About Us

A couple of years after establishing a successful RV rental operation here in France, Phill and hannah the previous owners saw an ever increasing number of English speaking visitors who wanted to embark on longer European trips. They then developed a selling activity that is more economical on long trips than renting motorhomes.

After some research they came to understand that the existing options for ownership available to those who were not resident in Europe were very limited.  There are strict rules to discourage overseas residents from registering and insuring a vehicle in Europe which lead to most of the options on offer being of questionable legality.

Many society offering ownership solutions to foreigners were asking clients to make false residency claims or declarations that circumnavigated the rules in order to register and insure their vehicles. Some were even offering to hold the registration certificate in their company name so the buyer would not even have legal title to the vehicle, that is totally forbidden by laws.  Risky solutions and sharp practices were common and “Buy and Sell Back” offerings were designed to put buyers in a vulnerable position to exploit them.

Buying a motorhome in a foreign country where you don’t speak the language or have knows about laws also adds to the risks because even if you have found an honourable company to buy from, they might not have knows about the issues surrounding ownership for foreigners either and that may expose you to problems when you come to register, insure or sell a vehicle.

We heard from countless English speaking buyers who had run into ownership difficulties : Some of them were unable to insure their vehicles or could only obtain cover via the seller’s scheme which was at an extortionate rate. Others purchased their vehicle and discovered too late that they could not register or use it legally and some finished their trips before knowing they did not have the necessary documents for the sell : The industry was blighted by horror stories and it was clear to us that there simply were not any sound solutions on offer.

We were certain there must be a better way for English speaking foreigners to buy a motorhome here, so we set about finding one with the help of our trusted chartered accountant, and lawyer bilingual.

Their first objective was to create a solution to legally own a vehicle, for non-EU residents, and register and insure a vehicle in France to use in Europe.  With the right mechanism, we felt sure we could provide an alternative to the exploitative practices that had so tainted the industry.

After a two years of research and much consultations with professional advisors, we arrived at a method of legal ownership for those who are not resident here in France.  It involves owning the vehicle within a small French company, the owners of which can be resident anywhere in the world.

Having overcome the legal challenges, our second objective was to provide a completely honest proposition for buyers and expose all the likely costs of ownership from running costs to depreciation.  We felt that it would be a popular service if we could simply sell vehicles without any costly surprises at purchase, during ownership or at disposal and that is exactly what we have achieved.

Needless to say, establishing a company and owning a motorhome is not without cost but the cost is quantifiable so clients purchasing from us or with our help have all the likely cost exposed and can make informed decisions about ownership.

Direction France (Eurocampingcars) have established this method of verified, legal ownership in 2014 and have since assisted many clients from outside the EU in owning, registering, insuring and ultimately selling motorhomes and campervans.  You can read more about our solution here: Our Solution Explained

Phill and Hannah have now sold the society to us during the “covid period”, we still need to learn from them, but our team can continue to help all our customers by giving the 25 years of experience practicing motorhomes in France, and our professionnalism to repair them of almost 10 years !

We are very proud to share our passion, solution and expertise in European RV travel and greatly enjoy living somewhat vicariously as our clients share their tales of living the dream and enjoying their European motorhome adventures.

We hope before the end of the “covid period” that we will be able to propose a solution of making all in one location, and we are working very hard to manage to do it !

Sandrine and Quentin Schlernitzauer

Directors

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