How to run and own a UK car in Europe?

[Steve the Light]

Please could anyone help here?
Over Christmas I drove my V70 over to Spain and left it at a Spanish airport close to the French border to use it as a run-around for most of the year. What's the best way of dealing with Tax and Insurance?
My situation:
The car is registered as a UK (right hand drive) vehicle at my home UK address.
It will spend the next 9 months of the year in the Spanish Airport car park.
We intend to fly in and out of Spain and drive from the airport to our French property and back to Spain once every 2 to 3 months for 1 to 3 weeks at a time.
We would like to drive it back to the UK around October to MOT it and will drive back to Spain next December.
I have full (10+) years NCD on my UK insurance which is about to expire

How should I insure it?
Do I SORN or Tax it whilst it is outside of the UK?

So far I have discovered that:
I cannot find UK or French insurer as the vehicle is out of both countries for more than 6 months of the year.
I cannot find Spanish insurance because I have not got an address in Spain.
I do however know someone who is happy to allow me to to use his Spanish address (700 of miles away) to give to an insurance company, but I have never been there, or have any connection with it. The Spanish insurance company say they can use my UK address for correspondence but need a Spanish address to register the policy. Would this be legal? would there be any issues that may affect the owner of this Spanish address for any reason, particularly if I had to make a claim?
Thanks for reading.

[michael owen]

Hi. If you keep a UK car in Spain for more than 6months in any year then you have to have it registered onto Spanish plates. There is no safe option. The police in Spain have become very strict about UK cars being in the country for more than 6 months. Even if you use a friends address you will have to show an NIE number and also that you are registered on the PADRON, and you can't do either until you have an address. Don't try and con your way round it as if the police find out you will have the car confiscated. The police do patrol airport carparks and do take note of what cars have been there a long time. The Spanish police have very sophisticated means at their disposal to check on vehicle also they can now contact the DVLC in Swansea to check on a British Reg. motor. Bottom Line DON'T RISK IT.
Regards
Mike Owen

[Daim]

Indeed, any more than 180 days in a foreign country (and it doesn't matter if all at once or spread over the year) requires a registration in the country it is most driven in.

That would of course require changing the headlights and possibly instrument cluster (if you don't have KM/H).

Insurance would be cheaper in Spain, as UK insurances are just well over European average.

Don't forget, that a UK registered car still requires a valid MOT in any country in Europe. So you'd have to park it >180 days upon UK territory (not Gibraltar! That is treated like Jersey/Guernsey) and take it to get a regular MOT in order to keep the UK registration and plates.

[Simon Jones]

Can't help thinking it would be easier to buy a cheap runaround in Spain. Parking in Spanish airports must be cheaper than the UK. Heaven knows what 9 months at Gatwick would cost.

[volvo always]

When I sold a LHD French registered car living in France I bought my 240 from the UK as we were moving to Ireland shortly after.

What I did was insured it 3rd party through a specialist insurance provider. https://www.stuartcollins.com/blog/2...1_archive.html
https://www.stuartcollins.com/index.php
Their condition was it must be road legal in the country it was registered, ie in my case UK road tax/mot.

I always felt happier though registering the car in the country of most use as I was always doubtful of the legality of not registering a UK car in the country of residence/main use as some would say not registering for tax avoidance.
I re-registerd it shortly after I got to Ireland even though the road tax was 870euro a year!

James.

[Steve the Light]

Thanks for your replies.

The car will spend a total of
6-7 months in Spain over a 9 month period.
2-3 months in France over the same 9 months
3 months in UK.

Each year about
6000 miles will be driven in France,
600 in the UK
400 in Spain (8 airport runs of 50 miles a time).

The car will be on a public road for a total of;
8 days in Spain (8 x 1 hour airport journeys),
4 days in UK (13 hours home to Dover return and MOT garage)
70 days in France (parked on the roadside when not driven) .

It seems crazy to use a Spanish registered car when it is only on a Spanish road for 8 journeys between France and the airport per year.

It seems to be possible to buy monthly UK insurance with European cover, and only insure it for the occasions it will be driven on the public road. I only need 3rd party anyhow, but that seems like cheating.

