Search Q&A
Chassis number insurance
All the best for everyone in the New year!
Next week I am collecting a brand-new car in the UK. Insuring the car temporarily to "export" it to Belgium (I am not a UK citizen) is surprisingly a hassle. To cut it short, I need an insurance company which would insure (comprehensive + civil insurance) a car on the chassis number for a short period in order to drive it from London to Brussels. After registering and plating the car in Belgium I would like to continue the same insurance if possible.
Your help is much appreciated.
Alex
You must have really good reasons for doing this as this certainly won't be your only hassle.
I suspect that the "easiest" way of getting the car to Belgium would be to tow it on a trailer but it will have to cross the Channel at commercial, not tourist, rates because, since it is new and you haven't already used it in the UK for six months, you really will be exporting it and will have to reclaim the VAT paid @ 20% in the UK and pay TVA @ 21% to the Belgian customs instead.
Make sure that you get a Certificate of Conformity with it or you will have even more hassle here.
Assuming that you have a Belgian eID card of some sort, I wouldn't have thought it would be too difficult to find a broker here who can insure it on the basis of the VIN (chassis number) since the need to do so occurs quite regularly in Belgium. While that insurance would allow you to drive the car outside Belgium, you would have to have plates first, hence my suggestion re towing it on a trailer. It is just possible that you might be able to use Belgian green trade plates which you would have to rent (expensively) through a dealer - you will probably need them to take the car for its "import" controle technique anyway, since you won't be able to apply for red plates until the CT has been done and any required changes to the car (headlamps?) completed.
Try Kenny at AXA Overijse. I'm sure you can google the number. You should not need any import control if you have the COC, though the problem there is each manufacturer can make it as easy or as difficult and expensive as they like in order to issue it.
As said, you have VAT issues with a new car though I'm guessing you know that.
Tip......Try the UK supplier or technical department of the manufacturer for the COC rather than the Belgian one. I know from experience that a certain make in Belgium make it an expensive nightmare in order to issue the COC for a UK vehicle when an email to HQ in the UK has the COC in the post for free.
> insurance company in Belgium which would provide a temporary car insurance on the chassis number
All of them. However you will need a VALID registration plate. So you'll need to get either Belgian or UK transit plates.
An insurance broker will be able to advise.
On the assumption that you are a registered Belgian resident (because if you aren't that alone would explain your problems), the insurers are obviously suspicious of what you are trying to do. If they are, and they have already reported the matter to the authorities, you won't get insurance from anyone in Belgium, at least not before the car is already here.
As you say you already have UK export plates, you should be able to get insurance, albeit expensively, in the UK, although my understanding of the UK regulations was that a car cannot be registered (and thus plated) without insurance being in place.
"" the insurers are obviously suspicious of what you are trying to do. If they are, and they have already reported the matter to the authorities, you won't get insurance from anyone in Belgium, at least not before the car is already here.""
I am beyond curious as to know what you (or an insurer) thinks the question asker could be up to and to who he could be reported to and why?
The obvious answer is money laundering, purchasing a high value product in one country, exporting it to another and selling it there.
Note that I am not suggesting at all that that is what the OP is actually doing, merely that the insurance companies think that he MIGHT be doing it and have therefore refused his business and reported the matter to protect themselves. He certainly wouldn't be the first innocent to be caught out in this way.