Getting Insurance for a Motor Home in Europe
For foreigners getting vehicle insurance and license plates in a foreign country with entirely different systems, processes and regulations would be difficult in the best of times. Roger is reminded of the opening of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities – “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times”.
In the midst of buying and insuring our motor home the process and regulations changed creating confusion and extra work for vendors, insurance companies and agents and added anxiety for purchasers, especially foreign purchasers. We had understood that we, as foreigners, would be able to purchase and insure a motor home without any problems, that this is a fairly common occurrence and that everyone would know what to do. That was an optimistic perspective. In real life the insurance would take longer, more trips and phone calls and much, much more anxiety than buying the motor home. What will happen if we have a motor home and we can’t get insurance? Will we be able to easily sell it and get our money out? Should we give up and go back to Canada? Should we continue to work our way through an unnecessarily (from a North American perspective) complicated process that will at best result in getting only public liability insurance. In Belgium, and we are told in Europe, no insurance company will provide any other type of insurance on a vehicle older than about 3 years – no collision, no theft, no comprehensive insurance. If you are at fault in an accident the insurance pays for the repair of the other vehicle but not for yours. So everyone driving here faces the prospect of totalling their car or motor home and ending up with a pile of scrap. For someone from an ICBC environment that is totally foreign and indeed incomprehensible. In a worst case scenario we are at fault in an accident and face the potential of totally losing our investment. While the odds of that are unlikely it is nonetheless a daunting prospect for someone on pension.
Once we had finally arranged insurance with the understanding and approval of the agent/broker to use the address of one of Marie-Claire’s sisters we went off with the appropriate papers, decals and stamps to Brussels to the Department of Motor Vehicles to get the license plates so that the vendor could take the motor home to the “Technical Control”, the government center where all vehicles must undergo a technical inspection (brakes, engine, pollution control, operating systems, transmissions, frame, body etc.) prior to its sale. Now that seemed like a good thing to us – a way of protecting the purchaser – and we knew that this motor home had already passed these tests when it was imported from Germany 3 months ago by the vendor. No problem – right?
Off we go to Brussels the government vehicle license bureau with all the appropriate papers – we think. Whoops – “you’re not a citizen or legal resident of Belgium Madame. You can not get this type of license plate. You have to get an in transit license plate and we don’t issue them here and you have the wrong form, decals and stamps for an in transit plate. And oh yeh – we changed the regulations and process on 15 November. The vendor now has to get the vehicle passed by the technical control BEFORE you can get the plates and then take it back to the technical control with the plates. It costs 70 Euros each time Madame.”
Is this out of Kafka or Catch 22 or what? Which planet are we on?
Further investigation at an unmarked industrial building a 30 minute walk away we find out that “in transit” plates are only good for 2 months, we will have to come back to Belgium to renew them (a trip of 3000 – 3500 km), they can only be renewed for a total of 6 months and the cost for the public liability insurance (remember no collision, no theft, fire or comprehensive) will be about $1100 Euros ($1600 Canadian). On an annual basis this would equate to about $3200 Canadian for public liability insurance. “But Monsieur, we don’t want to open a bungee jumping business – we just want to ensure our little, used motor home.” “ Well Monsieur, Madame – this used to be much easier and cheaper, but a lot of losses were being claimed in North Africa on “in transit” Belgian-licensed vehicles.”
By now, we are tired and frustrated and ready to go home – no, not Lasne, the big HOME – Canada.
But to every problem there is a solution. In this case it was found by Marie-Claire’s sister Christianne who has for years dealt directly with her insurance company – not with a broker. They informed her that if she put the insurance in her name there would be no problem. Sure enough there was no problem, the plates were quickly issued – or I should say THE plate. In Belgium two plates are required, but the government only issues one – the rear plate. You then have to go and have the other one made somewhere. Seemed a little odd, but there are places that do this (key cutters, auto parts stores etc.). In fact there was an enterprising guy who set up shop every morning in front of the license bureau. He had been on unemployment, spotted an opportunity, bought the little machine to stamp out plates and for $10 Euros we had our second plate.
