My caravan is in storage in France and I am hoping to have it moved further north by an English friend who stays in France and drives a French car on a French driving licence;
as mine is a British van it does not have a "certificat d immatriculation" which all French vans seem to have. My friend is unsure if it will be alright to tow it without this certificate. Does anyone know? Also, if I need this certificate, how do I get one?
Can anyone suggest a French insurance company so that I cqn also get the caravan insured?
------------- Regards,
Aileen
"Mouths closed and maths books open, please!"
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It must be 'possible' for French cars to tow British vans, because lots of Brits have their vans stored in France, and towed to site by the storage compound owners. Perhaps Floydfan who posts on here will help as regards the legal aspects of this??
He also mentioned Towergate Baker as insuring British vans, stored in France - so that might be the easiest option.
I think maybe getting the Certificate d'immatriculation may be one of those very involved French bureaucratic processes - though I'm not certain. It's likely to involve you getting a lot of original documentation together, so far as I understand.
The certificate is normally issued when the vehicle/caravan is new if it's more than 4 years old it needs the french equivalent of an MOT.I beleive it applies to caravans as well as cars and can be quite long winded I have been led to believe.
I expect it would be easier and probably cheaper to pay a firm to move it.
Saxo1
Yes, in France caravans are registered like cars and if it is a British one with the door on the wrong side it is unlikely to be accepted. AXA have an extensive network of local insurance agents and insured our Eriba, but it was French supplied and registered.
------------- Voyageur
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If you look on 'Brits in France' forums like Totalfrance there are various threads with references to this. It would appear it is not legal to tow a UK caravan behind a French reg car. Reason being that UK caravans are not registered at all, unlike caravans from France & other European countries that are.
I'm guessing foreign caravans being towed locally to storage depots are not bothered about by the local plod or there are rules to allow it.
It is possible to register a UK a caravan in France but prolly not worth it for 1 trip. Totalfrance thread on subject here
In my opinion, to be strictly legal your friend would need to drive a UK car with a matching UK plate on the 'van - I believe this is a dispensation for us folk who don't register our caravans separately. ( I think storing there is a grey area and probably us storers should have a "Imm. Cert" and be registered but I could stand to be corrected and I certainly won't ask for an official answer)
However, despite what some folk say about French Police, I seriously doubt the liklihood of any ordinary French Policeman knowing the ins and outs of French towing legislation and anyway all Policemen have a degree of discretion and a "misunderstanding" coupled with a sincere polite apology from an English speaking French resident should pull it off. If it's a one off movement I would take a chance on it and be prepared to pay any very unlikely fine your friend may incur.
The CC may be able to give you the definitive answer if you are a member.
Just my humble opinion for what it's worth but perhaps you'd prefer to be strictly legal?
They look up anything they are unsure about. We successfully appealed by quoting this when one issued a 90€ fine for using a UK license as a French resident, so they still make mistakes.
------------- Voyageur
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In France, any trailer over 750kgs (it used to be 500kgs) is required by law to have its own immatriculation (licence plate). That immatriculation is different to that of the towcar.
Having a UK caravan registered here isn't hard, but it isn't easy either! It requires lots of paperwork, including a recognised weighbridge certificate and an inspection of the interior electrics! Just to cloud the issue, each departmental DRIRE office have different requirements. Ours in Angers wanted the noseweight! I argued that I could change that to whatever they (or I) wanted it to be, but being fonctionaires, they insisted! In the end I gave up trying, selling the van here in France. At the time I was due to tow it back to the UK for a family wedding, with our French car. No problems at all until I got within sight of my mum's place when I was pulled by an over-zealous plod at 3am. His reaction to my claim that I lived in France? "Yeah right...."
The reaction from the guys at the DRIRE, when I asked what the gendarmes would do if I towed without the immatriculation? "Probably nothing."
Carrying the Code de la Route is one thing, applying it is another. As Voyageur says, the motards often make mistakes. One of the most popular is believing that you need a French permis to drive here if you're French resident. You don't, but you MUST chop in your UK one for a French one if you get points for a traffic offence.
As far as insurance goes, I did e-mail Aileen to suggest Towergate Bakers, but having looked at their website, I'm unable to see where they state that they do?
Other than that, as Tentz points out, AXA are a French firm, well known in the UK and they'll help.
I've often recommended our own motor insurance agency here. BML Assurance, based in Dinan. Alain Montagnon, Trystan Street, Karen Bell and others will all do their best to help. They're bi-langue too, which is helpful if you 'ne parle pas beaucoup de la langue française!' ;)
The following link has info written by Trystan, so from the horses mouth, as it were. HERE
Contact BML at:
0033 296 87 21 21, or e-mail them at: contact at bml.fr
Quote: Originally posted by Voyageur on 15/7/2010
All French traffic police carry Code de la Route
They look up anything they are unsure about. We successfully appealed by quoting this when one issued a 90€ fine for using a UK license as a French resident, so they still make mistakes.
Yes but that's a synopsis of the law and is unlikely to go into one off situations like a french car towing a UK caravan. For that minutae you'd need more than a pocket to hold the traffic legislation manual. If they need to look it up then they don't know and while some Traffic Cops may be up on the subject the rural and other real policemen who deal with normal stuff won't be and wouldn't dream of checking. - I have a friend who used an old UK reg car without MOT or road tax for years although it was insured. He lived in a not so small town in France and was never checked out once in years of living there. I'm not recommending that - just a comment on traffic enforcement.
Plenty of Brits in France & Spain drive untaxed/unmot'ed UK reg cars. If they were involved in a serious accident they would find out how 'insured' they actually were. It would be the same for the op's friend towing his caravan, probabley not legal but he would probabley get away with it provided he did not have an accident.
I suppose this could be a grey area. EU law allows a vehicle legal in its own country to be driven in other countries. Most other European countries register their caravans with number plates & require mot's, same as cars. So a foreign registered caravan should be legal on French roads even if towed by a French car.
A UK caravan is not registered(although would CRIS be classed as registration?) & does not have its own number plate, but it is legal on UK roads so possibly it would be legal on French roads whatever car is towing it.
This would need clarification in writing in France or the op's friend would always be taking a chance.
Quote: Originally posted by Tentz on 15/7/2010This could be very much a grey area. EU law allows a vehicle legal in its own country to be driven in other countries. Most other European countries register their caravans with number plates & require mot's, same as cars. So a foreign registered caravan should be legal on French roads even if towed by a French car.
A UK caravan is not registered(although would CRIS be classed as registration?) & does not have its own number plate, but it is legal on UK roads so possibly it would be legal on French roads whatever car is towing it.
This would need clarification in writing in France or the op's friend would always be taking a chance.
That's pretty much the way I saw it when towing mine to/from the UK without a carte grise/immatriculation for the 'van. The fact that my car was insured fully comp (and therefore for anything I was towing) helped me enormously in making that decision though.
CriS isn't a registration as such, it's basically a means of attributing a 'van to an owner in case of theft more than anything.
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Topic: Help needed please re French laws
