The Kafkaesque World of UK Motor Insurance

January 11, 2011 Longrider Personal Stuff, Transport 10

Returning to the UK has highlighted a problem that we expected in France, but not in the UK. When importing a vehicle into France, you apply for the registration document –  and pay the fee –  then you apply for insurance. Not so in the UK. You want a V5, you have to get the insurance and MOT first. Now, these being UK vehicles that were temporarily exported, you’d think it easy. Oh, no, not at all.

Me: I need to get insurance in order to apply for registration.

Broker: You need a UK registration to get insurance.

Me: But they are on the DVLA database –  nothing has changed apart from the plates.

Broker: You need UK registration to get insurance.

Me: But I need insurance to get the UK registration.

Broker: Yes, but you can’t get insurance for a foreign registered vehicle. Once it’s got UK plates, then you can get insurance.

Me: This is absurd.

Broker: I know.

Actually, I did find a broker who could help by applying for insurance against the chassis number prior to getting the V5 in place. But, we then ran into another problem. Some insurers won’t accept French NCB –  even though the French insurer accepted the UK NCB and has specified this on their document. It’s in French, and that is a problem even though you don’t need to understand French to understand the document. “But the broker has translated it for you,” I said. This still might not be good enough. And although I have the previous UK NCB documents on file, the French document  in French could still be a problem. So far, I’ve sorted the Megane and the bike.

Then we hit problem number three –  we haven’t been resident in the UK for the past three years so this makes us an increased risk apparently. We are the same people we were before leaving the UK in 2008 and we are still UK citizens with UK passports. The vehicles are the same and the address is the same. Nothing has changed. But, because of this bureaucracy, despite there being absolutely no risk based justification, the premiums have up to doubled. One insurer wanted over £1000 to insure Mrs L despite her premiums being less than £200 when we left two years ago.

This is what happens when a system ceases to look at individuals and bases risk on broad demographic groups. Common sense leaves the stage and premiums go through the roof. To be fair to the brokers I dealt with, they sympathised and did the best they could to get the premiums down, but we are paying, on average, double what we were two years ago.

Anyone who thinks that the French have cornered the market in bureaucracy merely needs to compare it with the UK. Frankly, registering and insuring the vehicles in France was a doddle compared –  even if it was rather more expensive. I’ve spent much of this past week on the phone trying to sort it out and so far, the best I can say is; two out of three ain’t bad. I’ll sort Mrs L’s Clio tomorrow. Then all we have to do is face the DVLA…

Wish me luck.

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10 Comments

  4. Longrider, I sympathise, been there, been through that. In any other country I’ve lived in, insuring a vehicle would be a sub 5 minute phone call to a broker. Give him the registration, you’re covered. Not here, you’d think you were trying to insure mars probes or something.
    The whole UK auto insurance market is a joke, a shambles, and as usual, an embarrassment.
    I suspect though, that the problem is the opposite of what you have stated – that instead of looking at large demographic groups and using actuarial science, they are using highly suspect pseudo science ‘risk analysis’ to assess individual applicants, to ‘tailor the risk’ to the customer. I’m sure it works just as well as their repackaged home mortgages did. Can’t be done.
    And I’m sure it makes it all far more expensive than it has to be.

  5. Bucko – no. The French insurer will not cover them for long term in the UK. Also, even with the higher premiums, the cost in the UK is much less.

    Martin, Thanks for that. DVLA never mentioned this route.

    Julia, we can teach the EU a thing or two about absurd bureaucracy. The French way is much more sensible.

  6. Chuckles, the absurdity is that without the French factor, our premiums would be around the £200 mark. And, oddly, the bike is by far the cheapest whereas for a long time it was the most expensive. That we have returned from a two year sojourn abroad makes absolutely no difference to the risk. We are no more of a risk now than we were two years ago. It doesn’t take half a brain to figure that one out. The brokers could see it but were powerless to help beyond getting the best deal that they could.

  7. Car insurance is something that has always puzzled me. In the 1930 Road Traffic Act it became mandatory by law for anyone have at least third party personal injury insurance.

    And yet the State gave the collection of this fee over to private companies with no restrictions on how much they can charge and who pay no charge for enforcemnet of it, all for a measley 5% Insurance Premium Tax.

    I wonder what deals were done in back rooms to get that through.

  8. Vehicle insurance always has been a scam.

    Let your policy lapse for 2 years and when you get another one the price doubles. Just legalised theft.

    The system in Australia would be right up Pavlovs street. You get basic insurance off the government, anything else you go to the insurance companies.

    I prefer the Philippine system – a set of rosary beads wrapped around the handlebars or rear view mirror.

    Cost – 60p.

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