Insuring my cars abroad and the MID

[ImbackYo]

Afternoon all,

Im moving abroad for 6-7 months a year and obviously want to take my cars with me. Im considering reinsuring them in Poland where I will be living. Whats the deal with ANPR/MID, the cars will remain on UK plates and I want to avoid the grief of being pulled over every 5 minutes.

Is there a sharing of databases or something else i would need to do to avoid this? Or is it a case of putting up with it or leave them insured here?

[martinbiz]

ImbackYo said:

Afternoon all,

Im moving abroad for 6-7 months a year and obviously want to take my cars with me. Im considering reinsuring them in Poland where I will be living. Whats the deal with ANPR/MID, the cars will remain on UK plates and I want to avoid the grief of being pulled over every 5 minutes.

Is there a sharing of databases or something else i would need to do to avoid this? Or is it a case of putting up with it or leave them insured here?

Not sure I understand your point, ANPR / MID where?
Have your ins co said you have to? If not and they are happy to cover you why not leave as is. I doubt very much you will save money, On the contrary, we had someone working in Czech for a couple of years and insurance was very expensive compared to the general cost of living. It was 3 or 4 years ago, but pretty much double what you would expect to pay here

[ImbackYo]

ANPR here when I come back to visit. My cars will be insured under one company policy abroad so I want to avoid paying for 2 policies. The British quoted price for me to drive and live in Poland is simply ridiculous.

[Pete54]

If you take your cars with you for that length of time, they are technically imported to Poland. That means registering them as Polish and paying VAT. Post Brexit most UK insurers cannot issue policies for prolonged use in the EU, so that opens the problem as to whether Polish insurers will insure UK registered cars. Here in France they will only insure foreign registered cars once an application has been made to register them here.......

You need to do some proper research to avoid falling foul of the laws in both Poland and the UK

[ImbackYo]

Hhhhhmmm, good point. I'll enquire, that's a fight I don't want in the event of a claim.

Cheers

[martinbiz]

ImbackYo said:

ANPR here when I come back to visit. My cars will be insured under one company policy abroad so I want to avoid paying for 2 policies. The British quoted price for me to drive and live in Poland is simply ridiculous.

If the polish ins co are happy to insure you to drive here and it's much cheaper, then 't's a no brainer. I would make sure you have a Valid MOT and VED. Don't get too hung up about ANPR, just make sure you have an original certificate to show if needed> The chances of getting stopped really are quite slim despite what some on here may say. There was a thread on here a while ago where someone was unknowingly driving around without ins for months and never got pinged or stopped

[eeLee]

I would expect a Polish insurer to not want to insure a UK-registered car. You'd have to import and register the car there which sounds like something you don't want to do (because you also export from the UK).
Your best bet is to get an insurer that does you a greencard for more than 90 days.

[mikef]

Pete54 said:

If you take your cars with you for that length of time, they are technically imported to Poland. That means registering them as Polish and paying VAT. Post Brexit most UK insurers cannot issue policies for prolonged use in the EU, so that opens the problem as to whether Polish insurers will insure UK registered cars. Here in France they will only insure foreign registered cars once an application has been made to register them here.......

You need to do some proper research to avoid falling foul of the laws in both Poland and the UK

True, you should check out Polish regs and whether they require you to re-register after a given length of time

In terms of insurance for a UK-reg vehicle, I took out annual European cover for a car last year for use in France through Stuart Collins at a very reasonable cost. That was based on my main residence being in the UK, but without limit on time used in France

[martinbiz]

mikef said:

True, you should check out Polish regs and whether they require you to re-register after a given length of time

In terms of insurance for a UK-reg vehicle, I took out annual European cover for a car last year for use in France through Stuart Collins at a very reasonable cost. That was based on my main residence being in the UK, but without limit on time used in France

You can drive a UK car in Poland for 6 months max, after that it needs to be registered

[OutInTheShed]

Unless the car is SORN or 'exported' on the DVLC database, it needs to be insured, on the UK MID database basically.

One needs to be careful of all the questions on the proposal form, like 'where will the car be normally parked at night?'
'Poland' is not an answer UK insurers are equipped for.

A lot of expats get away with all sorts of 'stretching the truth' but this kind of thing can turn a small bump into a major drama.

[mikef]

martinbiz said:

mikef said:

True, you should check out Polish regs and whether they require you to re-register after a given length of time

In terms of insurance for a UK-reg vehicle, I took out annual European cover for a car last year for use in France through Stuart Collins at a very reasonable cost. That was based on my main residence being in the UK, but without limit on time used in France

You can drive a UK car in Poland for 6 months max, after that it needs to be registered

Does that reset if you return the car to the UK every 5 1/2 momths and can show the travel bookings?

