My wife and I live in London. I am Welsh, she is French. Her mother has given my wife her 1992 Citroen AX and we have processed the correct forms from the prefecture in Lyon, France for exporting the vehicle. It has temporary plates that we have been told can be on the car for a period of one month before we register the vehicle in the UK.
Problem 1
The car needs to be insured for me to get it from France, but no insurance company will insure the vehicle until it is on UK soil. The French will not insure the vehicle as it is in my wife's name and she lives in London! How do other people do this?
Problem 2
With every car sale (although in this case it was a gift) immediately prior to the car (owner)being exchanged their must be an MOT (or French equivalent - which we have valid documentation of). Do we need to have another MOT when we register the car here? And is there a form I need for customs and excise? (this is not a brand new car)
Problem 3
Is there a way of registering the car as UK plated now? This would make the car British and registered to us here in London, thus allowing us to insure the car for the journey home and afterwards?
If you could help with any os these issues and indeed, if you need to raise any others that I am not aware of, please let me know as soon as possible.
cheers JK
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To be honest a LHD Citroen AX is likely to be of such little value that its not worth the cost of the petrol to drive it to the UK from Lyon. No offence intended, but that's the reality of it.
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Last year I bought a second hand imported car.
Regarding problem 1:The car was initially insured with the chassis number used as an identifier. Once I had registered the car in the UK I had to inform the insurance company of the UK registration number. The difference with me was that the car was already on UK soil when I was insuring it.
Problem 2: I needed a british MOT certificate to register the car. The MOT certificate was returned to me with the new UK registration number stamped on it.
Problem 3: It may be difficult to register the car in the UK unless you have a british MOT certificate. However, as I have stated above, you can insure the car in UK as it can be identified by its chassis number.
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I used to import cars which were going to get, but on collection in Europe did not have, a UK registration. Norwich Union used to issue insurance based on the VIN number which was then carried over to the UK registration.
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When I brought a car from Germany the German temporary export plates also had basic insurance with them. Can you do this in France?
I booked insurance in the UK based on the car's chassis number and got it MoT'd on the chassis number. The MoT was then updated when I regsitered the car.
Easy, but I was importing a car that I couldn't get in the UK so I had to do it!
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To remove a 13 year old LH drive Ax from its natural habitat and take it somewhere else is cruelty. It will wither and die very quickly. Leave it where it is for a few euros and it will probably have a long and fruitful life.
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This info is too late to be of use to JK as the car is already registered in his wife's name, but it may help someone else.
Watching a quiz show on French satellite TV last night when a section on motoring and French law came up with the question:
"Whose insurance pays out if you have an accident on the way home with a newly-bought secondhand car you haven't insured?"
Much to my surprise, the answer from the studio experts was that the insurance of the vendor is valid until midnight of the day of purchase.
So anyone buying a car in France can legally drive it home (presumably to anywhere in the EU as insurances are cross-border) rapidly.
If the journey gets hot they might also benefit from a couple of other answers: it is legal to drive in France displaying a naked torso but not wearing thong sandals. And, again to my surprise, no offence is committed if you flash other motorists to warn of gendarme speed traps.
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