30-08-14, 07:07 PM
A mate lives in the South of France and has done for over 20 years now. Both his and his wife's cars are UK registered at his mothers address and his UK driving licence is also at his mothers address. He gets to come over here often enough that both cars get an MoT and tax. That isn't quite straightforward as DVLA will only accept insurance from a UK insurance company (one that lists on MID so can be checked online) and French insurance is far cheaper. French insurers aren't bothered what plates are on the vehicle as long as it is legal in it's country of registration, so he has been known to get UK insurance on a car online, tax it and then cancel the policy. There was a situation about 5 years ago where an ex-pat with a UK registered car, with a valid Controle Technique (French MoT) and French insurance was involved in an accident. There was an argument over who was at fault and an assessor got involved. As it was a UK registered car, he checked on what it needed to make it legal here and asked for the UK MoT certificate and tax disc, neither of which it had so the rejected the claim and cancelled his French insurance. This scared a lot of ex-pats as the cost of driving to the UK, getting an MoT, insurance and tax and then driving back would come to around a grand so the cars were put up for sale at stupid prices as they daren't carry on using them. I bought a £2k Seat Alhambra for 200 Euros, a £30k SL55 AMG Merc for £8k and had an Audi A4 given to me, bought them all back here and sold them on. In France you can do it legally if are prepared to do a bit of work and have a reason to come back to the UK at least once a year but if you don't, then it looks like you are going to be stitched up and have to change registration. Not so much of a problem with a bike but it is with a car. Trying to sell a French, or Spanish, registered RHD car would be pretty nigh impossible so changing the registration isn't such a good idea if you ever intend selling the car. What some have done is not cancelled the UK registration, just put a car on SORN then put it on French plates. At least then it is still registered in both countries so you can swap plates over if you want to sell it.