- Aug 18, 2014
- 26,307
- 159,605
- Funster No
- 32,898
- MH
- Transit PVC
- Exp
- 16 years since restarting
Unfortunately you are completely incorrect.Because it is UK registered and insured by a UK company and the UK regulations require it to be road legal in the country of origin and the UK requires insurance, tax and MOT - No you are completely incorrect. As you say UK regulations. I am in France and the French do not care in anyway if the car is taxed or not (as long as the insurance is valid which it would not be with this ridiculous rule if untaxed). I can drive quite legally in France in an untaxed car and there is A) Nothing that the UK Government could do about it and B) it would be completely legal in France. Obviously when I return to England I would have to re-tax it but as this stupid rule has been made it will be taxed all year round.
It is an EU directive that requires all vehicles to be completely legal in the country in which they are registered. The French are not only wrong but in the event of an accident involving injury or death the lawyers look for the slightest thing with regards to a foreigner.
In the event of an accident with a foreigner the first thing is what vehicle are they driving &
Where is it registered?
Where do they live as 'residents'.
If the two do not match you are already on a loser.
Do they have the correct licence for the country they are resident in? This is normally the problem.
If tourists ,how many days have they been here?
etc ; etc;
I have actually seen a person parked & hit by a drunken driver.Injuries etc, All went to court & the drunks lawyer asked for the innocent parties licence. They were residents & were confused & thought that they didn't have to exchange it. Result was judge had no alternative but to find that the foreign resident was driving " not in accordance with their licence" = basically they didn't have one . Every expense was laid at there door, the drunk got a new vehicle ,even though he got banned from driving, & the innocent party was left without there new car as there insurance company didn't have to pay out as they were driving without a licence.
So basically in the event of an accident with someone who is astute & knows the laws, the Bentley will not be insured due to you being French residents.Whether actual registered ones, or in the country in excess of 90 consecutive days as stipulated in the EU directive which automatically makes you one. This comes under " a resident can only drive in the country that he is resident ,a vehicle that is registered in that country".We live in France and all our vehicles are French registered apart from one which is too expensive to register here. We have cover from a specialist English insurance company that allows us to keep it here all year round without returning to the UK BUT it has to have British road tax on it to maintain Insurance cover!
As long as you stayed at 89 days leave & the return it would be legal. As would driving the French ones . But they wouldn't be if you took any to the UK.