Where to insure a Dutch car? UK or France?
Discussion
Yes, you read that right. Bear with me.
As our date of moving to France gets closer I'm looking at transport options and it seems like a really good idea is to buy a big LHD estate in the UK and carry a bunch of things there on day one. (Original plan was Eurostar, suitcases, rent a car for a bit, buy a car in France, lots of faffing around.)
As it happens I've seen a nice LHD E class estate which would be perfect. If I were to buy it there's still a month or so to go before D Day.
(It's also Dutch registered which complicates things at the UK end. Not sure what to do about that, but...)
What would you do about insurance. Insure it in the UK for a bit, then cancel once we are in France, or try and insure it with a French insurer now? Can we, before we have proof of our French address?
As our date of moving to France gets closer I'm looking at transport options and it seems like a really good idea is to buy a big LHD estate in the UK and carry a bunch of things there on day one. (Original plan was Eurostar, suitcases, rent a car for a bit, buy a car in France, lots of faffing around.)
As it happens I've seen a nice LHD E class estate which would be perfect. If I were to buy it there's still a month or so to go before D Day.
(It's also Dutch registered which complicates things at the UK end. Not sure what to do about that, but...)
What would you do about insurance. Insure it in the UK for a bit, then cancel once we are in France, or try and insure it with a French insurer now? Can we, before we have proof of our French address?
Zulu 10 said:
We brought an LHD Merc to France a couple of years ago.
It was easier than your case because it was already UK registered.
We have taken the easy, but possibly expensive way out, and have bank accounts, house insurance and car insurance all with with Credit Agricole Britline.
They weren’t interested in insuring the car until it was French registered, so I had the car on my UK policy and it remained so until we went through the French registration process.
Regarding addresses, we spend more time in the UK than France, so all insurance documents come to us in UK.
I suspect that the biggest issue for you is whether to take the car straight from Dutch to French registration thereby keeping the car in the EU throughout, and whether delays in DVSA Swansea will mean that you couldn’t get it transferred onto Brit plates even if you wanted to.
Also, I wonder whether the Dutch equivalent to DVSA will permit you to register the car in your name unless you have a Dutch address at which to receive the paperwork?
Finally bear in mind that technically a British resident (which I assume you still are) may not legally drive a car on foreign plates in the UK.
As you say, the delays with the DVLA mean that even if I register it on a UK number the British registration is likely to arrive after I have left the country, so the best option is to take it straight to a French registration. It would be 6 weeks even without Covid.It was easier than your case because it was already UK registered.
We have taken the easy, but possibly expensive way out, and have bank accounts, house insurance and car insurance all with with Credit Agricole Britline.
They weren’t interested in insuring the car until it was French registered, so I had the car on my UK policy and it remained so until we went through the French registration process.
Regarding addresses, we spend more time in the UK than France, so all insurance documents come to us in UK.
I suspect that the biggest issue for you is whether to take the car straight from Dutch to French registration thereby keeping the car in the EU throughout, and whether delays in DVSA Swansea will mean that you couldn’t get it transferred onto Brit plates even if you wanted to.
Also, I wonder whether the Dutch equivalent to DVSA will permit you to register the car in your name unless you have a Dutch address at which to receive the paperwork?
Finally bear in mind that technically a British resident (which I assume you still are) may not legally drive a car on foreign plates in the UK.
From what I have read I don't believe that I would need to re-register it to me in the Netherlands to import it into France and register it there. I just need a bill of sale. The dealer claims that all the necessary paperwork for re-registering it is provided, so I guess I'll find out if that's adequate before deciding whether or not to buy. It might be that I need to UK register it anyway.
The legality of driving it on foreign plates is going to be a problem, unless I can prove I am a French resident somehow before I've actually signed the Acte de Vente.
I have a Britline account too, so I can produce a debit card at least, and a recent Eurotunnel receipt (for a different car though), which may be enough to convince any policeman to not seize my car, seeing as I will be on my way to the Eurotunnel.
