# Breakdown cover and car insurance for uk and spain



## Janeym8 (Mar 8, 2013)

Travelling over in a few weeks but are having some issues obtaining the above
We are buying a spanish reg car enroute in the uK
We need

Car insurance covering uk car in UK,spanish car in UK then in Spain
Breakdown cover that covers uk car in UK,spanish car in UK and Spain

oh and we dont have a spanish address yet

Can anyone help 
Thanks
Jane


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## whitenoiz (Sep 18, 2012)

Difficult situation, because to the best of my knowledge you will need a Spanish address to effect and legalise the change of ownership of the Spanish reg vehicle. You will also need NIE numbers to carry out the change of ownership and to pay any taxation due on the purchase...
It's further complicated by the fact that you cannot legally drive a Spanish reg vehicle in the UK if the UK is your main country of residence which it clearly would be if you dont have a Spanish address...

Breakdown Cover on Spanish vehicles is normally covered by the vehicles car insurance premium under the clause 'Asistencia en Viaje.' 
Green Flag, EuropAssist, the AA or the RAC can probably offer a European Recovery service. 

As for insurance... thats something else entirely. Maybe contact Direct Line in the UK? 

I don't know what to suggest.. I'd be inclined to drive over in the UK reg car then buy a Spanish car locally once you get here. A good dealer will attend to the change of ownership details, the costs are usually covered in the purchase price. Again though you will need a Spanish address and NIE numbers. 
What you do with the Brit. reg car is then up to you, drive it back or have it transported to the UK and sell it, but if you drive it back it must remain in accordance with the UK Road Traffic Act in terms of MOT validity and UK Road Tax. Once either of these expire the vehicle is illegal throughout Europe...


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## Aron (Apr 30, 2013)

Janeym8 said:


> Travelling over in a few weeks but are having some issues obtaining the above
> We are buying a spanish reg car enroute in the uK
> We need
> 
> ...


If you drove a UK car to Spain, then within a period of time obtained a Spanish address, you could then buy a Spanish car, then drive the UK car back to the UK. Your plan is not going to work. You must have a Spanish address to buy a Spanish car.


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

Aron said:


> If you drove a UK car to Spain, then within a period of time obtained a Spanish address, you could then buy a Spanish car, then drive the UK car back to the UK. Your plan is not going to work. You must have a Spanish address to buy a Spanish car.



Why? There are many Spanish cars for sale in UK - it's only when you come to register it that you need an address, surely?


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## Aron (Apr 30, 2013)

snikpoh said:


> Why? There are many Spanish cars for sale in UK - it's only when you come to register it that you need an address, surely?


Absolutely, they have no Spanish address so can't register it!!


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

The insurance issue can be easily solved by contacting Stuart Collins, an insurance broker in Swansea. He specialises in situations such as yours.
I bought a new LHD car on UK plates from Mercedes Nuremberg whilst living in Prague - no UK address whatsoever. I then drove the car to Spain and kept it until it required a new tax disc, one year to be precise. My son then renewed the tax for six months, drove the car to the UK and sold it for me. I had full insurance and breakdown cover, I think it was with Zurich.
Then I bought a Spanish-plated LandRover from a UK LHD dealer and had it delivered to Prague. My son drove it to Spain.
That vehicle was insured via Stuart Collins.
These policies are not cheap so I took out the policy on the LR for a very short period until the vehicle was registered in my name at my Spanish address.
People with no actual experience of these things seem to think the process is complicated and fraught with pitfalls.
It isn't. But it is comparatively expensive.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Aron said:


> If you drove a UK car to Spain, then within a period of time obtained a Spanish address, you could then buy a Spanish car, then drive the UK car back to the UK. Your plan is not going to work. You must have a Spanish address to buy a Spanish car.


Not so, Aron, as my experience shows. You can buy a Spanish plated car in the UK ...it's the registration process that requires a Spanish address.
If the Spanish plated vehicle has a valid ITV and tax is paid and the vehicle is in insured it is perfectly legal for you to drive it and register it in your name when in Spain with a Spanish address.
If it were illegal to drive a Spanish car of which you were not the registered owner then half of Spain would be breaking the law.
Same in the Czech Republic or anywhere. Anyone with cash can buy a car...it's the registration and insurance procedures that require attending to. I bought a car in Prague but registered it in my Czech friend's name as it took almost a year to get residency.
Purchasing a car is a commercial transaction. Registering it in your name is a legal requirement.


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## whitenoiz (Sep 18, 2012)

snikpoh said:


> Why? There are many Spanish cars for sale in UK - it's only when you come to register it that you need an address, surely?


