French mot

Hi We have just bought a French registered car in the UK. The car has a current British MOT but needs a French equivalent. We are planning to drive the car to our house in France and leave it there. Can anyone tell me if we can drive the car to our French house without a French MOT ? How do we get French car insurance without French MOT. We have tried a couple of insurance companies in the uk but so far haven’t got very far.
thanks

Maureen you did get all the correct paperwork with the car when you bought it didn’t you? Did you buy it privately from the actual owner? Did he give you a “code” and has he completed the process on the French government online system that the seller has to complete when a French registered vehicle changes hands? Do you have the registration document?
Make sure that side of things is all in order before you drive the car to France, otherwise you may have a bigger problem than getting it CT’d.

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Good advice, but who are you? I’m not sure I can put up with this anonymous stuff.

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@Maureen_Ashman , good luck, but make sure you have all the necessary boxes ticked, or computer says No.

Would you like to scan my pass sanitaire?
Anonymous how? You can call me Sandcastle. My friends call me Sandy.
I am not sure what your point is but as I seem to remember explaining in my very first post, it was the dropping of the requirement to display one’s full name on a forum that can be accessed by anybody and everybody anywhere in the world, that gave me confidence to join as opposed to read only. So if you are asking me to post my name, I’m sorry but the answer is no.
I probably anonymously read your posts and saw your name for years, so did many others and they still do, and that doesn’t bother you?

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I’m delighted to note that you are vaccinated. Well done.

That’s a good question and in fact I raised it here quite a long time ago. I even jokingly changed my name to include “© all rights reserved” for a while. So I have given the matter due consideration.

I’m actually very concerned about personal information acquisition, specifically by Google, Facebook, Twitter etc. I never log in to Google, I use none of their apps and I use a pseudonym for Facebook and Twitter, which is not a totally secure but I only use those sites when I have no choice. You may think you are anonymous here but if you use any social media they have far more data about you than could ever be garnered by trawling through SF threads.

So why doesn’t using my name bother me here? Well, first of all I don’t post anything here that I wouldn’t say to somebody’s face. Secondly, I am beholding to no one so I post what I believe and am prepared to defend it if challenged. And lastly, I don’t really think any bad actors who stumbled across my posts would give a damn what some old fart pottering around in the Var thinks :slightly_smiling_face:

It’s just that if somebody comes on here and posts something I prefer to respond to Bill or Fred or Anne rather than Bumblebee or Sinbad the Sailor etc. I’ve noticed that since the “change” I’m visiting less and responding less when I do, and I believe it’s because I"m not really bothered in interacting with anonymous, faceless people.

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Thanks we bought the car private
Ly. We have the registration paperwork. We bought car from lovely couple who have now returned to live in UK we will go on french site and check out if paperwork has been done.very helpful thxs

There is another consideration - you need to provide proof of domicile which needs to be your principal residence rather than a second home. If you are not fiscally domiciled in France you will not be able to provide this.

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Sandy Sandcastle would work well for me! I am having difficulty responding to chocolate button, bozoboxer etc etc. But Jill Button or Bill Bozoboxer is fine. Stupid really, as it’s just letters, but people having a “name” is pretty firmly embedded. And if no picture then a recognisable names becomes v helpful.

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I wrote this for another group -
Mark Rimmer·Sunday, 6 January 2019·

I seem to be getting quite a few requests for help from people who have bought french cars only to discover that they cannot register them. Buying french cars in the UK can be especially hazardous as it may be that the seller has either registered the sale to a third party on ANTS or may not be the person on the carte grise. If you are not able to liaise with the title holder directly then if there is an anomaly with the registration you will NOT be able to register or use the car - ever.

