The “insurance company” is wrong. I know from personal experience that Axa and MAAF at least do know the law. Is it perhaps a broker, not an insurance company that’s telling them this? If so which one? Your friends could easily Google the facts because IMO if they do have a claim the insurance company could potentially refuse to pay out and the broker won’t give a damn.
As I say, I don’t care, but they are breaking the law and I’m interested as why they can’t just comply. English exceptionalism, these Froggy (and indeed EU) rules don’t apply to us ?
Update. After posting this I felt a bit guilty. Maybe it’s difficult to find out what the law is I thought. So I Googled it… first hit…“It is against the law for the resident of an EU country, while in that country, to drive any vehicle registered in another EU country”
Source: http://www.rivierareporter.com/motoring/124-using-a-foreign-car-in-france
So, IMHO, if they say they don’t know they are breaking the law, with all due respect, they are lying. I don’t care what they do but feigning ignorance of the law annoys me.
For years every new car sold in the EU (including the UK) has an EU CoC delivered with it. I’ve bought two new and one used car in the UK over the last ten years and all came with an EU CoC in the paperwork. If ones buys a car in the UK one should just demand they give you a CoC. It’s not an extra.
I will join in this discussion more fully when time allows but at the moment I am dealing with quite a few import registrations…
Most insurance companies will insure a foreign registered car for a limited amount of time, usually 6 to 12 weeks, to allow the registration process to go through. They have told me that this is french law. I have heard of some agents that continue to issue insurance beyond the allowed time, sometimes anually, but I wonder what would happen in the event of a serious claim?
Valid insurance is surely a social responsibility to your fellow motorists & chances should not be taken.
I had an interesting case a few weeks ago when I had a call to assist in registering a UK tipper truck. It had been impounded by the gendarmes for having “false” plates. The truck had been here for three years on its UK plates without a return visit. DVLA consider a vehicle to be permanently exported after a year & I would guess that other countries are similar. This means that after a year outside the UK the registration number would not be valid so such a vehicle, not sporting any country’s valid registration, would be unregistered so the number would indeed be false, with consequences to insurance.
The owner was given a week to get it registered or it would be crushed & asked for my help.
Apart from the fact that ANTS are taking on average 4 to 6 weeks for a standard import & this tipper would need a partial attestation of national conformity AND a DREAL inspection for the tipper body, the week was not going to be long enough.
I have to admit that I had zero sympathy!
With the advent of the UK’s final departure from the Block I think the gendarmes will become less forgiving of the somewhat laid back attitude to many brits & their attitude to their vehicles.
By the way, if you import a car you have 15 days from the date of entry to declare your import to your local tax office & one month to at least start the registration process with ANTS.
Modern British registered cars shouldn’t have a problem with conformity as all the details should be on the V5C except the DVLA don’t always put all the correct information on the V5C & you will need a certificate of conformity from the manufacturer to re-register in France.
It’s not strictly illegal for an EU resident to drive a foreign registered vehicle ie there is no offence of “Driving a foreign registered vehicle”. In the UK at least it’s because the exemption from needing road tax on a foreign registered vehicle only applies when driven by a foreign resident. The offence would be driving an untaxed vehicle.
Hello Marc. I’m glad you are here. Please can you explain why I have been blocked from your Registering a Vehicle in France Facebook group? I wrote you an email enquiring if you could register a vehicle for me as I am a new French resident with no access to ANTS. I wrote to the other professionals listed on your group asking the same question. You were a bit slow responding compared to the others. After I emailed back to explain that I didn’t need your services as I had chosen one of the others I discovered that I could no longer access or even find your group.
I don’t believe that’s true Nigel, I think you’re making it up What UK legislation makes it illegal to drive a foreign registered car untaxed? All foreign reregistered cars in the UK, on vacation, for work, transiting are untaxed. But if you can point me to the legislation I happily retract my comment.
This is an EU wide law and has nothing to do with British road tax. Which nobody outside of Swansea cares about. I just don’t understand why people struggle with this law. Did you read my link… “It is against the law for the resident of an EU country, while in that country, to drive any vehicle registered in another EU country. So a person who is a resident of France may only drive a French-registered car while they are in France (with the exception of cross-border workers)”. It couldn’t be more clear.
