Insuring an Import , other side of the channel

[Richnliz100]

Just wanted to post our 10p for what its worth! (lol)

 

We privately imported our m/h from Germany in May. Got "in principle" insurance quote from Coversure, for several different models before we went as we had a couple of vans to look at.

 

Once we'd purchased, phoned Coversure and were instantly fully comp once we'd given details of our chassis plate to insurance company! :-D

 

Hope this helps - have found Coversure very good, very competative and very helpful at all times! ;-)

[Mel E]

Peter Cue has given the definitive answer (he was quicker than me in getting it on the forum!!).

 

The clauses in the 5th Directive that refer to personal imports are effectively dead, because without changes to other legislation, they are un-implementable, as Peter explains very clearly.

 

FOR THOSE WHO THINK THEY'RE BEING GOT AT, THREE POINTS:

 

- UK specialists such as Comfort have been complaining about the unworkability of this legislation throughout the EU and then the UK consultation periods. They were ignored.

 

- this is not aimed at preventing UK personal importers. Both Germans and Italians are extensive personal importers of vehicles of all sorts (cars and motorhomes) from Austria, the cheapest place in Europe to buy from, and they face the same problems.

 

- the need to get new insurance registrations onto the MID did noty apply in the same way in the 90s - before the 4th Directive - and hence it was easy to provide cover then on the chassis number. This is simply not possible now, because the MID was not designed so that a vehicle could be inpout only by chassis number - it has to have a vehicle registration number.

 

Why the extra bureacracy? To prevent theft, cloning, and to ensure that all vehicles are taxed and insured. At present around 1 in 15 vehicles in the UK has no tax or insurance - the highest rate in Europe. About 10% to 15% of your insurance premium goes straight into the 'pot' run by the Motor Insurance Bureau, to pay out claims made against uninsured drivers.

 

Personally, I'm really happy that insurers and government are trying to combat this, I'll put up with a bit of strife for personal imprters in return. It's all about priorities, isn't it?

 

Mel E

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[Brian Kirby]

Mel

From what you say above, the impression I had gained from Peter's post; that is to say that it was the obligation to meet the MID's 14 day requirement that causes the problem, is wrong. 

I'm now more that a bit confused, and would welcome a bit more clarification from you or Peter (if you can face it!) on what, precisely, is the problem. 

I ask because it had seemed to me that the simplest remedy would be for the MID to relax their registration requirement to 30 days, to match the duration of a standard cover note.  That, I had assumed, would be what the EC would be saying to the UK insurance industry.  I now gather not, since you say the effects of this problem spread wider than just the UK industry. 

Is this 14 day limit laid down Europe wide in the Fourth Directive?  If so, why has it been left to the (with respect to Peter) minnows of the industry to raise the issue?  Is that simply because the big players aren't interested and merely decided it wasn't a problem worth pursuing?

You also say this flaw has been repeatedly brought up with Brussels, yet I have spoken to various bits of the insurance industry, and even written to my MP, on this issue, and have met a blank wall, even a denial of knowledge of the Fifth Directive, rather than a "we are trying to persuade them of the error of their ways but that won't listen", response.

Since it is the buying public who are primarily affected, (in short us lot!) it would seem we are the natural allies of those within the industry who have been trying to champion this change.  Why then, has there been so little publicity on the issue?  Better information would have allowed us to join them in badgering the Eurocrats to take note of their reservations. 

We all have MPs and MEPs to write to and, had we been given the ammunition to do so, the present impasse would have given us all a much more effective stick to wave.  MPs and MEPs, on the whole, have quite, shall we say, robust, egos - and don't generally take kindly to being thwarted by Eurocrats!

I hope I don't sound as though I'm taking aim at the messengers, I do appreciate that you and Peter have been steadily chipping away on this for years.  I'm just beginning to feel that there was quite a bit more the rest of us could have done, had we been fully briefed rather earlier.  More hands to the pumps next time?

[Mel E]

Brian,

 

The problem is as described - with the MID. And relaxing the law to 30 days (even if that were possible unilaterally) would not solve the problem, because it is only possible to add the vehicle to the database once it has a UK registration number. Unfortunately, with current delays in inspecting imported vehciles, that can take some time longer than 30 days in some cases.

 

Mel E

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[Brian Kirby]

Richnliz100 - 2007-07-28 10:11 AM Just wanted to post our 10p for what its worth! (lol) We privately imported our m/h from Germany in May. Got "in principle" insurance quote from Coversure, for several different models before we went as we had a couple of vans to look at. Once we'd purchased, phoned Coversure and were instantly fully comp once we'd given details of our chassis plate to insurance company! :-D Hope this helps - have found Coversure very good, very competative and very helpful at all times! ;-)

Don't want to give you two cold shivers down your spines, and I'm glad you got back OK with your van. 

However, I strongly suspect you were misinformed by Coversure about the applicability of your insurance outside the UK.  Unless you bought temporary "export" insurance with your export number plates in Germany, I think you will have been totally uninsured until you got back to the UK.  If you bought the German export insurance, you will at least have had the German equivalent of third party only insurance: that is to say not even fire or theft cover, and certainly not fully comp!  That is what this whole string has been about.

If Coversure confirmed in writing their assurance that their cover extended to Germany, with each of your quotes, you should have been OK but, had the worst happened, you'd have had to rely on their Professional Indemnity Insurance, and not your policy, to get reimbursement for any losses.

If they didn't confirm that in writing, and the assurance was merely verbal over the phone, you'd have needed to prove what they had said.  For proof, you'd have needed the tape of your conversation that Coversure should have kept.  If that tape had become lost or corrupted, I'm not sure where you'd have stood!

Coversure's telephone sales personnel can say what they like, but as the law currently stands no UK insurer is able to insure an imported vehicle before it is registered in the UK, unless that vehicle is physically in the UK.  Whatever they may have told you therefore, your insurance had no legal validity whatever until your van wheels hit UK soil!

[Mel E]

Richnliz100,

 

I'm afraid Brian is 100% correct. I am advised by the experts in this (the British Motor Insurers Bureau that runs all motor insurance) that, had you had a claim, you would have had to rely on your broker's professional indemnity insurance, since the ultimate underwriter would have cancelled the policy.

 

I have also confirmed this with one of the leading motorhome insurance specialists - who'd dearly like to provide such cover, but is unable to do so legally.

 

Mel E

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