I think its a question of primary residence; if your primary residence is in the UK you cannot legally own or drive a foreign registered vehicle on UK roads, except when on holiday, just as over here, theoretically at least, you cannot drive a UK reg vehicle once you take up residencia... The fact that many people do is simply a reflection of the 'thumbed nose' attitude of some people. 

Janeym8... you say that you dont have a Spanish address... what are your plans for accommodation when you arrive here in Spain? You dont have to be a property owner... A long term rental agreement is perfectly acceptable for the issue of NIE's and all Spanish legalities, including the change of ownership of the vehicle. 

Worst case scenario... If you do buy a Spanish reg car in the UK and cannot register the change of ownership because you dont have a Spanish address (and you can't legally register it to a UK address with DVLA) and a UK Traffico PC Plod pulls you over for whatever reason, how do you explain the fact that the car is not legally registered to you or for that matter, registered anywhere... bearing in mind that theoretically the vehicle documentation will still be in the name of the previous owner...Simply put, if it aint registered, it aint legal! As I said earlier getting insurance for a vehicle under these conditions will be nigh on impossible.

UK trafficos have the authority to remove such vehicles from the road and at a push scrap 'em, as many Polish expats in the UK have found to their cost... for a while I worked as a bus driver in Portsmouth and we had lots of Polish drivers in the company. In order to obtain paid employment, access to the UK Social Services and the UK banking system, they were required to take up UK residence, but in doing so their private Polish reg vehicles immediately became illegal...

It's a minefield; there is also the small point that if you haven't owned the vehicle for six months when you bring it back into Spain you become liable for import duties at 12.5% I think...

If anyone can provide links to prove otherwise on any of the points raised then please feel free to do so, I dont want to spread misinformation...


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## Aron (Apr 30, 2013)

mrypg9 said:


> Not so, Aron, as my experience shows. You can buy a Spanish plated car in the UK ...it's the registration process that requires a Spanish address.
> If the Spanish plated vehicle has a valid ITV and tax is paid and the vehicle is in insured it is perfectly legal for you to drive it and register it in your name when in Spain with a Spanish address.
> If it were illegal to drive a Spanish car of which you were not the registered owner then half of Spain would be breaking the law.
> Same in the Czech Republic or anywhere. Anyone with cash can buy a car...it's the registration and insurance procedures that require attending to. I bought a car in Prague but registered it in my Czech friend's name as it took almost a year to get residency.
> Purchasing a car is a commercial transaction. Registering it in your name is a legal requirement.


I never suggested anything different in my original answer. I said, to buy a Spanish car you need a Spanish address. Was I right?


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## Janeym8 (Mar 8, 2013)

Thanks for all advice
We are buying within a few days of moving to Spain,we just cant make our mind up which place we want
We have explained all this to people we are buying from plus car insurance company and have managed to get insurance from a spanish company


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

whitenoiz said:


> I think its a question of primary residence; if your primary residence is in the UK you cannot legally own or drive a foreign registered vehicle on UK roads, except when on holiday, just as over here, theoretically at least, you cannot drive a UK reg vehicle once you take up residencia... The fact that many people do is simply a reflection of the 'thumbed nose' attitude of some people.
> 
> Janeym8... you say that you dont have a Spanish address... what are your plans for accommodation when you arrive here in Spain? You dont have to be a property owner... A long term rental agreement is perfectly acceptable for the issue of NIE's and all Spanish legalities, including the change of ownership of the vehicle.
> 
> ...


If the Spanish vehicle you bought in the UK is registered in the name of the previous owner you are not liable for tax. That is only the case if the car has been notified as being permanently out of Spain.
You can drive your Spanish reg car in the UK if you explain that it is perfectly legal on-road in Spain and that you will be registering it when you eventually move to Spain and have a Spanish address.
As long as that car has a valid ITV and tax is up to date the ownership is irrelevant.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Aron said:


> I never suggested anything different in my original answer. I said, to buy a Spanish car you need a Spanish address. Was I right?


No! To buy a Spanish car you need only one thing: money!
As I said, I bought a Spanish reg car when I lived in Prague, two months before I came to Spain and four months before I could claim to have a Spanish address.

The person who hands over the money to buy the car may wish to register it in someone else's name, e.g. Husband buying for wife, father for son etc.etc.


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## Aron (Apr 30, 2013)

I am not an expect on insurance, but if you had a UK car in Spain and like a few British cars they can be insured in Spain. The problem is, some people don't realise, if you then take the car back to the UK you must get it insured in the UK to commence the moment the car arrives in the UK. Spanish insurance on a British car is not valid in the UK. Number plate recognition cameras have caught a few British cars going back. I am not sure how that works going the other way.


