they're visiting me.

I think not.
No, what he's asking is, if it's in permanent use here and not in France, then shouldn't it be registered here and contributing VED to the UK Treasury, rather than to the French system?

anonymous-user

53 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
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I'm guessing theres as many GB registered cars running around in Europe (Costa Del Sol springs to mind), Mind your own business! If its insured in another EU country and they have an accident the other insurer will sort it, Continental insurers (From experience) don't seem to try and escape paying out quite as much as UK based ones do.

Snowboy

8,028 posts

150 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
quotequote all
My opinion on this;

If the car appears to be roadworthy, driven well and the driver seems to be a nice normal person then just ignore it.
It's a global village these days.

If you have any cause for concern about it being unsafe or being driven antisocially or illegally then call the non emergency plod.

AngryPartsBloke

1,436 posts

150 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
quotequote all
TUS373 said:
we pay our VED to use our roads?
No we don't.

TUS373

Original Poster:

4,443 posts

280 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
quotequote all
Well thank you to those who submitted intelligent replies, understood and answered the orginal question. I wish the remainder well when they get their GCSE results and hope they did listen to their teachers when told to "always read and answer the question". I was not seeking opinion on ethics, but an answer on a point of law. For those who voluntarily gave their opinions - well done. It was not necessary, possibly a waste of pixels, but appreciated nonetheless. I sincerely hope that you get invited back to school to undertake a programme of A level General Studies, when you may fill your boots and indulge yourself in the school debating team pondering tricky situations such as "if your a nice bloke, is it OK to drive an untaxed car", or "If I am a lazy oaf with a nice car, it is OK to use Child and Parent Spaces, sometimes disabled ones too if McDonalds is busy".

Perhaps if I rephrase the question it will make it easier for the hard of understanding:

Statement of Fact: It is accepted in the UK that to operate a car on the road, it must be taxed (i.e. VED) and insured. The Treasury fails to collect all of the VED as people cheat the system. The Police try an enforce this, using ANPR to check the tax, MOT and insurance status of a car on the road. If you have a car but choose not to tax it, then it must be SORNed.

If someone should bring a non-UK registered vehicle into the UK, what steps does that owner/keeper/user undertake to ensure that they are complying with UK law and what is the cut off point time wise when they should comply e.g. registering on UK plates, having UK insurance, and taxing the bloody thing?

Roo

11,503 posts

206 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
quotequote all
Stedman said:
So you're saying I can't drive my parents cars, which are French registered, when they are over here.

I think not.
Are you a UK resident with a UK licence?

A common lawyer

319 posts

127 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
quotequote all
kapiteinlangzaam said:
Stedman said:
So you're saying I can't drive my parents cars, which are French registered, when they are over here.

I think not.
Actually, AFAIK, I think so!

UK resident with UK license = forbidden to drive a foreign plated car on UK soil with very few exceptions (it being your mums car is not one!)

I often get quizzed at UK ports about driving my Dutch plated car in the UK (British passport and UK DL), but I just show them my Dutch residency/ID card and they have to shrug their shoulders and bother the next poor unfortunate.

In other parts of Europe, where car tax regimes are much higher and borders much 'looser' driving a foreign plated car as a resident carries very severe penalties indeed (jail time even I think) - so much for the European freedom of movement and choice, eh...!
In the introduction, in bold:

A British resident must not drive a vehicle displaying foreign registration number plates in the UK.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_...

That said, I don't quite know what legal provision would prevent a British resident from returning home in an insurance-provided hire car after an accident in France. As with many bits of government leaflet, it may not be entirely accurate.

Back to OP -- if it's there more than six months in twelve, it should be re-registered. If it has been permanently imported/its registered keeper is resident, it should be re-registered immediately. Loads of brits drive around on brit plates abroad, which irritates some especially those who go to trouble of re-registering...).

Stick Legs

4,825 posts

164 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
quotequote all
Anecdotally, and in no way does behaviour trump law...

Friend of mine has a house in Bath & a house in Austria. Keeps his E30 cabriolet & Golf 4 motion in Austria on Austrian Plates.
Keeps a 540i in the UK on UK plates.
Spends about equal time in each country. He is retired.
Quite a few times a year he drives to or from, mostly he flies.

I find it unreasonable that if he flies to Austria & chooses to drive his E30 back, he is breaking some law.
Austria are happy for him to nominate the UK as his Tax residence despite owning a house there & his wife being Austrian.

Like many things in our legal system there are laws which are on the statute book which will rarely make it to court and if they do will cost the taxpayer a lot of money to trial in the unlikely event that someone is prosecuted.

This is, if it is true, typical of the criminalisation of the individual due to lazy & poorly thought out legislation.