Australians needing UK car insurance

I have an Australian friend, in his 40's now living in this country and he cannot get car insurance unless he pays at least £2000 a year because he has no driving history in this country except on his motorbike. There does not appear to be an answer to the problem.

Thanks for that, they do have many years of UK driving behind them DBIL has a UK driving licence his wife only an Australian one.

We put DD and SIL on our car insurance whenever they come; DD has a UK driving licence but SIL does not. Our insurance company seems happy to do this for a couple of months for a fee. They send a new policy through, then another one when the period of change is up. However, they are younger.
Does DBIL have a renewed driving licence with a photo as he is over 70 - just a thought?

Thanks ,not sure about his licence he has ao Oz one as well , we used to put DS on our policy each year when he visited from the USA with no bother but perhaps the ages and the many years not living in the UK were a problem .

We've tried before, but you have to be resident to be insured in the UK- so even if he borrows someone's address (yours perhaps) if anything happens the insurance will turn against them for false declaration. Sorry to say, but I don't think there is an answer here.

Surely their Australian insurance company can give them European cover if they pay extra?

DD and SIL aren't resident here and both our insurance companies were happy to add them to our insurance for a few weeks when we explained that they were visiting from Australia.

Perhaps it is their age.

Australia has a system whereby basic 3rd party insurance is included with road tax, which seems like a good idea.

www.moneymaxim.co.uk/short-term-car-insurance-uk-overseas-residents

It does say up to 75 on this site, but could be worth trying them.

Thanks for the replies never thought about trying their Australian insurance company.

I contribute to an expat forum here in Australia and this subject has come up. Someone said they had used the following companies:

www.duinsure.com/motor_insurance

www.dayinsure.com/

Just a word of caution - I have been given to understand that it is not legal to drive on a UK licence in the UK if you are not a permanent resident as the address on the licence is no longer valid. It might be worth checking this out with DVLA.

I didn't realise that it wasn't legal to drive on a UK licence in the UK if you're not a permanent resident - whenever I have put DD on ours the insurance company has never mentioned this.

hondagirl I can find nothing on the DVLA website about this.

Surely you can drive with a UK licence with an overseas address? If not, that would seem ludicrous as visitors with non-UK licences are allowed to drive here for up to 12 months.

I don't know how you get the insurance without a UK address, wouldn't it be easier to hire a car cheaply, which would include insurance? By the time you bought the car, however cheaply, you might need to renew the tax, MOT it etc during the period you own it and then there's the hassle of selling it at the end too.

The people referred to in the OP do have a UK address I think (are you still there, Eleanorre?)

Whereas our DD goes on our insurance to drive our car.

Having a UK address is not sufficient- you have to state that you live there permanently. We have a flat in the UK, but we could not keep a car and insure it in the UK, as this address is not our permanent address and our main address is abroad. We could have lied on the form- and got insurance- but then should we have an accident, and if we injured others- it would have come to light and insurance would have not paid. Not worth the risk- so we got rid of our UK car- a shame.

The insurance company should know the legal position though, shouldn't they? We have always been scrupulously truthful when asking for them to be put on our insurance for short-term visits.

I still can't understand why someone with a foreign driving licence can visit here and drive for up to 12 months but a person born in the UK with a UK driving licence, now resident abroad, is not allowed to drive here when visiting.

This is from the GOV.UK website about changing the address on your UK driving licence

"If you’re moving abroad, you can’t register your new address on your British driving licence. Contact the driving licence authority in your new country of residence."

Presumably that means they'd need to apply to have a licence issued by the new country, and the reason it's illegal for them to drive over here on the UK licence now is that their new address isn't on it.

Thanks for all the advice great sites but sadly age is the problem still. They do both have Australian driving licences and a fixed address here .We have contacted insurance brokers and tried other avenues but no luck so far. They have found it really cost effective to buy an oldish car run it for four months while here them sell it on . If there was money needing spent on it they did the minimum and got most of their money back when selling .That contrasts with over two thousand pound or more to hire .Insurance was on top of that.

rosequartz- your licence is no longer legal after one year living abroad, as well as when address has not been changed to your current legal address. Not sure about OZ- but in Europe you have to take your licence to the equivalent of the DVLA in the country you are living- and your licence will be exchanged for a local one, your UK one taken away and sent back to DVLA. You can rent a car on a foreign licence (some age restrictions) but you can't have a car registered in UK and insure it if you do not have permanent address in UK, and not just a relatives or holiday address.

Again, not sure about regs with OZ, but I am pretty sure their UK licence should have been exchanged and returned to DVLA. Does anyone have a link to that effect (or exception clause for OZ).

Thankyou for all the info.
I have been scouring the web trying to find out. Probably she has done that and I didn't realise or have forgotten, but I will let her know.

are different regulations in different states. In WA where I am you are allowed to drive on your UK licence indefinitely if you are on a temporary visa. If you are a permanent resident on a permanent visa however you need to apply for a WA licence after 3 months. You can physically keep hold of your UK licence.

Sorry should have written There are different regulations.....

I have told her and will let her sort it out...
It is not easy to find out from DVLA
Thanks!

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