Car insurance for non-UK residents

Hello! I am Gemma, a legal assistant here at Lawyer Destroyer. I would be very happy to explain your car insurance options as a non-UK resident.

By law, anyone driving on public roads in England and Wales must have valid motor insurance. How you go about getting this depends very much on what vehicle you will be driving while you are here. Let us break down the most common situations.

If you are hiring a car
This is usually the simplest route. If you rent a car from a commercial hire company, the basic third party insurance you need by law is automatically included in the rental price. You will usually be offered optional extra waivers to reduce the amount you would have to pay if the car is damaged. You do not need a UK address for this, just your valid driving licence from home, a passport, and usually a credit card.

If you are bringing your own car from abroad
If you are driving your own car over to the UK, your very first step should be to check with your current insurance provider back home. Many policies provide cover for driving internationally for a set number of days. Depending on which country you are travelling from, you might need to carry a Green Card, which acts as an international certificate of insurance. If your car is insured in the EU, you do not currently need a Green Card to drive in the UK, but it is always sensible to carry your physical insurance documents with you.

If you are borrowing a car from family or friends
If you want to drive a car belonging to someone you are visiting, you have two practical options. The easiest is to ask the owner to contact their UK insurance provider and try to add you as a named driver on their policy for the duration of your stay. Some insurers will do this for a small fee, though others have strict rules against adding non-UK licences.

If their insurer says no, you can take out a temporary car insurance policy. There are a few specialist insurance companies in the UK that provide short term cover specifically for visiting non-residents or tourists. You can usually buy cover for anywhere between a single day and a few months.

If you are buying a car in the UK
This is by far the hardest option. Most mainstream UK car insurance providers require you to be a UK resident, have a permanent UK address, and hold a UK driving licence. Standard comparison websites will likely reject your details. To do this, you will need to use a specialist insurance broker who deals with non-resident or expatriate car insurance. You should be prepared for the premiums to be quite expensive, and you will still need a UK correspondence address to register the vehicle with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.

A few practical next steps
Before you travel, you should check if you need an International Driving Permit. You can do this quickly on the UK government website by selecting the country that issued your driving licence.

Also, if you do buy short term cover from a UK insurer, keep a printed copy of the insurance certificate in the car with you. It can sometimes take a few days for temporary policies to show up on the national police database, so having the paperwork to hand will save you a lot of stress if you are ever pulled over.

I hope this helps give you a clear picture of your options. Please let me know if there is anything else I can help you with!