We live in the uk but are gradually getting close to full timing in france. As a uk resident can I buy /register /insure and keep a motor home in france. The reason is that they seem much cheaper to buy over there.
I would have to keep it in storage and fly out to use it for several weeks at a time as I understand I cannot bring it over to the uk
Is this possible as I know people keep caravans there.
David
You need a French address to have the camper. If you have a French address then that is the one you would give in the UK. That covers what the DVLA because you can then justifiably claim to be a resident of France. You would simply need to say that your UK address is your second address. Since your starting point was saying you are close to being full time in France, I am assuming you would not have the camper until you have an address here. If, on the other hand, you wish to live in a camper here from the word go, without somewhere to live you would neither find insuring nor eventually getting a French licence possible. In that case you would need to have a UK camper but then again if you were obeying the law, unless it regularly went in and out of the country and had UK insurance with European cover and up to date MOT you would have to have it tested (CT) here and re-registered. Balance out the costs and ultimately it would probably come out even unless your starting point is the French residence.
Hi Brian
See quote from DVLA
Driving with a foreign registration number
UK residents aren’t allowed to use non-UK registered vehicles on UK roads. The only exceptions are if you:
work in another EU member state and use an EU-registered company car temporarily in the UK
lease an EU-registered car and use this temporarily in the UK
As I read it that scuppers my plans to use in uk. You say I would need a registered address to register vehicle. If I had a second /holiday home in France does that count even if I reside in uk
My French registered cars usually do as many kilometres in Blighty than they do in France & insurance here will cover the EU so no problems there David.
If you have an address here for the registration you can naturally buy one, indeed if you are here long enough to register a purchase and have insurance then all the better. We know a family, SFN member( the wife, who might see this and confirm) who go to the UK with their camper at least twice year, just like any French visitors, so where does the not allowed to take it to the UK come from? That is, unless you mean to permanently keep and re-register in which case some costly modifications such as adding miles to the speedometer, lights and mirrors may make it not worth doing. As long as you have an ideally off road place to keep it and everything up-to-date there is no other reason not to have one.