Relocating to Callac, Brittany

[BritsOnTheGo]

We have the opportunity to rent a house privately in Callac and estimate we will stay there for 3-5 years.

Do we have to register with any official department that we will be residing there?

Our english car has a personal registration plate, can we keep this or do we have to change to French plates? If we do what is the time period allowed for us to change over?

Thank you.

[Bevdeforges]

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

There is no formal registration process in France (like there is in Germany) though chances are your landlord will see to it that your residence is known to the local authorities, so that you will receive your bill for the taxe d'habitation. (Or perhaps he will simply forward the bill to you to settle.)

As far as re-registering your car in France, the law states that you must register it in France once you have declared that your principle domicile is in France. This is one of those areas of the law that "depends on the facts and circumstances" of each situation. But if your principal residence is your rented house in France, you're considered "domiciled" here and you're supposed to re-register your car. (Consider what you are going to do for UK tax purposes - resident of the UK or not?)

Like many other requirements of French law, you can probably get away with driving on your UK registration for a long time. But, if you get into a situation where you have to prove your residence for any reason, and it doesn't match that on your car registration, you could be in for problems.

Remember, too, that you'll have to take the car back to the UK for MOT and whatever else there. If you don't have a UK address you can use for that (and your insurance), it may get tricky. Your UK insurer may also balk at insuring a car being garaged and driven primarily in France. It's also a royal pain to drive a right hand drive car in a left hand drive country! Especially if you plan on driving on the toll roads.
Cheers,
Bev

[BritsOnTheGo]

Hello Bev,

Thank you for your quick response and helpful answers.

BritsOnTheGo