Insurance question

TinCool

Okay, I've got a bit of a problem here.

I'm currently living in the UK and I am bringing over a Volvo S40 from the Republic to the UK this weekend in order to get it registered here and take it on as my own private car. I currently have a UK insurance policy on my current BMW. So planning ahead, I ran my insurance company last month and asked whether I can get temporary cover on an Irish plate to drive it over, they said of course you can. So rang them this morning to get cover sorted from this weekend and was told that they cannot insure the car as it's on an Irish plate.

Also to add, the S40 does not have any irish insurance right now of any kind and no MOT as it's been off road for the past 1.5 years, although it has been serviced a couple of weeks back

I rang around a few places and a broker I went through previously offered my comp cover with a covering note in order for me to go to the DVLA office here and get the vehicle registered with UK plates but I'd also require an MOT Cert which I can't get cos the car isn't here.

I don't know what to do now. I can't get insurance to drive the car over to get it MOT'ed. Guess I'm kinda of f*cked.

Short of risking driving it over uninsured, I've run out of ideas. Anyone been in this situation before or have any suggestions ?

Totally stumped.

TC.

Esel

No suggestions, just a free bump from the bottom of page 2!

GalwayKiefer

Any chance your BMW has a tow bar? You could hire a car trailer and bring it back on that, all above board then.

david

Does your current policy not allow you to drive other cars with registered owner's consent?

There are a lot of guys in the business of UK-IRL transportation so you would probably get a decent deal for the return journey, not much different to the cost of ferry/plane/petrol.

Mr.David

it can be done. ring a uk broker and explain to them, one of my mates did the same thing and got uk insurance cover for 1 month on irish plates, by which time he had to have gotten an MOT and UK plates.

TinCool

Thanks for the bump and replies. After a lot of searching online last night I found that Quinn Direct insure cars with either english or irish plates regardless of living in the Republic or UK. I took out a policy with them last night so at least im insured to drive the car over this weekend. I can then get the thing MOTed and registered legitimately.

Esel

You could investigate the possibility of promptly cancelling the Quinn policy and getting a refund, assuming that you would then be able to get a much cheaper policy in the UK.

TinCool

esel wrote: »

You could investigate the possibility of promptly cancelling the Quinn policy and getting a refund, assuming that you would then be able to get a much cheaper policy in the UK.

That's exactly what I'm going to do. My existing UK policy on my BMW is over half that of the one I took out with Quinn on the Volvo. I rang them and although they couldn't insure the Volvo on Irish plates, they said it'd cost no more (other than an admin fee) to swtich it over to the Volvo. So once I get it MOT'ed and get the English plates I'll cancel the Quinn policy and transfer my existing BMW policy across to the Volvo. Job done.