Its been a few weeks since I moved and started working in Switzerland.
This week I received my Swiss permanent residency card (B).
I came over driving my right hand drive Golf, British insured and with British number plates.
I was under the impression I would be able to drive my car under my current insurance for 90 days but it has now dawned on me this might not be the case anymore.
I checked the car policy (they call it: Hastings Direct
car policy - A guide to your cover and how to make a claim) and it has an interesting 'clause'. It mentions "This cover only applies if your permanent home is in the United Kingdom; and your visit to such countries is temporary".
Does the fact the I have now received my Swiss residency permit change my situation? What does "permanent home" legally mean?
Anyone have any experience from a similar situation?
I am currently house hunting so would rather push the car insurance hunting for at least another 2-6 weeks. I am not planning to drive the car for now until I figure out solution.
With permanent home I would assume the place of residence (don't they have a list to explain definitions attached to the policy)
And yes, you are uninsured now. But if you don't drive it I myself would not be to bothered about such. Tho officially you are in breach of the law if the car is on public road.
Another question: Have you already declared the car?
My plan was to scrap it before I have to import it.
Its well kept and it passed its MOT just a month ago but not sure what importing it and the associated Swiss MOT (car check) will uncover in terms of work required, cost, etc... It has about 225k km on the road and cant see its value being more than CHF 500-700, but runs well otherwise.
I would like to keep driving it in Switzerland until the car dies or I have to import it in the next 12 months.
Have I miss understood something in the legalities of this whole situation. Do I need to declare it anyway?
At the border I was stopped and purchased the motorway sticker but I forgot to ask for the form required to declare your car and the police officer didn't mention anything. Again not planning to import it.
Not sure where that puts me. Not sure what something means when its "prohibited in principle". Surely they mean prohibited by law?
I will drive by the border and declare the vehicle. That is not the problem.
The importation process will take time I am sure.
I am wondering what the fine is for being in contempt of the this "principle", if the police stop you?
I checked my insurance papers again and I am actually covered in Swiss but only for the "local minimum required by law". Its the full cover that requires me to be a UK perm resident.
Swiss police won't care as the concept of an uninsured car with no plates does not exist in CH. By Law the UK is ultimately responsible for 3rd party claims if your insures try to avoid. UK Gov may try to pursue if they think its worth it.
Given the value and (thus estimated) age of the car you might consider just scrapping it instead of going through the importation process, the checks here are much more strict than in most (if not all) other European countries and spend a couple of hundreds on a temp Swiss car.
When we moved here we brought our car with us. Didn’t import or declared it in the beginning,we done that after nearly a year of being here. To start importation procès my husband just simply drove to France, on the way back he stopped at board and declared it. No probleat all.
While still in UK we had Churchill Insurance, but they said that they cannot cover the car if it is abroad for more than 90 days, so we find stuart collons&co insurance which gives coverage for UK’s cars abroad. After declaring car at the board we started importation process, it took around 1 month to get swiss number plates.
Im not sure about that. We were stopped twice during this 1 year for random check and the police just reminded us that by the end of 1 year we must import the car or get it back to UK.
You can get a quote and cover in less than an hour by going to comparis.ch
If it's true that you can bring the car in a for up to a year before importing it, then you should do that, and scrap it in the next few months or so. It could easily cost several 100CHF to get it to Swiss standards. You'll need to steam-clean the engine...
But you've got to get your insurance sort out now.
You need to go online to Stuart Collins. Full year EU and Swiss insurance no matter the length of stay in EU or if you are registered somewhere other than UK. I had this on my car for 1yr before selling my car in the summer holidays in the UK and buying a Swiss car. Got stopped many a time at boarder and so on and it’s totaly legal. At 1yr you either import it or you sell in the UK. I had garages queuing up to take my UK car here in Switzerland as px. It is possible. Make sure you declare it at your next boarder entry, only costs 20 francs.