[Dingu]

ImbackYo said:

ANPR here when I come back to visit. My cars will be insured under one company policy abroad so I want to avoid paying for 2 policies. The British quoted price for me to drive and live in Poland is simply ridiculous.

Obviously, there isn’t a large market for UK insurers covering vehicles in Poland funnily enough.

[andrebar]

mikef said:

martinbiz said:

mikef said:

True, you should check out Polish regs and whether they require you to re-register after a given length of time

In terms of insurance for a UK-reg vehicle, I took out annual European cover for a car last year for use in France through Stuart Collins at a very reasonable cost. That was based on my main residence being in the UK, but without limit on time used in France

You can drive a UK car in Poland for 6 months max, after that it needs to be registered

Does that reset if you return the car to the UK every 5 1/2 momths and can show the travel bookings?

It would reset but you would need to keep the car in the UK for at least 6 months each time you bring it back.

[mikef]

OP mentions cars, I imagine he could rotate cars every six months...

[Bill]

martinbiz said:

If the polish ins co are happy to insure you to drive here and it's much cheaper, then 't's a no brainer. I would make sure you have a Valid MOT and VED. Don't get too hung up about ANPR, just make sure you have an original certificate to show if needed> The chances of getting stopped really are quite slim despite what some on here may say. There was a thread on here a while ago where someone was unknowingly driving around without ins for months and never got pinged or stopped

How's he going to tax it if the insurance is Polish? Plus if it's insured in Poland it won't show on MID so will fall foul of the continuous insurance rules, unless it's SORNed.

[martinbiz]

Bill said:

martinbiz said:

If the polish ins co are happy to insure you to drive here and it's much cheaper, then 't's a no brainer. I would make sure you have a Valid MOT and VED. Don't get too hung up about ANPR, just make sure you have an original certificate to show if needed> The chances of getting stopped really are quite slim despite what some on here may say. There was a thread on here a while ago where someone was unknowingly driving around without ins for months and never got pinged or stopped

How's he going to tax it if the insurance is Polish? Plus if it's insured in Poland it won't show on MID so will fall foul of the continuous insurance rules, unless it's SORNed.

Keep up....You haven't needed insurance to tax a vehicle since CIE came in, just a current MOT if required

If the vehicle is insured by a large multi national (as a lot are these days) then they should be able to add it to a database. A proper original certificate showing UK cover that he can present to the DVLA if contacted. The whole world doesn't revolve around MID

As alluded to earlier, I think the OP's biggest hurdle is getting cover in Poland at a sensible cost

[Decky_Q]

Hi, I drive quite a bit in Poland and have taken cars both ways, a few points.

Dip lights (not sidelights) must always be on!

They hate RHD cars as they are illegal and must be dash swapped if imported so expect scrutiny of lights, duration of stay etc if you are stopped. You'll be there a while in my experience.

I have a live policy in both Poland and here on my polish registered fiat 126, as it was the simplist way not to fall foul in either country. It is tested in Poland and policy here is on the VIN. I think the Polish OC policy was included with another charge and uk one was £180.

Edited by Decky_Q on Thursday 4th April 14:00

[jondude]

I remember back yonder I could get full EU cover through a German company BUT they insisted on the UK car being taxed and registered as needed under UK law. I could tax and MOT it but cancel the UK insurance then....you cannot. Unless you want to drive a SORNed car in Poland.Might be possible, though.


I'd say these days you only have two options.
1. Shop around for a deal here to extend Euro cover on your UK policy.
2. Buy local, insure local.

• I found the company, still out there

https://www.tourinsure.de/en/international-motor-i...

Might be worth getting in touch with them.

[Decky_Q]

Not that easy, to register a car in Poland you need to provide residency and export documents, my car is registered in my polish wife's name for this reason.

[James P]

martinbiz said:

mikef said:

True, you should check out Polish regs and whether they require you to re-register after a given length of time

In terms of insurance for a UK-reg vehicle, I took out annual European cover for a car last year for use in France through Stuart Collins at a very reasonable cost. That was based on my main residence being in the UK, but without limit on time used in France

You can drive a UK car in Poland for 6 months max, after that it needs to be registered

Same position in Italy. We have 2 cars pending change of registration but in the meantime have bought locally registered cars. We’re told that anything arriving in the country after WA will be subject to import taxes.

OP probably also needs to check licence requirements. Anyone becoming resident in Italy after Withdrawal Agreement has 6 months to get an Italian licence, the test being in Italian. The licence exchange was only available to people resident before WA and the exchange programme ended on 31/12/2023.