Changing UK caravan to French plates

[manonthemoon2]

Hi all and I hope you are well.

Has anyone ever gone through this process please?

We have a certificate of conformity for the van but dont know how to start. We have insured it on English plates for the time being.

Having said that, we drove to Italy via Switzerland and also to Spain, in our older UK van and didn't once get stopped.

We have a French car we'll be towing it with.

Thanks

[Spectrum]

There are complicated and differing reasons you may have trouble, a lot of insures will not cover a UK caravan if it doesn't conform to French/EU law, they will gladly take your money then not pay out, its exactly the same with UK reg cars that have been here for more than three months, people do get caught out and their claims thrown out. The main problems are the plug sockets do not conform, the door is on the wrong side this is for safety reasons as for when you step out of the caravan, on some older vans the road lighting may not be EU stamped, I know of a few ex-pats that have tried but sold the van in the UK and bought one out in the EU, Germany seems to be the place to go. This is what I am aware of the situation others may have there own thoughts.

[Blaze]

I concur with Spectrum based on our own experience. Some years ago we were given a UK folding caravan which, after looking into what needed to be done to re-register it, we sold. I can't remember now, we did get some sort of certificate but there was much more that needed to be done. As Spectrum says, things like the door opening on the wrong side can penalise registration and there were other things that didn't conform - it was old but in excellent condition - and the auvent had never been used !

We've had no problem buying a caravan in France but I we were told by a dealer that there is only one factory where the chassis are made so there can be a long wait if you are unlucky. I have no idea if that's true or not but we got exactly what we were after. The dealers even lent us a caravan - free - (better than the one we had ordered !) for 2 weeks due to an "unexpected delay" in the delivery of our own van !

[Hotrodder]

Interesting. I thought one reason for difficulty was that the UK gas installation did not conform to EU (or French) standards. I'm a bit puzzled why having the door on a different side would be big deal. Cars have doors on both sides and it doesn't seem to matter. Its not like you regularly park overnight on the edge of a motorway.

[Headers]

We went through this process MANY years ago and it was long and tricky. You will need to contact your local DREAL center. Ours is in AGEN. They need a full set of specs for the van which have to come from the manufacturer. You will have to take it for a physical inspection. I am unclear if you can legally drive a uk registered van on a French plated car - especially to go to the inspection. The door positioning wasn’t relevant when we did it. Personally I would flog the van and start again with a French one. EDITED TO CORRECT ACRONYM FOR INSPECTION PROCESS.

[beejay]

UK insurance for a caravan will not cover third party claims whilst it is being towed as that is covered by the car insurance.

Towing a caravan in France with a French registered car requires the caravan to be registered and insured in France or other EU country.

The combination of French car and UK plated caravan with no t/p insurance is illegal and not advised.

Whether you can get the caravan through the French registration system is extremely doubtful and likely to be costly. There is no CT for caravans.

Edit: add
From Guichet Carte Grise https://tinyurl.com/mrmfued9 Documents required:
Form Cerfa 13750 05 completed and signed for the application for a registration certificate of the caravan;
The form Cerfa 15776 01 completed by the seller or an invoice (with a translation in French);
The caravan registration certificate, or an official ownership document;
Form Cerfa 13751 02 if the caravan was acquired from an automotive professional to declare the purchase of a used vehicle;
Proof of compliance of the caravan with the Community type, or a report of receipt on an isolated basis provided by the DREAL;
The customs clearance certificate 846 A for caravans from a state outside the EU;
A tax certificate provided by the tax services to certify the payment of VAT in the country.

[widge]

Taking things for inspection at the DREAL can be a nightmare, they will often find anything even minor to fail if somthing is even slightly non standard, somebody I know tried to get a uk caravan through, after a lot of looking and umming the inspector discovered the the door way was 5mm too narrow becouse the had a flyscreen fitted, aparently it had to be a minimum width to allow a fireman with gear on to enter. They say no problem, it will only take 5 mins to take off, the inspector flatly refused to allow them to do it there, and told them to take the caravan away, and book a new rdv, they had already waited 3 months for that one, it was also pretty clear that even if did that, he would find something else to fail it on.

Years ago I got an old uk daihasu tested, as I could only get a partial COC, again he was not happy about passing it, and eventually tried to fail it on the tyres, in the COC it only gave the tyre sizes as 225/15,(no profile size) and the tyres I had were new 225/80/15, he tried to argue that this was not the same, I reponded that it was imposible for a tyre not to have a profile size, after searching on the internet he discovered that the default profile tyre size was 80, and he eventualy signed it off, I think just to get rid of me.

[hughnique]

Try REGISTERING VEHICLES IN FRANCE, a Facebook site you might get a few of the know it all brigade but generally you will get the right advice. My understanding is that it would be illegal to tow it with a French reg car, our impending move back to the UK next week, prompted me to try and find a decent UK reg car here to go back in, not possible as we didn't have a UK address at the time. Finally decided to take our French reg CMax back as the mileage is minimal and we know what we have got without tumbling in to the mire of secondhand car dealers. Try and get a UK insurance company to insure it with French plate, nigh on impossible but then AXA fr tell me I have 90 days cover with them. might just get it re reg by then.