Car insurance

Hello everyone - I would be grateful for any advice!

We are moving over permanently to France from the UK at the beginning of October and bringing our UK registered Kia, which I'll re-register once we get to France. We have sold our house in the UK.
Now, can I insure a UK registered car with a French insurance company? I am guessing not?
We do not have an alternative UK address I can use temporarily with our UK insurers..
What to do?

Thanks,
Ruth

Hi Ruth,
I insured a uk reg car through my french bank, while I was getting it registered here in france. The only proviso was that the green windscreen sticker for the insurance was only valid for a month at a time and they would only renew it three times, once I had it registered with french plates, they changed the reg on the insurance .
I would only add make sure you have the certificate of conformity for the car, the original bill of sale and your no claims discount

Pm me if you require any other info

Regards

Chris

Ps the following link should help.

http://limousin.angloinfo.com/information/transport/vehicle-ownership/eu-vehicle/

We insured through a French insurance company, but their conditions were the same as Jacarutu - a month at a time with a maximum of three months before we had to have it re-registered.

Ahhh, ok, thanks! That will make life alot easier.. I intend to re-register the car in France ASAP after our arrival & have the Cert of conformity, bill of sale etc all ready to go.. Thanks for the advice-I feel alot better now..

Make copies of all documents you have to provide to the Prefecture when you go for reregistering the car with French plates (immatriculation), as they need originals of a lot of them.

Duly noted Myriam - thanks!

Hi
also if your car requires a control technic before you can complete the paperwork make sure your head lights can be either switched over(usually only able to be done on exspensive models) or buy yourself a set of lights for france and bring them with you to fit on arrival. As a new set of headlights over here will cost you an arm and a leg plus fitting. As said also get your certificate of conformity sorted ASAP.We got ours for our landrover via landrover france and this was supplied in french. A document showing VAT has been paid on the vehicle is also a must. Plus your DVLC log book is needed and as said make sure you also get an insurance No Claims Document showing your entitlement before you come from your old insurer.
Simmo in the Correze.

Hi Simmo - yep, got the headlight units on order and booked in to be fitted just before we leave the UK. All other documents in hand. Only thing that might be a problem is KIA uk happily supplied the Cert of Conformity in English but deny they have ever provided same in French, either through Kia UK or Kia France for a vehicle first registered in the UK.. So I will have to take my chances with that one and hope for the best...

Thanks to all for your advice - I am quite relaxed about the process of re-registering (rightly or wrongly!!) - I imagine if I turn up with incorrect or missing documents they will simply send me away to fetch whatever's missing... It was more that I couldn't see a way around the insurance problem but now have emails into our French bank and house insurers to see if they can help us.  

Hi Its Simmo again
For the first year when ever we had an offical meeting i use to carry a leather zip folder with all my doc's in. They always seem to want a utility bill showing your name and address no more than three months old. When we signed for the house the Notaire also wanted to see that we had insurance cover from the day of signing even though we had paid in cash and had no Mortgage. The CPAM also wanted our E form originals not copies,now called the S1 form and some CPAM's are now asking for your birth and marriage certificates to be accompanied with a translation done by an offical french translator with the officials stamp on.We visited our local registar before we left the UK and got extra copies of every document and were glad we did as it saved loads of return trips this end and the french offical is always impressed with a full set of the required documents in a plastic file.Even the police are impressed with a full up to date document file and a bonjour officer!. Also when you change your number plates on reregistration make sure the new plates are riveted on not screwed as you can be fined by your keen local police officer if stopped.As most brits find out to their cost over here never never roll a stop sign either its a 90 euro spot fined.I of course never break the law or up set my local english speaking police officer as they have a very long memory and do not get on the wrong side of your marie other than that lifes a doddle.

Simmo in the Correze

simmo wrote:Hi Its Simmo again
For the first year when ever we had an offical meeting i use to carry a leather zip folder with all my doc's in. They always seem to want a utility bill showing your name and address no more than three months old. When we signed for the house the Notaire also wanted to see that we had insurance cover from the day of signing even though we had paid in  cash and had no Mortgage. The CPAM also wanted our E form originals not copies,now called the S1 form and some CPAM's are now asking for your birth and marriage certificates to be accompanied with a translation done by an offical french translator with the officials stamp on.We visited our local registar before we left the UK and got extra copies of every document and were glad we did as it saved loads of return trips this end and the french offical is always impressed with a full set of the required documents in a plastic file.Even the police are impressed with a full up to date document file and a bonjour officer!. Also when you change your number plates on reregistration make sure the new plates are riveted on not screwed as you can be fined by your keen local police officer if stopped.As most brits find out to their cost over here never never roll a stop sign either its a 90 euro spot fined.I of course never break the law or up set my local english speaking police officer as they have a very long memory and do not get on the wrong side of your marie other than that lifes a doddle.
 
Simmo in the Correze      

Why, will she give you a slap?

Hi Simmo - yes, we have got quite used to carrying every original document we've collected since birth around with us. As you say, it worked beautifully when I was pulled over by a charming Douane motorbike officer on the way back to the UK last time I was over (apparently the sight of a small middle aged British lady driving a massive great Transit alone was suspicious enough to warrant stopping me!). I handed over said file with my best smile, and we then had a nice chat about the relative merits of Scotland vs England!!

While I don't think there are as many sites as in UK, there are certainly some insurance comparison sites:

see http://www.assurland.com/

Thanks DC-that's helpful!