Car Insurance (UK) Residency issue for liveaboards

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
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Supposing you were to borrow a uk friends car, who either has you as a named driver or real comprehensive insurance? Of course you cannot enter into a financial arrangement with them that is related to the car, but you can give them a handsome birthday present/pay for its full annual service? Win win situation all round I would think.
 
Specialist temporary insurance might be more flexible:-
https://www.tempcover.com/
From their FAQ:-
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Can I insure a foreign visitor?

Yes. Provided that they hold a full drivers licence that complies with the eligibility criteria. We are unable to cover Australian or USA/Canadian licence holders.

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There's no legal requirement for residency, many wealthy types live mostly offshore - channel islands etc and will have cars in the UK that are insured.

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When we moved to France we bought and insured a car, but it was necessary to show we were buying a house as I remember. There was no need to be resident though.

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So a foreigner resident living and working in France but renting a flat can't have a car? The French are very strange...
 
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When we moved to France we bought and insured a car, but it was necessary to show we were buying a house as I remember. There was no need to be resident though.

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So a foreigner resident living and working in France but renting a flat can't have a car? The French are very strange...

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Oh no, it was just that we did not have an address as we were in a motorhome waiting for house purchase to be completed (4 weeks from start to finish).

Cars are registered locally in France and they do need to have some proof of a local residence. For these things they usually ask to see an electricity bill addressed to you, or something similar.
 
The broker suggested that but it would only be of use when we are in the UK. We want to have the car with us wherever we are over the winter - be that France, Italy, Spain or Greece. They say that as just 'named drivers' they would not allow us to take the car out of the UK for six months or so.
 
Thanks for that...just before calling tempcover (which I have bookmarked for the future as it could be very useful) I called Down Under Insurance http://www.duinsure.com/sites/duinsure.nsf/homepages/homepage on 0800 393908 and they say that there would be no problem with our situation. Perfectly straightforward discussion, they do non-residents all the time. Must be a UK registered car, no convictions, but otherwise no problems. I have not got a quote, however, as I haven't chosen a car yet. Will report back.

Many thank, everyone. Lots of good advice and information on this thread! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Try these people:-

Stuart Collins & Co, 114 Walter Road, Swansea, SA1 5QQ
Tel: +44 (0)1792 655562
Fax: +44(0)1792 651126

You will have to give a UK address, but I'm sure that won't be a problem.

The alternative is to use a cycle - you could even enjoy a tandem!!
Get fit!!! Reduce your carbon footprint!!!!
 
Thanks, will give them a call. UK-Spain-SW France-Venice-Rome in January is going to be a bit of a pain on a tandem, especially with some Branston and TBags.
 
This issue continually raises its head on these forums, and within the livaboard community. We all ideally need a close family member who allows us a room, and an address. With my old steel boat:

http://www.johnhansen.co.uk

the number of times I must evacuate to avoid the paint fumes makes the address very legitimate. This allows a legitimate base for payment of cash and initiation of official services.

The car insurance equivalent of this scenario could be a friend or family member who will let you be added to their policy for a while. Without this sort of cast iron link, with solid contacts in the UK, you are a bit stuck.

I sympathise with your situation, but feel it important to point out that these rules that insurance companies stipulate are done on a basis of everyone living in a house (box), in the UK, watching the telly every night, being obsessed with football or shopping etc. etc.

I always bear in mind that as a livaboard we are off at the opposite end of that spectrum. "It is a spectrum", and not the binary dreamworld the officials belive it is. There are really significant portions of the UK population who fall all along the spectrum. Examples are part time students, travellers, rig and off shore contract workers, travel industry contract staff, the list is very long in deed (but don't tell the officials, they just don't like life out of the box!)

Enjoy that water !
 
On a totally different subject, Lemain

as you're in Fiumicino, do you ever visit Sancho's Pizzeria Rustica. It's opposite the canal about 45m up from the end of the footbridge.

I was there in October and he was as good as ever with people coming from as far as Roma.

For my money easily the best pizzeria I've come across in Italy and still €1/100gm.
With the way the €/£ conversion rate is going..., you might need economical eating places.

