Not another insurance thread...

But just looking for opinions of mainland European bikers. I've an Irish licence, my bike is currently registered to Spain, but I live in Italy. Bike is here with me. Need to reinsure.
Do bikers in this situation just insure back in bikes home country, i.e. Spain for me?
The process to change registration to Spain was absolutely painful and lenghty, can't go through that process again here in Italy.
Is it ok to reinsure in Spain and drive here in Italy?
Thoughts on a postcard, s owed!

Yes. If you have a valid registration in Spain, just renew your insurance online, it will be valid everywhere in the EU.

Nice one, cheers AnTyx

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Mini-on-Tour

I wouldn't assume it's as simple as that.

I don't have any direct experience of Italian regulations but in many EU countries e.g Ireland you are limited to (typically) six months use on a foreign reg. vehicle before you are obliged to import/register it locally when you are resident.

Also, based on experience of UK and IRL insurers, insurance cover may be limited to 30day trips in other EU countries.
What's the small print on your Spanish insurance?

In case you are spending more than 6 months in the country where you work but keep the Spanish registration on the bike and you don't make permanent import of the bike you are making customs felony, for which when police/if police catch you, you will be fined and bike will be impounded until you settle the fine.

Not sure why people do this, assuming things are simple and I will only take care of it if something goes wrong.

Make it right, before you end up in trouble.

BR
Dooby

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Try these folks: https://www.alessie.com/

They covered our Irish reg truck for 2 years outside of Europe, one of their rules is that they cannot cover you in your home country, but can everywhere else. The policy ended up with AXA so was pretty solid.

Merv.

Uh, well, sure, he could renew it online, and it is true that insurance issued for a Spanish vehicle is valid everywhere else in the EU, BUT...

If he has to tell a lie to renew it (to hide the fact that his domicile is in Italy, and not in Spain), and he subsequently needs to make a claim, the insurer would be well within their rights to say that the policy was fraudulently obtained and to deny all coverage.

I agree with Dooby's comment above. Even though it may be a PITA to re-register the bike in Italy, if the owner is actually resident in Italy, he ought to do that (not to mention the question of exchanging his Irish driver licence for an Italian one.

Michael

Hi Merv, thank you for your comment. Can you explain a bit more about your case please:

Truck is registered in Ireland.
You are getting insurance from Alessie which is covering you in the EU except in the country where the truck is registered?
Do you have any other insurance in Ireland per se, like third party liability?
Hod do you go with tech inspection/MOT, do you go back to Ireland and then update the insurance policy online via government website?

Thanks for sharing your experiences with the community.

BR
Dooby

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Bike purchase, storage, expedition tours / insurance, health & repatriation, transport, rally training
www.lobagola-mototours.com/ www.lobagola-insurance.com/

My permanent address is London but I live part the year in Spain where I keep a Spanish-registered KTM 690 and a Spanish-registered Panda 4x4, both of which have Spanish insurance (AMV for the KTM, Linea Directa for the Panda) and the insurance very handily covers me for Morocco.

Registering a bike in Spain (even just buying new) is a terrible exercise in red tape and it's normal for most people to use a Gestoria to handle this at a cost of several hundred euros. Made much worse if you buy a bike in one region, but live in another, when the costs double. So I have some sympathy for @Jagermini.

The Spanish vehicles need to be registered to YOUR property in Spain (don't know how @Jagermini achieved this). The Spanish equivalent of road tax is charged by the local council to the registered owner so if the transfer papers aren't completed correctly the previous owner gets annual charges ad infinitum.

The rules about temporary use of a foreign registered vehicle probably differ from country to country, but in the UK you are limited to an accumulated six months in any one year. Being an island it's pretty difficult to fiddle this, but if @Jagermini is living in Italy who can tell if he claims his bike is out of the country much of the time. However... the UK six months only applies if you are NOT permanently resident in the country, and Italy might be similar.

Having said that, both Italy and Spain are countries where they pass loads of laws and then everyone ignores them (that's not meant as a denigrating comment).

But the really important thing, as @TwoWheelsGood writes, is the small print on the Spanish policy.

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