Insuring a UK car in France and Spain.
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Steve&Julie
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Insuring a UK car in France and Spain.
Please could anyone help here?
Over Christmas I drove my V70 over left it at a Girona airport to use it as a run-around for most of the year. What's the best way of dealing with Tax and Insurance?
My situation:
The car is registered as a UK (right hand drive) vehicle at my home UK address.
It will spend the next 9 months of the year in Girona Airport car park.
We intend to fly in and out of Spain and drive from the airport to our French property and back to Spain once every 2 to 3 months for 1 to 3 weeks at a time.
We would like to drive it back to the UK around October to MOT it and will drive back to Spain next December.
I have full (10+) years NCD on my UK insurance which is about to expire
How should I insure it?
Do I SORN or Tax it whilst it is outside of the UK?
So far I have discovered that:
I cannot find UK or French insurer as the vehicle is out of both countries for more than 6 months of the year.
I cannot find Spanish insurance because I have not got an address in Spain.
I do however know someone who is happy to allow me to to use his Spanish address (700 of miles away) to give to an insurance company, but I have never been there, or have any connection with it. The Spanish insurance company say they can use my UK address for correspondence but need a Spanish address to register the policy. Would this be legal? would there be any issues that may affect the owner of this Spanish address for any reason, particularly if I had to make a claim?
Thanks for reading.
Over Christmas I drove my V70 over left it at a Girona airport to use it as a run-around for most of the year. What's the best way of dealing with Tax and Insurance?
My situation:
The car is registered as a UK (right hand drive) vehicle at my home UK address.
It will spend the next 9 months of the year in Girona Airport car park.
We intend to fly in and out of Spain and drive from the airport to our French property and back to Spain once every 2 to 3 months for 1 to 3 weeks at a time.
We would like to drive it back to the UK around October to MOT it and will drive back to Spain next December.
I have full (10+) years NCD on my UK insurance which is about to expire
How should I insure it?
Do I SORN or Tax it whilst it is outside of the UK?
So far I have discovered that:
I cannot find UK or French insurer as the vehicle is out of both countries for more than 6 months of the year.
I cannot find Spanish insurance because I have not got an address in Spain.
I do however know someone who is happy to allow me to to use his Spanish address (700 of miles away) to give to an insurance company, but I have never been there, or have any connection with it. The Spanish insurance company say they can use my UK address for correspondence but need a Spanish address to register the policy. Would this be legal? would there be any issues that may affect the owner of this Spanish address for any reason, particularly if I had to make a claim?
Thanks for reading.
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Pearsonb
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Smiley G
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This is a difficult one as I suspect;
You are U.K. Tax Residents and...........
You do not wish to re-register the Volvo in France.
You may wish to explore the option of buying a second-hand LHD car and registering it to your French address (You should have evidence of this) and taking out a French Insurance policy, the likes of GAN's Oxygene, which would cover the Spanish side of things.
Be warned though, this will be expensive.
If you do not want to go down this path, contact a specialist U.K. insurance broker. They will need a precise breakdown, over a twelve month period of;
1 Where the car will be and for how long. (I suggest you prepare a spreadsheet showing month by month details.)
2 Mileage breakdown.
3 Parking details for all 3 countries.
Good luck, please feel free to PM me with details as a key issue will be your Tax Residency status.
You are U.K. Tax Residents and...........
You do not wish to re-register the Volvo in France.
You may wish to explore the option of buying a second-hand LHD car and registering it to your French address (You should have evidence of this) and taking out a French Insurance policy, the likes of GAN's Oxygene, which would cover the Spanish side of things.
Be warned though, this will be expensive.
If you do not want to go down this path, contact a specialist U.K. insurance broker. They will need a precise breakdown, over a twelve month period of;
1 Where the car will be and for how long. (I suggest you prepare a spreadsheet showing month by month details.)
2 Mileage breakdown.
3 Parking details for all 3 countries.
Good luck, please feel free to PM me with details as a key issue will be your Tax Residency status.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
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Smiley G
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Allan
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I'm curious, why would your tax residency have any bearing on a contract between you and a private insurance company?Smiley G wrote: Good luck, please feel free to PM me with details as a key issue will be your Tax Residency status.
On another point, you cannot legally have a SORN if you take the car abroad, it has to be taxed and have an MOT.
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alan
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We have a second home in France but are not residents and looked into doing something along the lines suggested. We also looked into buying a car in Spain when my brother was resident there and using his address as an "accommodation" address.
