You moved to France after Brexit, you still hold your pink UK photocard, and one morning the gendarmerie waves you over for a routine check. The officer looks at your licence, asks for your carte de séjour (residence permit), counts the months since you settled, and tells you that your British licence no longer allows you to drive. A fine follows, your car may be immobilised, and weeks later your insurer hints that the accident you had in the meantime might not be covered. This guide explains, for British residents in France, when a UK licence stops being valid, what criminal charge arises if you keep driving, what happens to your motor insurance, and how to challenge the fine and put your papers back in order, whether you live in France or are already back in the United Kingdom.
Two warnings shape everything that follows. First, the rules are not the same for every British licence. The British government guidance distinguishes licences first issued before 1 January 2021 from licences first issued on or after that date, and French domestic law treats the United Kingdom as a non-EU, non-EEA state since Brexit, subject to a one-year recognition window once you become normally resident. Second, the date that counts is the start of your normal residence in France, proved in practice by the start date of your first residence permit, not the day you rented a flat, opened a bank account or received a provisional receipt. Get that date wrong and every deadline built on it collapses.
French terms appear throughout because the police report, the fine notice and the ANTS website use them. Résidence normale means normal residence. Échange means the administrative exchange of your UK licence for a French licence. ANTS (Agence nationale des titres sécurisés, operating as France Titres) is the online agency that processes exchanges. The attestation de dépôt is the filing receipt ANTS issues when your exchange file is lodged, and the attestation de dépôt sécurisée (secure deposit certificate, SDA) is the document that allows you to drive while you wait once your original licence has been received by the examining service. The carte de séjour is your residence permit, including the Withdrawal Agreement card (WARP, carte de séjour Accord de retrait) for Britons protected by the Brexit deal.
I. Why the police say your UK licence no longer allows you to drive in France
A. How long can you still drive in France on a UK licence after you become resident?
The starting point is deceptively simple. Article R222-1 of the Code de la route (Highway Code) provides: “Tout permis de conduire national régulièrement délivré par un Etat membre de l’Union européenne ou partie à l’accord sur l’Espace économique européen ou par un Etat qui était membre de l’Union européenne ou partie à l’accord sur l’Espace économique européen à la date de sa délivrance, est reconnu en France sous réserve d’être en cours de validité.” In English: a national licence regularly issued by an EU or EEA state, or by a state that was an EU or EEA member on the date of issue, is recognised in France provided it remains valid. Your pre-Brexit UK licence therefore started life as a fully recognised European licence. Brexit did not retrospectively cancel that history, which is why the British government still states that a UK licence first issued before 1 January 2021 is recognised in France while it remains valid, with paper licences usually valid until age 70 and photocard expiry shown on the front, exchange becoming compulsory only when the licence expires or has less than six months of validity left, without any driving test.
That reassuring sentence does not cover everyone. The same official guidance adds a second rule for licences first issued on or after 1 January 2021: recognition for one year from the date of issue of the residency permit, with an obligation to exchange for a French licence during that initial one-year period for drivers intending to stay longer. This concerns licences first issued on or after 1 January 2021. In French domestic terms, the mechanism is Article R222-3 of the Code de la route, which states: “Tout permis de conduire national, en cours de validité, délivré par un Etat ni membre de l’Union européenne, ni partie à l’accord sur l’Espace économique européen, peut être reconnu en France jusqu’à l’expiration d’un délai d’un an après l’acquisition de la résidence normale de son titulaire.” During that year it may be exchanged for a French licence without sitting the French driving exams, under conditions set by ministerial order. Then comes the sentence that creates every roadside dispute: “Au terme de ce délai, ce permis n’est plus reconnu et son titulaire perd tout droit de conduire un véhicule pour la conduite duquel le permis de conduire est exigé.” After the deadline, the licence is no longer recognised and the holder loses every right to drive a vehicle that requires a licence.
Three practical consequences follow. First, normal residence is a legal concept, not a feeling. Article R221-1 of the Code de la route defines it as: “On entend par résidence normale le lieu où une personne demeure habituellement, c’est-à-dire pendant au moins 185 jours par année civile, en raison d’attaches personnelles et professionnelles”. Students and trainees keep special rules, but for most British families the test is 185 days per calendar year with personal and professional ties. Officers do not guess. They look at your residence permit, your tax notices, your lease and your entry stamps, and they anchor the one-year clock to the earliest stable document.