Options are 1) risk driving it to the tunnel anyway, 2) do it a week or two later when I can prove my French address / it's got UK plates 3) Ask a convenient French resident I know to drive it for me to the tunnel, and I drop him off on the way to my house.
The French appear to give you 14 days grace as long as you've started the registration process. Why can't the UK be a bit more reasonable?
(Or I forget it and get something British registered, but it is a really nice looking car at a good price.)
From my point of view, it would be silly to involve the DVLA, or UK insurance company. It just complicates things, unnecessarily.
You will, of course, pay a hefty registration fee to your local prefecture, but I feel sure that a French insurer will not have an issue insuring a compliant Dutch car to your French address until it is French registered.
Lowdrag bought his Merc in Germany, so perhaps it would be worth PMing him for some clear advice.
You might need to use a registered professional to obtain a temporary WW plate
You will, of course, pay a hefty registration fee to your local prefecture, but I feel sure that a French insurer will not have an issue insuring a compliant Dutch car to your French address until it is French registered.
Lowdrag bought his Merc in Germany, so perhaps it would be worth PMing him for some clear advice.
You might need to use a registered professional to obtain a temporary WW plate
Edited by rdjohn on Tuesday 6th October 14:39
You'll need Dutch export plates, the seller will return the current plates to the authorities if you're not Dutch resident.
Insure it in France on the Export plates and get straight into the french immatriculation process - controle technique, quittus fiscal, certificate of conformity ( you may be able to avoid this if the model was sold in france as it should have a euro type approval number on the Dutch papers) and then apply to register it using the ANTS website - have you assessed how much it will cost you in tax?
If you're not that confident, I've used Cartaplac( there's an office in most reasonably sized towns) in the past to register a UK vehicle, I think it cost me about 35€ for them to do all the paperwork for me, I thought it was a bit of a bargain TBH
When you do start the process, you might be issued with a temporary number at first ( I was for my discovery ) WW followed by two numbers & 3 letters - nothing to worry about, it just costs you another 20€ for your new plates when your definitive number is issued.
Insure it in France on the Export plates and get straight into the french immatriculation process - controle technique, quittus fiscal, certificate of conformity ( you may be able to avoid this if the model was sold in france as it should have a euro type approval number on the Dutch papers) and then apply to register it using the ANTS website - have you assessed how much it will cost you in tax?
If you're not that confident, I've used Cartaplac( there's an office in most reasonably sized towns) in the past to register a UK vehicle, I think it cost me about 35€ for them to do all the paperwork for me, I thought it was a bit of a bargain TBH
When you do start the process, you might be issued with a temporary number at first ( I was for my discovery ) WW followed by two numbers & 3 letters - nothing to worry about, it just costs you another 20€ for your new plates when your definitive number is issued.
Sebastian Tombs said:
All useful info, thanks.
The car is for sale in London, but I shall ask the garage what the situation is..
You may hit a problem in that if the car is still on Dutch plates it normally has to be "de-registered" in NL - and you have to go to a regional registration centre in order to do it. You will then receive the papers which you need to register it in France. This may prove very difficult to achieve from the UK.The car is for sale in London, but I shall ask the garage what the situation is..
Sebastian Tombs said:
If it has the export plates then would this indicate that de-registering has happened?
Dutch plates are black letters/numbers on a yellow background, both front and back. Their export plates are (or used to be) black letters/numbers on a white background. Should help you to identify. If the car's still on yellow plates it probably hasn't been de-registered.The Dutch registration document is a small plastic card about the size of a driving licence or credit card. If it's been de-registered you should have a gray A4 sheet of paper with "RDW" at the top which gives full details of the car, and the expired registration card with the corner cut off to invalidate it. You need both to be able to register the car (I'm in Belgium so I can't speak for France). The RDW can re-issue the papers but NOT the card, so make sure you get it.
I'll have a search in the office and if I can find an example, I'll post it up...
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