Does anyone leave their van in Europe and fly back for short trips?

Annyalla

Guest
We live near Stanstead airport and wondered if many people leave their motorhome in Europe and fly back and forwards?
I have googled it and have found storage sites . It seems to make sense to me but welcome any experience of people actually doing this!
 
Few people doing it with tourers when I worked in the dordogne, the storage would site the van then put it back after the visitors had left. Cheapest way of owning holiday property I always thought
 
We have often over-wintered in Almeria, south-east Spain and there are large numbers of German and British who do the same (5 to 6 months at a time) and fly back home (Easyjet to Gatwick in the case of the Brits) for a week or two - usually around Christmas time. The long-term rates are so good that people just leave their vans on a pitch rather than shifting them into storage.
 
Hi I flew bk to uk from spain about every 5 weeks for about 6 months as I could work from a laptop but had to fly bk for meetings . It worked well but long term what needs to be remembered with a motor vehicle is you have to return for it's mot if it requires one
 
When I first replied I made the assumption that the OP wanted to overwinter in the sun but also to fly back from time to time. The response of others makes me feel that he was thinking of something longer-term and I have to echo the comments about returning the vehicle to the UK for MOT, tax and insurance purposes.
 
John H said:
When I first replied I made the assumption that the OP wanted to overwinter in the sun but also to fly back from time to time. The response of others makes me feel that he was thinking of something longer-term and I have to echo the comments about returning the vehicle to the UK for MOT, tax and insurance purposes.
Click to expand...

Tax and insurance are not a problem as they caan all be done online now but the MOT is a sticker. People we know who keep UK vehicles in Portugal bring them back once a year for the test. The Portuguese MOT stations will test to the UK standard and their test is recognized by the local police but not in the UK.I do know one person who often misses the UK test time and books an MOT for the day he gets back, it is legal to drive directly to a booked test.
 
maxi77 said:
Tax and insurance are not a problem as they caan all be done online now but the MOT is a sticker. People we know who keep UK vehicles in Portugal bring them back once a year for the test. The Portuguese MOT stations will test to the UK standard and their test is recognized by the local police but not in the UK.I do know one person who often misses the UK test time and books an MOT for the day he gets back, it is legal to drive directly to a booked test.
Click to expand...

They could well be problems if you are going to leave your van long-term out of the country. My original comment applied if the OP was talking about a few months but if he is talking about more than a year it could well be a very different story. DVLA classifies any period of more than 12 months as a permanent export - https://www.gov.uk/taking-vehicles-out-of-uk/for-12-months-or-more and, as David pointed out above, the insurance provider may not be willing to provide cover.
 
Last edited:
John H said:
They could well be problems if you are going to leave your van long-term out of the country. My original comment applied if the OP was talking about a few months but if he is talking about more than a year it could well be a very different story. DVLA classifies any period of more than 12 months as a permanent export - https://www.gov.uk/taking-vehicles-out-of-uk/for-12-months-or-more and, as David pointed out above, the insurance provider may not be willing to provide cover.
Click to expand...

My present insurance is 12 months and there are also expat insurance companies in Iberia that will insure UK vehicles with no problems. For many this can be advantageous as the insurance will cover the essential recovery cover. I have even changed inurer whilst overseas. Yes you can be tripped up by other legalities., never mind permanent export after 12 months you have mandatory matriculation in all EU countries after 6 months and certaunly inPortugal that is an expensive and time consuming process.
 
I have never done it myself but I have seen many vans left for a few weeks on wild camping sites and camp sites usually with friends keeping an eye on them, certainly in Portugal.

RD
 
Thank you all for your helpful comments

We are not planning long term just want to keep travelling and not have to do the same journey again as flying back will be cheaper and quicker too.
 
Good friend of ours has his van on a ski site 1 Dec to 1 April each winter but flies home for 3 weeks at Xmas. As said by others just leaves the van in the site.
 
maxi77 said:
My present insurance is 12 months and there are also expat insurance companies in Iberia that will insure UK vehicles with no problems. For many this can be advantageous as the insurance will cover the essential recovery cover. I have even changed inurer whilst overseas. Yes you can be tripped up by other legalities., never mind permanent export after 12 months you have mandatory matriculation in all EU countries after 6 months and certaunly inPortugal that is an expensive and time consuming process.
Click to expand...

Yes, indeed - the message being that there can be lots of headaches associated with taking your motorhome out of the country for more than 12 months and unless you check with DVLA and your insurance company, as I said earlier, you could come a cropper.
 
