Please confirm information on registering a car to French second home

I read with interest your article in September’s The Connexion, stating that we can register a car in France to our second homes.

There appears to be inconsistency between various pieces of legislation. Can you seek formal confirmation that the position outlined in the article is agreed between the government agencies?

Lorraine O’Brien, by email

Editor’s reply: We received clarification by email from the senior official at the Interior Ministry’s roads section quoted in the article that the ministry does not refer to the Code civil’s definition of domicile (which in any case, strictly speaking, only relates to French people, as it refers to tout français) as a criterion for being able to do this.

Read more: UK residents CAN legally register a car at their French second home

The ministry only requires an owner to have a French address, proved by one of the documents listed here in section two.

The official also clarified that the Code de la route’s wording about the place the vehicle is ‘available to be used from’ relates to cars owned by firms rather than those owned by individuals and so is not relevant to them.

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