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## gus-lopez (Jan 4, 2010)

Aron said:


> I am not an expect on insurance, but if you had a UK car in Spain and like a few British cars they can be insured in Spain. The problem is, some people don't realise, if you then take the car back to the UK you must get it insured in the UK to commence the moment the car arrives in the UK. Spanish insurance on a British car is not valid in the UK. Number plate recognition cameras have caught a few British cars going back. I am not sure how that works going the other way.


No that is certainly not correct with Liberty Seguros & Mapfre. Liberty Seguros actually advertise that your vehicle is legal ( UK plated one) in the UK as they notify the dvla & motor insurers database on tuesdays & fridays of uk plated vehicles that they have insured. 

" Have no worries when returning to the UK about being stopped as your vehicle will show up on the database " or something like that they advertise.

The vehicles are insured through UK based companies associated with , or owned by, the spanish co.'s.
There is no way a "Spanish" company can insure a UK , or any other foreign vehicle in Spain. It is not legal under EU rules. The vehicle has to be insured through a company based in the country where the vehicle is registered.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

gus-lopez said:


> No that is certainly not correct with Liberty Seguros & Mapfre. Liberty Seguros actually advertise that your vehicle is legal ( UK plated one) in the UK as they notify the dvla & motor insurers database on tuesdays & fridays of uk plated vehicles that they have insured.
> 
> " Have no worries when returning to the UK about being stopped as your vehicle will show up on the database " or something like that they advertise.
> 
> ...


Agree with most of what you say, gus, but as I said I insured my Spanish plated car when I was living in Prague at a time when I had no Spanish address. All perfectly legal and above board but expensive.

A lot of misleading 'advice' is given about buying a Spanish plated car in the UK. If you use a reputable dealer who will provide the documents there should be no problem whatsoever.

Look at it this way: I might decide to holiday in the UK at my son's house. I decide to drive my Spanish plated car which has valid ITV and tax. My son decides to buy the car as he will be visiting his home in Spain so gives me the cash, I hand over the documents, he drives me back and registers the car in his name when he arrives in Spain. He of course checks that his insurance is valid. If he didn't already have a Spanish address, no problem. The carwould still be recorded in Spain as being in my name - not good for me if he got a speeding fine but again not a real problem. As we know, many cars bought within Spain are not deregistered by the previous owner.

This is basically what occurred when I bought my car from the LHD Place except that the previous owner and I never met and the car was deliveredto me in Prague.

All very straightforward.


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## Aron (Apr 30, 2013)

gus-lopez said:


> No that is certainly not correct with Liberty Seguros & Mapfre. Liberty Seguros actually advertise that your vehicle is legal ( UK plated one) in the UK as they notify the dvla & motor insurers database on tuesdays & fridays of uk plated vehicles that they have insured.
> 
> " Have no worries when returning to the UK about being stopped as your vehicle will show up on the database " or something like that they advertise.
> 
> ...


I said I wasn't an expert, but what I have written has actually occurred, people have been stopped at a port for not having correct insurance. All I mentioned was to make sure you have insurance fixed up when you return to the UK. 

We used to have a Spanish registered car insured in my name and a UK car registered and insured in my wife's name in the UK. According to others on here that is not legal, yet our insurance company was informed and told us there was no problem, yet we only have a house in Spain. At the time we both had UK driving licences. In 50 years of driving neither of us have had any points on our licence. We sold our UK car years ago as we rarely go back these days.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

I said before that a couple of years back my son had a French plated LR he used for driving to ski resorts. It was French legal and kept in his garage until he left for France. He never had a problem.
PC Plod has better things to do than stop people driving foreign plated cars to their holiday homes. How could he determine where your primary residence was, for one thing? He or she would most probably be deterred by the mass of paperwork required. If you weren't committing an offence such as speeding, driving under the influence...why bother?
PC Plod has better and more serious things to do.


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## Aron (Apr 30, 2013)

mrypg9 said:


> I said before that a couple of years back my son had a French plated LR he used for driving to ski resorts. It was French legal and kept in his garage until he left for France. He never had a problem.
> PC Plod has better things to do than stop people driving foreign plated cars to their holiday homes. How could he determine where your primary residence was, for one thing? He or she would most probably be deterred by the mass of paperwork required. If you weren't committing an offence such as speeding, driving under the influence...why bother?
> PC Plod has better and more serious things to do.


If for some reason your car pings a number plate recognition, you'll get stopped, but if it doesn't there is not much chance of getting pulled over by the police if you drive within the law.


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