Car Insurance

Cars / Motoring / Insurance
1

Please forgive what may appear to be a very silly question, but can anyone confirm whether you need a French address to obtain French car insurance?


We are Brits currently living in Canada and have finally (after 10 years) decided to follow our dream and move to France. However, as we are so far away to just pop over to view houses, we are contemplating arriving in France and touring for up to 3 months before choosing our forever home.


As we plan to buy a French car immediately we are unsure as to whether we would need a permanent address to secure insurance. Obviously we want to be insured from Day 1. Can anyone suggest how we can achieve this?


I have emailed a coupe of French Insurance companies but have yet to hear back from them.


Thanks in advance!

2

Thanks for all your advice, I think the plan is to go with British car insurance on a British car for a few months - seems the best option. Certainly won't do Canadian insurance Paul as we are presently paying $6500 per year car insurance, dread to think what they'd charge us outside of the country!!!

4

I don't know if you have tried Bruno Sellier, Cognac, but I use them.They seem to specialise in working with people moving from overseas, are bilingual, although if you want to use your French they don't push the English language and have always been really helpful whenever I have a question about insurance.

5

Hi, I don't know whether it is a legal requirement as such, but you would be hard pressed to find a French insurer willing to insure your vehicle if you do not have some form of residence in the country in question (address, bank account, etc). In theory, it should be possible to be insured for virtually anything by any insurance company, that is, after all, how they run their business. However, from a practical point of view, various national regulations that provide protection to consumers effectively prevent cross-border insurance companies (except for the largest ones that have equivalent, authorised structures) from offering anything worthwhile, and additionally national insurers are not generally inclined to be willing to take risks on events for people that do not fall within their legal jurisdiction.