Australians needing UK car insurance

When my Australian daughter in law rented a car here she put her Australian address and the young guy dealing with the rental asked if that was in the EU. Bless him.

Ha ha! I didn't notice Calendargirl

Calendargirl

This thread is 8 years old!

Oops

This thread is 8 years old!

I lent my car to my NZ son for a few months last summer while he was in the UK. I rang my insurance company who asked me a few questions (his licence number, age and driving history) and then offered me a new policy with him on it for a year and charged me £100 less than I was currently paying for comprehensive insurance.
I was delighted!

When DD and DSin law visit we put them on our insurance and they drive our car. Never had a problem.
DD used to have a U.K. licence, S in L never has.
It doesn’t cost much, I think last time it was about £30.

Can't the BIL just rent a car whilst visiting the UK? Surely that's no different to when any one of us goes abroad and hires a car.

I’m sure that my BIL used his Motor Insurance company in Australia to insure him over here, when he used to come over for long holidays.

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We are looking for a way to insure our son who lives in Australia on our car when he visits in a couple of weeks. Our current insurance company can't insure him as he no longer has a UK driving licence (expired a couple of months ago. He does have an Australian driving licence. Can anyone advise me where to look please?

Totally irrelevant
Oh and reported.

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

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

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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 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.