There is a massive amount of information on ex-pat forums, much of which is conflicting, and European law is just as relevant as contractual relationships with insurers. We decided against it, essentially because we could not be certain that we would not have problems if we were ever to have to make a claim or even in the event that we had to produce documentation following, perhaps, a traffic violation.
Another factor which influenced us was that we could never be certain that there would be regular flights throughout the year to the aiprort in question. We frequently flew from Gatwick to Girona but that route was cancelled and I have recently written elsewhere about the cancellation of our flights from Birmingham to Perpignan.
We also considered buying a car and leaving it near our French home - making our way to and from the airport by other means - but felt this was not practical, when we are away more than in France, and therefore wouldn't be able to deal promptly with the vehicle being damaged by someone else, or to move the car if required for resurfacing work or whatever.
Perhaps if the car was kept at Barcelona in Spain or Toulouse in France, there would be certainty of flights always being available but elsewhere who knows. However, the costs would no doubt be high.
What we do is to book flights to whichever airport we can, acknowledging that plans might have to change, and hire a car or, where possible, use public transport.
There is a massive amount of information on ex-pat forums, much of which is conflicting, and European law is just as relevant as contractual relationships with insurers. We decided against it, essentially because we could not be certain that we would not have problems if we were ever to have to make a claim or even in the event that we had to produce documentation following, perhaps, a traffic violation.
Another factor which influenced us was that we could never be certain that there would be regular flights throughout the year to the aiprort in question. We frequently flew from Gatwick to Girona but that route was cancelled and I have recently written elsewhere about the cancellation of our flights from Birmingham to Perpignan.
We also considered buying a car and leaving it near our French home - making our way to and from the airport by other means - but felt this was not practical, when we are away more than in France, and therefore wouldn't be able to deal promptly with the vehicle being damaged by someone else, or to move the car if required for resurfacing work or whatever.
Perhaps if the car was kept at Barcelona in Spain or Toulouse in France, there would be certainty of flights always being available but elsewhere who knows. However, the costs would no doubt be high.
What we do is to book flights to whichever airport we can, acknowledging that plans might have to change, and hire a car or, where possible, use public transport.
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Steve&Julie
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Thanks for the suggestions and comments
Alan: We can access Liverpool, Mancester, Blackpool or even Birmingham at a pinch. There has always been flights to Girona from at least one of these. Even if we have to fly to Barcelona we could probably get the airport shuttle bus to and from Girona, or if all else fails get a taxi. Car hire has cost around £2000 per year for the past 7 years so even if insurance is a bit more than I would usually pay, it's likely to be worth it. We're out in the sticks up a mountain so public transport is a non-starter.
Smilley G: Thanks. I have replied. Of the insurers I have contacted (quite a few) The country of vehicle registration does not seem to be a problem to them as long as the car is legal in that country. The problem I have is that the car cannot be out of the country it is insured in for more than 90 days. So it would seem that Spanish insurance is the only one I can go for. Unfortunately I must have a Spanish address to get Spanish insurance. although they will accept the postcode of the car park as it's overnight address and will accept a UK correspondence address.
I have a breakdown of miles times parking and rough dates.
Personb: I'm over 50 so I will try Saga. Thanks.
Any other suggestions will be gratefully received. If I find a solution I will post it of course.
Thanks
Steve
Alan: We can access Liverpool, Mancester, Blackpool or even Birmingham at a pinch. There has always been flights to Girona from at least one of these. Even if we have to fly to Barcelona we could probably get the airport shuttle bus to and from Girona, or if all else fails get a taxi. Car hire has cost around £2000 per year for the past 7 years so even if insurance is a bit more than I would usually pay, it's likely to be worth it. We're out in the sticks up a mountain so public transport is a non-starter.
Smilley G: Thanks. I have replied. Of the insurers I have contacted (quite a few) The country of vehicle registration does not seem to be a problem to them as long as the car is legal in that country. The problem I have is that the car cannot be out of the country it is insured in for more than 90 days. So it would seem that Spanish insurance is the only one I can go for. Unfortunately I must have a Spanish address to get Spanish insurance. although they will accept the postcode of the car park as it's overnight address and will accept a UK correspondence address.
I have a breakdown of miles times parking and rough dates.
Personb: I'm over 50 so I will try Saga. Thanks.
Any other suggestions will be gratefully received. If I find a solution I will post it of course.
Thanks
Steve
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Prosserp
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Our friend was in the same position as you. We came to an agreement , he left his uk car with us , and we registered it on his behalf to his french address , and we used his vehicle until he was coming over , we used to then drive to girona and bring him back to his french house and leave the vehicle with him and take him back to the airport after his break .
This worked well for them and us
This worked well for them and us