  1. Make SURE that you get the CARTE GRISE.
  2. The previous title holder (the name that is on the CG) should provide you with a code de cession. When this is done the seller registers the buyer’s details with ANTS & can then fill in a “cession” form online to print out (see 2). It is possible to register without but you will need to be able to contact the seller as you may need their personal details.
  3. You should both have a copy of a cession d’un vehicle form Cerfa 15776*01.
  4. You should be given a certificat de situation administrative. This is generated automatically online by the seller, printed out & given to the buyer. It will (hopefully) confirm that there is no official reason why the vehicle cannot be re-registered.

Traders & garages have a variation of the above but should be able to provide paperwork showing a link - seller to garage, garage to another garage (perhaps) & garage to new owner.

With a private sale the person you are buying from must have the CG in their name. If not there is a good chance that ANTS will have the wrong buyer registered with them so when YOU go online & enter your details they will not match. Your application for a new CG will be refused.

The selling & buying process is covered in another file so make sure you read it & understand it. If you then have any questions, well, that is why you joined the forum so ask!

The above refers to standard purchases. Barn finds & inherited vehicles are slightly different.

https://www.legipermis.com/estimation-cote-voiture/vendre-sans-carte-grise.html?fbclid=IwAR0tBS60UQnxHXaA_nu5i4DqBg5GZjpeDsFePkvbCzZRVtc3-d_spKvcSA4

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Thanks so much Mark. Are the barn finds in the above link?

I’d get rid of the FaceBook tracking ID in the link Mark - remove the ‘?fbclid=’ and the string of random-looking characters following it.

https://urlclean.com/ can be useful

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https://www.legipermis.com/estimation-cote-voiture/

I just cant wait to see what happens to all those UK regd cars owned by both 2nd home owners and Brits living here. We have 8 to my knowledge in the surrounding area.

2nd home owners *could* be OK if they are making sure the car gets back to the UK once a year for an annual MOT and are maintaining road tax and insurance.

How many will do/are doing this, no idea, but my guess is that the answer is “not many” with most preferring to keep the car SORNed and without MOT and thus without insurance.

They might, however, get away with either not being stopped for a random check as not on French plates (have been in this situation - clearly would have been flagged down until UK plate spotted then waved through) or the checks being perfunctory if they are stopped (do/can the gendarmes get UK MOT data for instance?)

[Aside- To half answer the above - yes, there is no bar on access from France to the UK’s “check MOT” website so the question becomes one of procedure rather than ability.]

For residents, even if they were making an annual pilgrimage and keeping the car legal in the UK would, of course, fall foul of the law in France, once again I presume if a car is still on UK plates chances are it is SORNed and without current MOT or insurance.

The real question is how likely are these people to get found out - they are in a position where “'fessing up” is almost certain to cause them grief so they probably won’t and take their chances. Until they get stopped for a check I can’t see how the system could identify them. Cross checking UK SORN data and owner’s name and DoB against CdS applications might be a start but “de nos jours” I don’t think that much co-operation between French and UK law authorities is possible.

Sad but true :thinking:

Found out or, of course, if they have an accident all papers will be checked. And not only could they be liable for all costs but also face a hefty fine (and potentially prison depending on the seriousness of the accident?) for driving illegally.

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Absolutely, and I’m all for making their lives significantly more complicated as a result.

But any resident who is still on UK plates will probably not bother to regularise their position and I suspect a lot will, indeed, get away with it.

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I have often thought of tucking notes under the wipers of offending vehicles saying “the official record of your vehicle shows that it has no MOT/has been declared off road. If this is incorrect you may wish to correct this. Otherwise this vehicle is on the road illegally and may be confiscated, unless the owner pays a fine and regularises the position.”

But I guess that’s a but mean as one should live and let live - unless of course it’s me they hit in an accident!

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It does happen though. I had a call a while back from someone whose UK Transit had been impounded by the gendarmes due to it being on UK plates (for 3 years). He was given a week to register it.
It was probably destroyed as to register such a vehicle - a tipper - is quite a lengthy process & probably not worth the money.
He is not the only one!

I wonder if that was a gendarme with local knowledge.