Annyalla said:
We are not planning long term just want to keep travelling and not have to do the same journey again as flying back will be cheaper and quicker too.
Click to expand...

That is fine, providing that your motorhome is not out of the country for more than 12 months at a time. If it is, you will need to contact both your insurance company and the DVLA (as in the link I posted earlier) and probably re-register it in the country it is in - and that could lead to all kinds of headaches, so be careful.
 
maxi77 said:
My present insurance is 12 months and there are also expat insurance companies in Iberia that will insure UK vehicles with no problems. For many this can be advantageous as the insurance will cover the essential recovery cover. I have even changed inurer whilst overseas. Yes you can be tripped up by other legalities., never mind permanent export after 12 months you have mandatory matriculation in all EU countries after 6 months and certaunly inPortugal that is an expensive and time consuming process.
Click to expand...

Sadly it seems that many insurers will 'provide' insurance without ensuring that the vehicle is legally OK to be in that country. In France we see many expat UK registered cars proudly sporting a French insurance sticker often with a local French MOT equivalent one and no tax disc. Talking to the drivers they will proudly tell you that they have SORN'ed the vehicle. I suspect in the event of a claim there might be problems as the car is not legal.

Whilst you may take a vehicle abroad for up to 12 months and then return for the UK MOT it is still only allowed to be in any one country for more than 6 months. (with Schenegen I don't know how this would be enforced!!
 
ian81 said:
Sadly it seems that many insurers will 'provide' insurance without ensuring that the vehicle is legally OK to be in that country. In France we see many expat UK registered cars proudly sporting a French insurance sticker often with a local French MOT equivalent one and no tax disc. Talking to the drivers they will proudly tell you that they have SORN'ed the vehicle. I suspect in the event of a claim there might be problems as the car is not legal.

Whilst you may take a vehicle abroad for up to 12 months and then return for the UK MOT it is still only allowed to be in any one country for more than 6 months. (with Schenegen I don't know how this would be enforced!!
Click to expand...

Very true. Just because lots of people may do something, doesn't mean that it is wise or safe to do so. I used to know people who SORNed their vehicles whilst they were abroad but for several costly reasons, I know nobody who does it now!
 
David
I disagree: in 2009 I was on the M1 at a services in Northamptonshire and had a friendly chat with a PC Lee who approached me just to look at the motorhome and he asked me how long I had been in the country. He cited the UK government website and confirmed in a subsequent interchange of emails that this stemmed from Europe.

I posed the question that even though I wasn't planning to live here and the vehicle was legal in its home country how could I register it with no UK address. At this point it conceded that I had a point but that was my problem!! He agreed it was a 'grey' area. I was accused of splitting hairs when I asked if the MH was parked off road for several days would it increase the 6 months period.

We parted amicably asking me about my weight (MH not personal!) as he felt that was a bigger issue.
 
ian81 said:
Sadly it seems that many insurers will 'provide' insurance without ensuring that the vehicle is legally OK to be in that country. In France we see many expat UK registered cars proudly sporting a French insurance sticker often with a local French MOT equivalent one and no tax disc. Talking to the drivers they will proudly tell you that they have SORN'ed the vehicle. I suspect in the event of a claim there might be problems as the car is not legal.

Whilst you may take a vehicle abroad for up to 12 months and then return for the UK MOT it is still only allowed to be in any one country for more than 6 months. (with Schenegen I don't know how this would be enforced!!
Click to expand...

Even in the UK your insurer does not check whether you vehicle is legal so it is not surprising they do not check in other countries either. In Portugal UK cars are only legal if they have a valid tax disc and appropriate insurance and MOT documentation. Document checks are very common but in the country you often see UK cars with no tax. I agree the 6 months is difficult but in Portugal the Financias were recording the registration numbers of UK cars in the airport long term carpart and then seizing vehicles that were seen twice in a period over 6 months.
 
...apologies to the OP for side tracking his thread!!!

It seems as though the French haven't caught on. Passing through Carcassonne airport car park last week I was amazed at the number of UK vehicles with no current tax disc, some with French MOT stickers and some with French insurance.
 
yes we do fly back and forth

hi yes we have a motorhome and fly out from luton to wherever we have left it on previous trip ie we are in malaga at the moment and fly home in a couple of days leaving here for 4 weeks will collect and move up to murcia and fly back from there , we have been doing this for 4 years starting in france and travelling right through totally best way given flights are so cheap , we do come over approx 8 times during year so great benefit to us. we have been very lucky and managed to secure good storage people often private individuals that keep for us for a small fee and so far has worked perfectly x
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who viewed this discussion (Total:0)

Back
Top