Help with insuring LHD vehicle with Romanian plates temporarily in UK

extemprod

Hi all

We have a bit of a complex situation. My husband and I are moving to France in five weeks. We were going to wait until we got there to purchase a LHD French-registered vehicle but it turns out that second-hand cars can be much more expensive in France and difficult to source. So we found a great buy on Ebay - Skoda estate with Romanian plates. We have purchased the car and simply want to insure it for the journey to France, where we will register the car with the French authorities. Does anyone have any helpful hints?

The main reason we want to drive the car over and not ship it is because we are taking our three dogs with us to France and want to take them over via the channel tunnel link so we can keep them with us for the entire journey.

Hope this makes sense and that someone out there might be able to advise us. Many thanks in advance!

topdaddy_2

Where is the car?

extemprod

It's sitting on our drive. We live right in the country, so it's not on public view, so to speak. And we live in Scotland.

topdaddy_2

So you want one/two days cover?

extemprod

In essence, yes - although it would be good to get more. Maybe a month? We need to get new tyres for it before the journey - the ones on it are borderline. And then once we're in France, we will need to drive it to get its French MoT.

AdrianC

To drive it through the UK legally, you need to be non-resident in the UK, and you need to have valid Romanian insurance/MOT/tax, because it needs to be legal in the country it's resident in. I seem to remember hearing something about Romania having restrictions on foreign nationals owning Romanian registered vehicles. (If you say "But we're French resident", then it'd need to be French registered to drive it legally in France...)

If you're UK resident or don't want to do the Romanian papers, then you need to UK register it. There's no such thing as "temporary registration" here.

To UK register a foreign-plated vehicle, you need to insure it on the foreign plates or VIN (there'll be a time limit on that), MOT it (again, foreign plates - RHD headlamps and foglight), get an HMRC NOVA certificate to show there's no VAT due, complete a V55/5 form and send it to DVLA with the £55 registration fee plus the cost of a tax disc. If it's under 10yo, you'll also need a Certificate of Compliance (from Skoda UK), plus a dual MPH/KPH marked speedo.

Then, when you get to France, you'll need to go through the Service des Mines process to French register it... and that makes the UK process look like a doddle.

(Are you seeing why it was "cheap" on eBay yet...?)

extemprod

Hmm, thanks for that clarification! We know that we have to go through the process in France for the cars (I'm a translator so, whilst it is still a rigmarole, it's not such a daunting prospect). Perhaps it might be better to ship the car out there and register it in France. And organise a different way of getting our dogs out there. Sigh!

bigjl

As Adrian C has mentioned.

It is possible to drive an unregistered vehicle without reg plates with just the chassis number displayed front and back and Insured via the chassis number.

Have done so several times myself but they were all imported from Japan and rhd.

I would get advice from the DVLA.

Or perhaps just go into a local Insurance office and try to Insure it.

The reason many people buy Eastern European registered vehicles is to drive them uninsured and not be liable for parking tickets and speeding/driving offences.

At least that was the case very often in East London.

Good luck with your quest.

Though you may have to register it on UK plates to insure it.

Might be an idea to have spent a bit more money and bought a car when you got to Francd.

The French are a little bit more protective of their own interests.

And will certainly be wise to people doing the same thing as you have done in an effort to save money.

Personally i would have looked into the before buying the car.

But hopefully you get is sorted.

euanT

Hi Extemprod, I brought a car back from Spain on Spanish plates last year because we had two dogs. I got VIN No insurance whilst I re registered as a UK car, although you are not supposed to drive it in the meantime!! I did, to get to garages etc. and never pulled once!! Traffics did chase after me once, as will show on ANPR as NO TAX, once they spotted the foreign plates put blues & two's off and turned back, too much bother I presume!!!!