I'm a British citizen non resident in the UK and am thinking about buying a mid 60's MK II or S type to keep for fun and investment when I'm home. My question is can I own, register and insure the car in the UK still being a non resident?

 

Try trawling around HMRC site. Otherwise I suspect that's a question to ask a specialist accountant or solicitor.

Usually you need a UK address for the car and for your paperwork etc. Those would quite likely at the very least put your non-resident status at risk I suspect.

"I wouldn't start from here" springs to mind!

 

You certainly can't register it here without a UK address as one of our members living in Switzerland was horrified to discover when DVLA retained his XKR Registration Document and cancelled the registration.

I was looking at this from the opposite perspective last year - as a UK citizen resident in the UK, I was considering keeping one of my cars in France to avoid the log slog from the North of England down to the Channel.

Without a permanent address of my own in France, I couldn't obtain a French motor insurance policy and a UK policy wouldn't cover the vehicle for more than 90 days in a calendar year. Very easy to lie about it and use a friend's address in France but I'm not like that and it could all go horribly wrong in the event of an accident when the truth would come out.

Talking to friends living in Spain, I found it was the same there so I'd expect it's similar across the EU.

You need a third party - family member, friend, auto storage facility etc who could legitimately be the registered keeper and would declare SORN whilst you were out of the country. Obtaining 'road risks' insurance as a visitor when you do want to use the vehicle is expensive but not difficult.

Graham