- Joined
- Jan 31, 2010
- Messages
- 3,025
First off, I know that one answer to this post is "contact an insurance company." Yeah, sounds good but that hasn't worked out well so far. Frankly, either I don't understand the UK regs or they don't...
We live in the UK (Bath) for 5 months of the year and are considering purchasing bikes in the UK. Purchasing is no issue at all but insurance is. Several companies have said that they can't insure us because we are foreigners, not permanent residents. BUT, we are, per UK regulation RDR3, section 1.24 and 1.25, "statutory residents" since we own property here and spend "sufficient time" in the UK, as required by the regs. But I can't figure out if a statutory and a permanent resident are considered the same thing as far as the insurance would be concerned.
Regardless, per the UK regs, you can operate a small vehicle or motorcycle in the UK on a foreign license for 12 months from you last entry into the UK. This would mean that if you enter the UK every year in May and stay for 5 months (as we do) there is no need to get a UK driver's license.
But it seems to be the lack of the UK driver's license that causes the problem for the insurance companies - at least the ones we have contacted. I know there are insurance companies that will insure the bikes but they are specifically aimed at short term tourists and the rates are very high.
I would appreciate any info/suggestions that might be useful - specific insurance companies, etc. If we cannot do better than the typical tourist company insurance rates, I think we will have to forget about buying bikes here.
We live in the UK (Bath) for 5 months of the year and are considering purchasing bikes in the UK. Purchasing is no issue at all but insurance is. Several companies have said that they can't insure us because we are foreigners, not permanent residents. BUT, we are, per UK regulation RDR3, section 1.24 and 1.25, "statutory residents" since we own property here and spend "sufficient time" in the UK, as required by the regs. But I can't figure out if a statutory and a permanent resident are considered the same thing as far as the insurance would be concerned.
Regardless, per the UK regs, you can operate a small vehicle or motorcycle in the UK on a foreign license for 12 months from you last entry into the UK. This would mean that if you enter the UK every year in May and stay for 5 months (as we do) there is no need to get a UK driver's license.
But it seems to be the lack of the UK driver's license that causes the problem for the insurance companies - at least the ones we have contacted. I know there are insurance companies that will insure the bikes but they are specifically aimed at short term tourists and the rates are very high.
I would appreciate any info/suggestions that might be useful - specific insurance companies, etc. If we cannot do better than the typical tourist company insurance rates, I think we will have to forget about buying bikes here.