@Simon: The airport parking is €50 per month (€450 per 9 months) so it makes financial sense to have a car there. For the past 7 years our car hire was over €2500 PA. We had the car with full no-claims on it sitting doing nothing in the UK so it seemed logical to get some use from it and take it over there.

@Michael & @Daim : I notice that the Spanish authorities quote 182 days in a year is the maximum permitted without needing to register as Spanish. They do not say if that is a calendar year or consecutive days. Perhaps this is why the car park is full of non-Spanish registered cars? Some of them have well over a year's dust on them and at least one has UK plates and a Tax disc that expired in 2007!. Presumably the 200+ cars in the car park with foreign plates drive illegally and the Spanish police have not yet got wise to this. I'm surprised as it is no secret the airport is almost exclusively only used by holiday makers, foreigners with holiday homes and local expats visiting home. The Spanish police could 'clean up' the off peak local tourist industry and send the holiday home owners and expats away in one fail swoop!
I can't get Spanish insurance as I don't have an official Spanish address so even if I got a Spanish car I would still not be 100% 'legal'

I'm prepared to take the risk of keeping it in Spain. Even if they confiscate the car because it overstayed by a month or so, it will save me scrapping it. It is valued by WeBuyAnyCar.com at only £25, but I reckon it's worth a good £500 (2000 V70 classic 170K) so even if I only get 6 of my 9 months, I'm still quids in against renting.

@Volvo always: Thanks. I will try Stuart Collins tomorrow.

There must be a way of doing this. I'm not trying to avoid paying tax or insurance as long as I'm not being ripped off. If it costs less than renting a car, I'll be happy. If it's more, I'll go back to renting.
I would be grateful if anyone else has any other comments or suggestions.
Thanks

[arcturus]

It is days in total.
Also if you reside in an EU country for more than that amount of days,(in total)
You are liable for income tax in that country.
I live in the Algarve which is full of xpats "trying it on"with UK reg cars and they are slowly being rounded up with hefty fines.
You risk having your car confiscated by the Spanish authorities and a hefty fine

[cumbrianmale]

Would it not be simplest to register it to your French address? Even then at least it stands out less than a UK registered car to the Spanish police.

[Steve the Light]

After much research I have found out from English speaking insurance companies (including Spanish and French companies and agents) and websites in English or translated into English by Google Translate. I have not verified it all with the actual issuing authorities so some info may be inaccurate:

Saga (UK) insurance will insure a UK car for unlimited European fully comprehensive cover very cheaply and includes European breakdown and repatriation to UK. (confirmed)

French insurance can be obtained for a UK registered car providing the car is not out of France for more than 90 days at a time (confirmed)

According to several French insurance companies, a car should be registered in France if it is in France for more than 6 months a year. (not confirmed)

According to at least 2 Spanish insurance companies, It is not possible to register or insure a car in Spain without a Spanish address and a Spanish personal ID number (a bit like a UK national insurance number), A Spanish address is needed to obtain an ID number.
Spain seems to uses the phrase "182 days in 365" when determining the length of time a car stays in a country.

UK and France seems to use use "Six months in the year"

I could not find, in any country, any definitive information on which country a car must be registered in if it spends less than six months a year in any single country. The only answer I got was DVLA "I suppose (if it is used in more than 2 countries) it should be registered in the country it spends most time in"

No one I spoke with could say how six months (or 182 days in 365) a year is calculated or whether there is a 'start date' I assume it means 6 months in ANY 12 month period, rather than 6 months in any Year (eg 2014). The Spanish "192 days in 365" and I assume that is 365 consecutive days. But either way it still gets complicated to determine the start date when a car spends several days, weeks or months out of the country on multiple occasions throughout the time period. (if you think about it, it all has to be either calculated on a daily basis retrospectively, or from a given date forward.) One insurance person went so far as to say the 'clock restarts' every time the vehicle enters the country.

Although it is possible that my car may spend a few days over 6 months in Spain over this coming year, I challenge the Spanish police to prove it. I have full UK tax, MOT and insurance. If they confiscate my £600 V70 then so be it. Ill buy another and write a stiff letter of complaint to the Spanish minister for tourism.

[arcturus]

It's 180 days in total from the first date of entry in any 12 month period. Believe me, the authorities are clamping down.