Second, the criminal courts anchor that clock to the first residence permit. In a widely reported decision of 11 March 2020, No. 19-80.465, published in the Bulletin, the criminal chamber of the Cour de cassation (French supreme court for criminal and civil matters) held: “Il résulte de ces articles, applicables au moment de la commission des faits, que tout permis de conduire national, en cours de validité, délivré par un État ni membre de l’Union européenne ni partie à l’accord sur l’Espace économique européen, peut être reconnu en France jusqu’à l’expiration d’un délai d’un an après l’acquisition de la résidence normale de son titulaire. La date d’acquisition de la résidence normale est celle du début de validité du premier titre de séjour.” The case concerned a Rwandan licence, but the reasoning is transposed daily to British licences because the United Kingdom now sits in the same third-country box. The court added a precision that matters for Britons who spent months on temporary receipts: “le délai d’un an dont dispose le titulaire d’un permis de conduire étranger pour demander son échange contre un permis de conduire français a pour point de départ la date d’établissement effectif résultant du premier titre de séjour délivré à l’intéressé, et non la délivrance à ce dernier d’une autorisation provisoire de séjour, renouvelable tous les six mois, attestant du dépôt d’une demande d’asile”. A provisional receipt is not the starting point. The first genuine residence permit is. For a Briton, that is normally the start date printed on the WARP card or on the first carte de séjour marked visiteur, salarié, entrepreneur or famille, not the acknowledgment email from the prefecture.
Third, the European-route cases still bite. Article R222-2 of the Code de la route states: “Toute personne ayant sa résidence normale en France, titulaire d’un permis de conduire national délivré par un Etat membre de l’Union européenne ou d’un autre Etat partie à l’accord sur l’Espace économique européen, en cours de validité dans cet Etat, peut, sans qu’elle soit tenue de subir les examens prévus au premier alinéa de l’article D. 221-3 , l’échanger contre le permis de conduire français”. Exchange is normally a right without exams. It becomes compulsory, however, “lorsque son titulaire a commis, sur le territoire français, une infraction au présent code ayant entraîné une mesure de restriction, de suspension, de retrait du droit de conduire ou de retrait de points”, and failure to exchange in that compulsory case “est puni de l’amende prévue pour les contraventions de la quatrième classe” (a fourth-class fine). On 9 March 2022, No. 21-84.021, the criminal chamber recalled the companion principle: “tout permis de conduire régulièrement délivré dans un Etat membre de l’Union européenne est reconnu en France sous réserve d’être en cours de validité.” That case concerned a driver who had obtained an English licence on 11 February 2016 after a French invalidation period had expired, had filed an exchange request on 8 January 2019 and held a receipt valid until 8 September 2019 stating that she held the right to drive. The appeal court had brushed that file aside and convicted her for driving without a licence for facts dated 25 July 2019. The Cour de cassation quashed the conviction in part. The lesson for Britons is twofold: a validly obtained British licence is not automatically void in France, and a timely exchange file with a receipt stating the right to drive must be examined, not ignored. Conversely, once the one-year recognition has expired without any filing, the same courts uphold convictions.
In daily practice the ANTS route confirms this architecture. The service-public.fr English page for exchanging a non-European licence explains that the application is made online through France Titres-ANTS, with proof of identity, proof of address under six months old, proof of lawful residence, a digital photograph and signature code, a driving-rights certificate (certificat de droits à conduire) under six months old issued by the foreign authority proving the licence was not suspended or cancelled, a translation by a sworn translator if needed, and proof of normal residence in France on the application date. At the end of the examination, the original foreign licence is called in by tracked post, and once received the service issues a secure deposit certificate valid for four months that allows driving while the French licence is produced, within the recognition period. The trap for Britons is visible: the secure certificate only helps inside the recognition window or on the back of a complete, timely file. Lodging a first application eighteen months after the residence permit started does not retroactively validate the intervening driving.
B. What offence, what fine and what criminal record do you face if you keep driving?
Once recognition has expired, driving is not a paperwork slip. It is the criminal offence of driving without a licence. Article L221-2 of the Code de la route provides: “Le fait de conduire un véhicule sans être titulaire du permis de conduire correspondant à la catégorie du véhicule considéré est puni d’un an d’emprisonnement et de 15 000 euros d’amende.” One year of imprisonment and a 15,000 euro fine is the headline penalty. The same article adds complementary penalties that magistrates use to tailor the sentence: confiscation of the vehicle if the driver owns it, community service, day-fines, a ban of up to five years on driving certain motor vehicles including vehicles that do not normally require a licence, and a road-safety awareness course at the driver’s expense. Immobilisation of the vehicle can be ordered on the roadside under Articles L325-1 to L325-3. For many British drivers the shock is not the headline figure, which is rarely imposed in full on a first offence with no aggravating circumstances, but the entry on the criminal record, the possible retention of the vehicle, and the knock-on effects on insurance and employment.