Plus, the V5C is a British document and the CoC is an EU document and the V5C proves nothing about conformity to anybody, once again with the possible exception of Swansea. It just proves you haven’t nicked the car. I’ve imported a car from Germany and a car from Italy and both needed their registration documents and a CoC. Neither the German nor Italian registration documents were accepted as proof of conformity.
I don’t want to cause offence, but I think you are looking at this very much from a British point of view. Both the law above and the CoC are EU wide matters.
After Transition cars manufactured in the UK will still have to comply with EU CoC requirements. As will every good or service exported to the EU. Taking back control, what! LoL.
Seeing as you have brought this up here it was because having just arrived “in country” you started posting incorrect & illegal advice. When you were corrected by another member you continued your debate by sending them messages that were less than complementary, untrue & undeserved.
That is not acceptable.
I notice that you seem to apply what seems to be UK legislation to the french system too although there are sometimes fundamental differences between the two countries.
Until you have a greater understanding of the french registration system it would be best to refrain from commenting & instead listen, read & learn.
John, I said that the exemption from having road tax no longer applies to a foreign vehicle if it’s not being driven by a foreign driver. There is no EU wide law on this because there is no EU wide law on anything. There are Directives & Regulations but they need to be implemented in national legislation.
For recent vehicles the V5C should have all the information necessary for ANTS to re-register the vehicle but is often incomplete so the CoC will be required. ANTS do accept the V5C when it has all the information necessary.
Mark, it’s several weeks since I last left any comment in your Facebook group. If you are referring to a discussion on the well known controversy as to whether non-residents can register a car in France then your views are well known. I contributed to the discussion by pointing out that ANTS publish in their FAQs an explanation of how someone living abroad can register a car in France for use during their holidays. I certainly did not send anyone messages that were “less than complementary, untrue & undeserved.” so someone is lying or mistaken & it certainly isn’t me.
That discussion in your group took place several weeks ago so I was surprised that after inquiring regarding you registering a vehicle for me that when I emailed back to explain that I didn’t need your services as I had chosen someone else that I found that I could no longer access or even find your group as I had accessed it on the same day as I emailed you just two days before.
BTW it’s a bit difficult to " listen, read & learn" regarding Registering a Vehicle in France when I am forbidden access to your Facebook group.
@anon90504988 has been a member of this site almost since the day it opened and has done nothing but provide sound, helpful, correct advice to hundreds if not thousands, of readers.
I find your use of the phrase ‘a bit coincidental’ quite unpleasant as well as uncalled for and am politely requesting that you remove it before posting again. Thanks.
Mark, come the day I will more 'n likey need the kind of service you offer. However, I don’t do FB. Is there another way to contact you about your services?
Thanks John, spoke with dealership this morning and they tell me it should arrive this week.
I am also waiting for confirmation from them of the arrival of a spare part which has been arriving this week for at least 5 weeks now.
We shall see !!
And would you choose to enter into that discussion with them Nigel? I wouldn’t. They say CoC and CoC’s are readily available, so it’s CoCs all the way for me. Prior to ANTS we had a registration prevention department here in Town and trying to get them to see reason face to face was generally a total waste of time. I doubt the remote ANTS is any better.
My experience with French officialdom is that if you have all the correct paperwork you are at least in with a shout of things going swimmingly. For those who do not “all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries”. As Brutus would say if he was trying to register his chariot here.
John, It seems that half the discussions in Mark’s Registering a Vehicle in France Facebook group that I have been banned from are to do with whether a CoC will be required or not & half the time Mark’s verdict is that they will not.
I don’t do Facebook and if I did I couldn’t think of a more boring subject than vehicle registration. Well. maybe a watching paint dry enthusiasts forum. IMO life is hard enough so if they want a CoC I just give them a CoC. You can spend the rest of your life proving a point, I just get my CGs and moved on. I’ve registered five cars here, one from Germany, one from Italy, one from Ireland and two from the UK, one of them a VAT free export. I’ve always used a CoC and I’ve never had a problem. If anybody wants to avoid using a CoC (other that with a vehicle that was built before they became mandatory) then good luck to them. I’ve better things to do.
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What UK legislation makes it illegal to drive a foreign registered car untaxed? All foreign reregistered cars in the UK, on vacation, for work, transiting are untaxed. But if you can point me to the legislation I happily retract my comment.