He's usually only open lunchtime
 
Whilst I sympathise with your predicament-been there etc-the penny has dropped. You want someone to insure you of no fixed abode or regular residence/employment so that you can drive a car around in and out of all sorts of countries. What's in it for them ? Given that uk insurers have been subsidising artificially low premiums by 'reinvesting' the premiums in the investment market (RIP) they are now having to be a lot more careful about exposure to anything out of the ordinary.Irritating, yes, but I can't say I blame them.
As a sheer guess, I would guess that Liveaboards, being ambassadors of their native countries and of a certain age and living on a budget and thus treating yachts and machinery with gentle respect, actually make very safe drivers with a lower than average claim rate..
As you say, once you buy a country gaff, all sorted.
 
Yes, we do have a legitimate address with a close family member and we genuinely have a room allocated to us -- which we use. The issue with most insurers seems to be that in their eyes you become non-resident if you are out of the UK for more than 6 months a year. They will (mostly) only insure 'residents'. We looked at getting the relative to take out the insurance (at the insurer's suggestion, actually) but while we would be able to drive in the UK they would not extend cover to us, as named drivers, to the EU. To have a car in the UK for the few weeks a year we spend in the UK makes no sense.

Down Under insurance is looking good but I have no idea of the prices. I am at this time looking at buying a delivery mileage Ford or Honda and when we have something targeted I will get a quote and report back here.

Thanks for your input -- much appreciated /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Thanks, is that upstream or downstream of the footbridge?

/forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif
 
What's in it for them is the premium, surely? Pantaenius have no problem with what we do -- we pay them monthly by STO from a UK bank, they have an address, email address and can contact me within minutes (if they ever wanted to). Surely, if Pants can make a decent living out of insuring us itinerants, a car insurer could, also? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Sounds as though some do -- Down Under, for example.
 
I am sure it can be done.

For example, I recall a Dutch company who specialising in tarting up old (not classic) VW campers for sale (not hire) to visiting USA/Oz/NZ characters.

They arrange insurance, Pan Europe, at a fixed monthly rate, give a one month warranty (quite generous I feel) and wave goodbye to their client.

If the client wishes, they will buy back the vehicle after an agreed time.

There is flexibility out there - somewhere!
 
Re: Thanks, is that upstream or downstream of the footbridge?

Thanks, will try that. Next time you are over, give me a call.
 
Re: Thanks, is that upstream or downstream of the footbridge?

Sorry to whinge, but I got 3 points on my licence for not replying to a letter about who was driving the car when it went through a speed camera. Wasn't in the country and not driving. As far as I am concerned just use the same accomodation address as the ssr and be done. The government no longer care about legality so long as you pay.
 
Re: Thanks, is that upstream or downstream of the footbridge?

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As far as I am concerned just use the same accomodation address as the ssr and be done. The government no longer care about legality so long as you pay.

[/ QUOTE ]It hasn't got anything to do with the government. When you take out insurance you have to sign a declaration. The majority of UK car insurance companies have a clause asking you to state that you are a UK resident -- that may or may not be defined in the part you sign but if you read the small print in the policy document (which often only arrives days later when you've forgotten all about what you signed) you will find that 'UK Resident' means that you will be spending more than 183 days of the year in the UK. For longer-term liveaboards that often is not the case and has not been the case for some years. We are not even borderline on that. That means the the insurance is invalid so if you have an accident, you pay, not the insurance company. In the case of third party claims, especially for injuries, it could wipe-out even a fairly wealthy person and for others it could cost them their house, car, boat,... Doesn't bear thinking about, really.

These days, the insurance company is very likely to find out; as a matter of course they ask searching questions to try to find a loophole. I have experienced it twice. Habitual liars and criminals might get away with it, but ordinary law-abiding folk probably won't.
 
We "live in" a granny-flat in my son's house. That has solved our problem.
When we cruised world-wide we never had a car, but now we have aged a bit and cruise the Med, we have been in the habit of getting a car for winters. When we find a winter berth we go along to the scarp yard or second-hand market (call it what you will) and buy an old banger. In the spring we leave it on the quayside. Perhaps we will find it there in the autumn, perhaps not.
Once we bought a FIAT 600 on the quayside, Dutch register. Next winter in Ostia, I went back and found it intact. Another bargain.
This way we avoid the vast expense of depreciation and third party only does not harm the wallet that much.
Generally, when actually cruising a lot (and we once did it 12/12) a car is a pest.
Almost as bad as having a dog on board!
 
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