My parents have an english registered car that spends a lot of time in spain. Because uk insurers have time restrictions on european use, they have insured it with a spanish outfit that was cheaper, and has unlimited eu use for when it's in the uk. It seems to be fairly common with the brits in spain (and there's a lot of them).
But do the insurers details get fed into the MID and the DVLA database so they can get tax online. So far, he's taxed it ok at the post ofice with the spanish certificate, without any apparent problems.
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Why not give the DVLA a ring?Somebody should know.
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Ha, got better things to do with an hour of my life. A question here usually solicits results more quickly - though not in this case, it seems.
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Depends on "a lot of time in Spain".
From the British Embassy website - "If you spend longer than six months of the year in Spain with your UK registered car, Spanish law says you must register your vehicle with the Spanish authorities."
Presumably, as with Spanish tax residence, the six months count even if not a continuous period
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Don't think you can have it both ways, the car is either British or Spanish, if it is still registered in the UK then I assume the insurance must be registered in the UK too. I would imagine there may be something in the Spanish small print which states the car must be registered in Spain too.
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I think the OP is only going to get opinions here and will need to consult DVLA for a definitive answer.
But there's another point. UK insurers only allow so many days per year outwith UK and it's off islands. Some make you jump through hoops notifying them when you go ovr the Channel. I suspect, post Schengen, that most European mainland policies have no such territorial restrictions - do residents of Dunkerque hav to tell their insurer if they drive to De Panne on a Sunday?
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The parents comply with all the time restrictions, mot, road tax etc. It seems that as long as the insurer (in this case Santander) is an 'approved uk motor insurer', then it doesn't matter in which country the insurance is held. I'm guessing that part of the UK approval, is a feed into the usual databases. Because of the sheer numbers of UK residents spending time in Spain, there's a whole industry catering for them (and not just fish 'n' chips), and that includes insuring UK registered cars.
The main reason they do it this way is the restrictions on many UK policies about the time outside of the UK. As someone else said, it's a unique UK thing, a bit like breakdown insurance restrictions. I know my swedish policy covers unlimited time outside of Sweden, and that includes the standard (included) breakdown service.
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Stuart Collins insurance brokers in Swansea will provide a 12 month green card with a UK insurance policy - solved the problem for us with our UK registered car in Austria before we re-registered it. But you obviously still need to comply with all UK legislation, which means being in the UK when MOT time is due.
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>> So far, he's taxed it ok at the post ofice
>> with the spanish certificate, without any apparent problems.
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I don't think the PO are supposed to accept foreign certificates.
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OP
Have you done a MID check against the registration?
At one time in France most insurers would issue policies against an english registration. However now they are not supposed to do it! However a quick look round at the english registered (plated) cars in any low cost airport in the south will find a good number of cars sporting current french insurance tickets and CT (=MoT) stickers. RFT disc when still displayed are often years out of date.
According to my broker, english policies with annual use and an x days limitation on them revert to '3rd party cover' in the foreign country after the expired period. However '3rd party' in some countries is not necessarily as extensive as UK 3rd party cover, and maybe the same as the old english RTA cover .
Last edited by: pmh on Wed 14 Sep 11 at 11:48
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English car - spanish insurance - Dutchie