Procedure matters as much as penalty. The same Article L221-2 states: “Dans les conditions prévues aux articles 495-17 et suivants du code de procédure pénale , l’action publique peut être éteinte par le versement d’une amende forfaitaire d’un montant de 800 €. Le montant de l’amende forfaitaire minorée est de 640 € et le montant de l’amende forfaitaire majorée de 1 600 €.” In plain English: for this délit (mid-level criminal offence, tried by the tribunal correctionnel), the prosecution can be extinguished by paying a fixed fine of 800 euros, reduced to 640 euros if paid quickly and increased to 1,600 euros if paid late. The notice handed over at the roadside or received by post is therefore not an invitation to negotiate. It is a clock. Pay within the reduced period and the case ends without a hearing, but with the offence recorded as paid. Contest in time and the case goes to court. Ignore it and the increased amount becomes enforceable, with enforcement through the Treasury. Do not confuse this fixed fine for the délit with the fourth-class fine mentioned above for failing to exchange a European licence after a points withdrawal or suspension. The two tracks look similar on paper and are routinely mixed up in online forums. After the one-year third-country window, you are on the délit track, not the contravention track.
The second shock is insurance. Article L211-1 of the Code des assurances (Insurance Code) states: “Toute personne physique ou toute personne morale autre que l’Etat, dont la responsabilité civile peut être engagée en raison de dommages subis par des tiers résultant d’atteintes aux personnes ou aux biens dans la réalisation desquels un véhicule est impliqué, doit, pour faire circuler celui-ci, être couverte par une assurance garantissant cette responsabilité, dans les conditions fixées par décret en Conseil d’Etat.” Every keeper must hold third-party cover. Contracts must also cover “la responsabilité civile de toute personne ayant la garde ou la conduite, même non autorisée, du véhicule”, the liability of any person with custody or driving, even unauthorised. Victims are therefore paid by the insurer or, if needed, by the guarantee fund, even when the driver had no valid licence. That protection for victims is not protection for the driver. Once victims are compensated, the insurer turns to the policyholder.
Two weapons are available to the insurer, and both are misunderstood. The first is nullity for intentional non-disclosure. Article L113-8 of the Code des assurances provides that “le contrat d’assurance est nul en cas de réticence ou de fausse déclaration intentionnelle de la part de l’assuré, quand cette réticence ou cette fausse déclaration change l’objet du risque ou en diminue l’opinion pour l’assureur, alors même que le risque omis ou dénaturé par l’assuré a été sans influence sur le sinistre.” Premiums already paid stay with the insurer, which can also claim those due as damages. The insurer must prove intentional concealment or misrepresentation that changed its view of the risk. A British driver who told the insurer “I hold a UK licence” in 2021, became French resident in 2022, let the one-year window expire, and never updated the insurer, is exposed. The insurer will argue that the statement became false and was knowingly maintained at each renewal questionnaire. The second weapon is reduction for innocent misstatement under Article L113-9, where compensation after a loss “est réduite en proportion du taux des primes payées par rapport au taux des primes qui auraient été dues, si les risques avaient été complètement et exactement déclarés”. If the risk had been correctly declared, the premium would have been higher or cover refused, so the payout is cut proportionally.
The Cour de cassation polices the boundary strictly. On 3 April 2025, No. 23-18.533, the Second Civil Chamber quashed an appeal decision that had annulled a MACIF motor policy from 11 January 2016 after the policyholder failed to report the invalidation of her licence. The court recalled: “Selon ce texte, le contrat d’assurance est nul en cas de réticence ou de fausse déclaration intentionnelle de la part de l’assuré, quand cette réticence ou cette fausse déclaration change l’objet du risque ou en diminue l’opinion pour l’assureur, alors même que le risque omis ou dénaturé par l’assuré a été sans influence sur le sinistre.” It then censured the appeal court for annulling the whole contract without asking, as it was required to do, “si l’absence d’information donnée par Mme [E] sur l’invalidation de son permis de conduire avait changé l’objet du risque couvert par la garantie vol ou en avait diminué l’opinion pour l’assureur”. For theft cover, loss of the licence may be irrelevant. For driving-liability cover after the one-year expiry, it is central. The practical message for Britons is precise: an insurer cannot wave Article L113-8 as a magic wand over every guarantee. It must link the concealed licence position to the specific risk in dispute. But where the dispute is a road accident while you drove without a recognised licence, that link is readily made, and the insurer will also exercise its subrogation to recover from you what it paid to victims when the vehicle was taken or driven against the owner’s will rules apply, plus contractual recourse clauses for driving without a valid licence that most French motor policies contain.
