Sister's lent me her car

Cars / Motoring / Insurance
61

Should have gone to Sweden

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62

So as I understand it you can own a French car in France either resident or holiday home owner and the car is insured (as the car ) and can be loaned to anyone coming to visit. We can take our French car back to UK and drive it, but our daughter or anyone else who is insured to drive it cannot in the UK due to customs restrictions.

In the UK we can drive our daughters car providing we have been added to the insurance. But if she comes to France in her car we cannot drive it again due to customs restrictions. ( in fact it is sitting in our drive in France at the moment and we are using our camper as she has taken our car to go to a wedding) We could buy a car in UK and keep it at our daughters let her use it and use it ourselves if we flew back.

All of these issues are customs regulations and if we disobeyed them we could risk having the car confiscated.

63

As I understand it now you could drive it because it is not your car, you wouldn’t be on the vehicle registration document?

And also there is this one month rule to register which wouldn’t apply if the car is in France temporarily and intended to go back to the UK?

64

You pretty well have it :+1:

I am resident in France with a house in the UK where I have a UK registered car to use in the UK. I cannot though, if I want to bring it to France, drive it off the ferry…unless I plan to keep it here and register it here :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

65

There is a lot of inaccurate information being produced on this thread.

If anyone is genuinely concerned by these issues, I suggest that you contact the relevant authorities in the countries concerned rather than relying on well-meaning but possibly erroneous advice here.

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66

Thanks Adamput down my understand of the situation and not wanting to have a vehicle confiscates that is what I am keeping to

67

Does anyone else use an iPad I am having real problems as the top advert hides what I am typing is there anyway to get rid of it?

68

I would not worry too much - I doubt the Douanes have time on their hands to check if every uk car on the road does not have a French person at the helm :rofl:

I would though be worried about insurance if you had a scrape - they are slippery snakes and will use anything to slip out of paying…

You should be able to tap on aa arrow head on the left side, under the ad and a text box will appear at the bottom, if that is, it is same as an iphone…

69

That is correct.

70

It’s actually very straight forward but people just won’t accept it :joy:

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71

Yes, I’ve the same problem, I prefer using my laptop. But if I only have my iPad on hand I just turn it from landscape to portrait.

72

I do, and it does, and I don’t know

73

Landscape to portrait good idea

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74

As a resident of France you cannot register a car in the UK.

75

Friends of ours, UK resident, have a holliday home here and, a few years ago bought and insured a French reg car to keep here for visits. Several people told them that was illegal so they went into it with all competant authorities and were told ‘it used not to be, but it is now’.

So does that mean the UK is different from France in this particular respect?

76

So it previously wasn’t illegal but now is
? Or have you got your negatives mixed up?

77

It was illegal, but now it is not illegal.

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78

I asked the DVLA at the time, a good few years ago now, and they did not mind. All that iterests them is that the car is registered at a UK address, all road taxes and fines and inspection dues are paid.

Not sure if there is anything this end that says I cannot own a car registered in another country - I have never asked :grinning:

79

I’m resident in France and the camper, motorbikes and car registered in my name are all registered in France. My wife is still resident in the UK (until her business is sold in the next month or so.) The car registered in her name is registered in the UK. All legal.
Despite the different primary residences we spend most of the time together. When she is in France and we’re travelling in her car we share the driving. So I, a resident of France, am sometimes driving a UK registered car in France. I am a named driver on the insurance (who know I am a French resident). There is a letter in the car signed by my wife giving me permission to drive it. We’ve been advised this is OK by various sources including:
A senior Gendarme who I meet at gatherings of motorcyclists tells me this is fine.
The douane at Ouistreham who challenged us recently because one of my French registered bikes was on a trailer behind our English registered car. Once they understood the situation (took a bit of explaining,) they agreed our arrangement was correct and legal.
But officials can be wrong and give bad advice.
Would be intrigued to know people’s opinions on this.

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80

I think you can. Here’s a case study :slightly_smiling_face:

In 2010 my wife bought a Golf GTD in northern Ireland and she reregistered it in France the following year. Christmas 2012 we had snow and none of our FWD or RWD cars could get up the drive so we decided to get a little 4X4 instead. The GTD was RHD so we needed to trade it in the UK and I contacted VW export sales for a quote on a LHD Tiguan. We did a deal over the phone and I took the ferry to the UK. I pitched up at a UK car registration office (they were incredibly nice and helpful) with all my paperwork (including permission from the VW dealership to use their address) and (re)registered the GTD. I then drove to the dealership on the North Circular, met a charming salesman, took delivery of the Tiguan and headed for the Chunnel :slightly_smiling_face:

So, not only can a French resident register a car in the UK, they can do it and sell it all within a day :slightly_smiling_face:

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