[lombardia2007]

liketheroman: Hmmm, alot of misinformation here

Not from me though

liketheroman: Firstly if you still have residence in another country, it is legal to continue to have a car registered there

For upto 12 months under UK Law: the DVLA states that if a vehicle leaves the UK for over a year it is classed as a "Permanent Export", and the relevant documents must be satisfied (DVLA form V526):

Taking your vehicle abroad for more than 12 months (permanent export)
If you are taking your vehicle out of Great Britain permanently you must notify DVLA. If you have a registration document (V5) you can do this by completing section C to show the intended date of export. The V5 should then be returned to DVLA or to a DVLA local office. In its place you will receive a certificate of permanent export (V561) as confirmation of your vehicle's registration.

If you have a registration certificate (V5C) then you must notify export on the purple section (V5C/4). You must take your registration certificate with you as you may have to hand it over to the relevant authority when the vehicle is registered abroad.

Further information on this subject, including advice on taking a vehicle to Northern Ireland, can be found in leaflet V526 'Taking your vehicle out of the country'.

Taking a vehicle out of the UK both temporarily or permanently : Directgov - Motoring

liketheroman: Even if not, the issue is still grey because by definition the car has to be registered in the other country and as long as the vehicle absents itself once a year it is not permanently in the first country.

I don't see how it's a grey area, as if the vehicle is out of the UK for 12 months or more, it's no longer allowed to be registered as a UK vehicle. (Of course, if you return for one day in that 12 months, the 12 months starts again). Whatever country you're living in when that 12 months runs out is the country where you need to register it in.

What this means is if you take a UK registered vehicle out of the UK, for example, to Italy for 6 months, then France for 6 months, then Germany for 6 months, you have not broken any laws, but after a year you must declare the vehicle permanently exported from the UK, and in this example it would be Germany where you would need to register it.

liketheroman: When people quote European law, they are quite right about its supremacy but they forget that since it is top down broken legislation versus bottom up on many occasions the reality of being able to show an offence has been committed and more importantly the issues of jurisdiction are not sorted out.

Proving an offence has been committed can be difficult to prove, and people do try and flaunt the law, but police can ask for evidence, for example, when you last left the UK, in the form of a ferry ticket, or channel tunnel ticket.

Going from one central European country to another is more difficult to prove, especially since no border checks are now made, but if stopped and questioned, the police could ask for residency documents, etc, to prove timescales.

However, in reality, many people get away with it, but it's possible to get caught out if you don't have the right documents/story when stopped and questioned.

The law is the same throughout the EU regardless of local jurisdiction though - 6 months max in one country, apart from the country where the vehicle is registered.

liketheroman: As for the absolute quote about insurers not being able to insure you. That really is not true. An insurer is for the most part free to provide policies on his own terms and it is up to you to abide by the law. They write policies, it is simply not their responsibility.

Insurance companies may well 'insure' a UK registered vehicle in Europe, but in reality, unless the vehicle is 100% legal in its registered country, the insurance can be deemed to be worthless, as it doesn't comply with the law, i.e. EU Law, and I've heard of many cases where insurance companies (e.g. European versions of Direct Line) have taken money from people and told them that the local version of the MOT is fine. However, when these people have come to make a claim, they haven't been paid out because the vehicle was illegal. So the 'insurance' document isn't worth the paper it's printed on. It may keep you out of trouble with the police if they stop and check your documents (unless the police officer in question was really on the ball, which is unlikely), but instead of paying a foreign insurance company a huge sum for that privilege, why not just lie to a UK insurance company and say you live in the UK, therefore paying probably about a third of the premium, and if you do have a crash, just tell the UK insurance company that you were on holiday when the crash happened, therefore your claim actually gets paid - as it's extremely unlikely for them to suspect or investigate that you're living outside the UK, unless it was part of a criminal case.

Under EU Law, (UK) insurance companies are obliged to give you the minimum cover legally required in the EU (i.e. third party only), and you don't have to tell the insurance company "you're going on holiday" for this to apply - telling them you're 'going on holiday' will often get you full cover under your UK policy, as if you were driving in the UK, for between 1 and 3 months, depending on the insurance company and policy, but after that you get minimum legal cover anyway.