Personal Imports: insurance.

[Brian Kirby]

For once, what appears to be some good news!

For the past few years, if you wanted to personally import a vehicle to UK from within the EEC, your biggest problem was obtaining insurance for the European leg of your journey.  Fully comprehensive insurance could be obtained from a number of UK insurers, but the cover did not commence until the 'van reached UK soil.  How, then, to insure for that part of the journey that lay in Germany, Belgium, Holland, France etc? 

If you bought in Germany, the vehicle was "delivered" on temporary registration plates and with these came a basic minimum insurance, but sufficient only to meet the minimum requirements for third party risks under German law.  That is to say, there was no cover for damage to the van itself, or against fire or theft.

When we bought ours in France, we were told no such insurance was available in France, either third party or comprehensive.  Fortunately, we bought ours in Calais and the dealer agreed to drive the van and us to the Tunnel registration area - which was all of 1 kilometre or so!

However, I heard a few hairy tales of people who had discovered this flaw in the system only at the last minute and, having assumed they would be able to arrange insurance via the dealer, and discovered they could not, drove their shiny, new, £30,000 plus 'vans from Germany with third party cover only, and all their fingers and toes crossed! 

While discussing this problem with "our" dealer, I was told that another British customer, a soon to retire member of the constabulary, no less, had solved this problem, and had collected his van a few weeks earlier.  Having been given his contact details, I rang him and asked which insurer he'd used.  Ah, long pause.....  Well, actually, as it was only a couple of kilometres to the ferry port, he'd taken a chance and driven there uninsured, but he'd had fully comp cover as soon as he got to UK.  Shouldn’t have done it, he conceded, but he'd made the decision on the spur of the moment.  What a silly PC!

So, where's the good news?  It comes in EC Directive 2005/14?EC, Section 18 of which states: "Steps should be taken to make it easier to obtain insurance cover for vehicles imported from one Member State into another, even though the vehicle is not yet registered in the Member State of destination.  A temporary derogation from the general rule determining the Member State where the risk is situated should be made available.  For a period of 30 days from the date when the vehicle is delivered, made available or dispatched to the purchaser, the Member State of destination should be considered to be the Member State where the risk is situated." 

Put simply, this appeared to mean that, after 7 June 2007 such insurance could legally be issued by UK insurers, but with a validity limited to 30 days.

I therefore checked this with the Association of British Insurers, who confirmed it is their understanding that after 30 June 2007 it will indeed be possible for UK insurers to insure non-UK registered vehicles for the European leg of the journey home from the dealer, and that a number are understood to be planning to do so. 

The ABI understands also that such insurance can be sold on a fully comprehensive basis.  Thus, if after 30 June 2007, you buy F.C. insurance before you depart to collect your new 'van from wherever it may be in Europe, and you get the cover note issued before you leave, your new 'van will be under F.C. cover for the whole of your journey home, both outside, and within, the UK.  The only apparent constraint being that you will have to complete the process of importation and registration within 30 days from the date of collection of the vehicle.

If the vehicle is new and unregistered, it will probably be delivered to you on temporary registration plates for the country where it is bought.  In this case, you will need to obtain the chassis No (VIN) from the dealer, and should obtain your UK insurance against this.  Then, after you have completed registration in UK, you will just have to inform your UK insurer of the UK registration number, he will release the certificate of insurance, and you're all done, dusted and street legal!

Regards to all

[Go Motorhoming]

Well done Brian I know this took a lot of sorting out. Shame there is no short term solution. Chris

[Brian Kirby]

A bit more info regarding this. 

I now have information from the ABI that they hope that by June 2007 it will be possible to buy fully comprehensive insurance in UK, based on the temporary (foreign) export registration number of your new motorhome, in lieu of on the vehicle's VIN.  That will be a welcome further simplification to the process, although you'll obviously need to get the temp reg No from the dealer before you can get the insurance.