We returned to the garage where we bought the motor home; the vendor took it back to the Technical Control for its final approval and the next morning – some two weeks after buying our new home, we got to drive it.
In the midst of buying and insuring our motor home the process and regulations changed creating confusion and extra work for vendors, insurance companies and agents and added anxiety for purchasers, especially foreign purchasers. We had understood that we, as foreigners, would be able to purchase and insure a motor home without any problems, that this is a fairly common occurrence and that everyone would know what to do. That was an optimistic perspective. In real life the insurance would take longer, more trips and phone calls and much, much more anxiety than buying the motor home. What will happen if we have a motor home and we can’t get insurance? Will we be able to easily sell it and get our money out? Should we give up and go back to Canada? Should we continue to work our way through an unnecessarily (from a North American perspective) complicated process that will at best result in getting only public liability insurance. In Belgium, and we are told in Europe, no insurance company will provide any other type of insurance on a vehicle older than about 3 years – no collision, no theft, no comprehensive insurance. If you are at fault in an accident the insurance pays for the repair of the other vehicle but not for yours. So everyone driving here faces the prospect of totalling their car or motor home and ending up with a pile of scrap. For someone from an ICBC environment that is totally foreign and indeed incomprehensible. In a worst case scenario we are at fault in an accident and face the potential of totally losing our investment. While the odds of that are unlikely it is nonetheless a daunting prospect for someone on pension.
Once we had finally arranged insurance with the understanding and approval of the agent/broker to use the address of one of Marie-Claire’s sisters we went off with the appropriate papers, decals and stamps to Brussels to the Department of Motor Vehicles to get the license plates so that the vendor could take the motor home to the “Technical Control”, the government center where all vehicles must undergo a technical inspection (brakes, engine, pollution control, operating systems, transmissions, frame, body etc.) prior to its sale. Now that seemed like a good thing to us – a way of protecting the purchaser – and we knew that this motor home had already passed these tests when it was imported from Germany 3 months ago by the vendor. No problem – right?
Off we go to Brussels the government vehicle license bureau with all the appropriate papers – we think. Whoops – “you’re not a citizen or legal resident of Belgium Madame. You can not get this type of license plate. You have to get an in transit license plate and we don’t issue them here and you have the wrong form, decals and stamps for an in transit plate. And oh yeh – we changed the regulations and process on 15 November. The vendor now has to get the vehicle passed by the technical control BEFORE you can get the plates and then take it back to the technical control with the plates. It costs 70 Euros each time Madame.”
Is this out of Kafka or Catch 22 or what? Which planet are we on?
Further investigation at an unmarked industrial building a 30 minute walk away we find out that “in transit” plates are only good for 2 months, we will have to come back to Belgium to renew them (a trip of 3000 – 3500 km), they can only be renewed for a total of 6 months and the cost for the public liability insurance (remember no collision, no theft, fire or comprehensive) will be about $1100 Euros ($1600 Canadian). On an annual basis this would equate to about $3200 Canadian for public liability insurance. “But Monsieur, we don’t want to open a bungee jumping business – we just want to ensure our little, used motor home.” “ Well Monsieur, Madame – this used to be much easier and cheaper, but a lot of losses were being claimed in North Africa on “in transit” Belgian-licensed vehicles.”
By now, we are tired and frustrated and ready to go home – no, not Lasne, the big HOME – Canada.
But to every problem there is a solution. In this case it was found by Marie-Claire’s sister Christianne who has for years dealt directly with her insurance company – not with a broker. They informed her that if she put the insurance in her name there would be no problem. Sure enough there was no problem, the plates were quickly issued – or I should say THE plate. In Belgium two plates are required, but the government only issues one – the rear plate. You then have to go and have the other one made somewhere. Seemed a little odd, but there are places that do this (key cutters, auto parts stores etc.). In fact there was an enterprising guy who set up shop every morning in front of the license bureau. He had been on unemployment, spotted an opportunity, bought the little machine to stamp out plates and for $10 Euros we had our second plate.
We returned to the garage where we bought the motor home; the vendor took it back to the Technical Control for its final approval and the next morning – some two weeks after buying our new home, we got to drive it.
posted by Retired and on the Move | 3:19 AM
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