A final aggravating layer is the vehicle itself. British-registered cars kept in France beyond the customs window face separate proceedings for registration and customs clearance through ANTS and the 846A certificate, already covered in a companion guide. Do not mix the two files. You can win the customs file and still lose the licence file. Officers at the same checkpoint routinely open both.
II. How to challenge the fine, protect your insurance and get back on the road lawfully
A. How do you challenge the fixed fine or the summons, and which proof actually wins?
Start by reading exactly what you received. Three documents look alike but trigger different deadlines. A procès-verbal (police report) with a fixed-fine notice (avis d’amende forfaitaire délictuelle) for driving without a licence offers the 800, 640 and 1,600 euro ladder described above. A summons (convocation) before the tribunal correctionnel sets a hearing date. An immobilisation receipt (procès-verbal d’immobilisation) records that the car was held. Photograph every page, note the time, place, officer number and the exact legal basis cited, usually Article L221-2 or Article R222-3. Check the spelling of your name, the registration number, the date and the licence number. Errors do not automatically cancel the case, but they feed a defence based on uncertain identification or an unreliable factual basis.
Do not pay and contest at the same time. Payment of the fixed fine extinguishes the prosecution. If the facts are wrong and you can prove it, you must use the contestation route within the period printed on the notice, normally by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt or through the official online contestation portal, enclosing the notice, your identity document, your UK licence with a sworn translation, your residence permit and the evidence described below. If the amount is already increased for non-payment, different papers apply and the Treasury route opens. A lawyer can check within minutes which stage you are at from the reference numbers.
The winning arguments fall into four groups. First, the licence was still recognised on the day of the check. This is the pre-2021 versus post-2021 distinction. If your UK licence was first issued before 1 January 2021, produce the licence showing the issue date, the DVLA check code or counterpart printout proving validity on the day, the gov.uk page stating recognition while valid, and proof that no exchange obligation had yet crystallised through expiry or a French sanction. If your licence was first issued on or after 1 January 2021, compute the year from the start date of your first residence permit. Produce that permit, not a later renewal, and count twelve months forward. If the check predates expiry, the prosecution collapses. Cite Article R222-1 for the European-route licence and Article R222-3 for the third-country window, with the official Légifrance links in your written submissions.
Second, the residence start date used by the police is wrong. Officers sometimes count from the lease, the first tax return or the date you say you “moved”. The Cour de cassation counts from the start of validity of the first residence permit, as quoted above. A Briton who arrived to view houses in 2022, signed a lease in 2023 and received a first WARP or visiteur card valid from 15 May 2024, becomes normally resident for licence purposes on 15 May 2024, not on the viewing trip. Conversely, a Briton who held a pre-Brexit EU residence card, then a WARP card without a break, cannot pretend residence started only with the plastic WARP. Bring the full chain: passport stamps, entry records, lease, utility bills, French tax assessments, employment contracts, school certificates, and every residence permit with its start and expiry dates. Ask the court to fix the start date from the first permit and to recompute the year. The decision of 11 March 2020 is your skeleton argument: quote the passage on the first permit word for word and map each of your documents onto it.
Third, you held a pending exchange file that carried the right to drive. The decision of 9 March 2022 shows that courts must examine the ANTS receipt. Produce the ANTS filing confirmation, the receipt stating that you hold the right to drive with its validity dates, the list of uploaded documents, the proof of postage of the original licence when called in, and the SDA if issued. If the facts fall inside the receipt’s validity, argue that no offence is constituted, citing Articles R222-1 and R222-2 and the principle that a regularly issued licence remains recognised while valid. If the receipt had expired before the check, do not pretend otherwise. Shift to mitigation and regularisation instead.
Fourth, procedure and proportionality. For a summons, check service, jurisdiction, the precise wording of the charge, and whether the correct track was used. Driving after expiry of the one-year window is charged as the délit of Article L221-2. Driving where only the compulsory European exchange after a points loss is at stake is the fourth-class contravention of Article R222-2. A charge that cites the wrong text, or a file that never proves the expiry computation, invites acquittal or reclassification. At sentence, bring everything that shows good faith and low risk: immediate ANTS filing, enrolment in a French driving school if an exam is now needed, a clean DVLA record, a clean French points record, proof of insurance, employment needs, care responsibilities, and the steps taken to avoid reoffending. Courts can temper confiscation, replace part of a sentence with a road-safety course, or limit the driving ban to categories you do not need. Where the fixed fine is the vehicle, a well-documented contestation letter that proves recognition on the day is stronger than a bare denial.
Two traps must be avoided. Do not drive to the hearing on the same unrecognised licence. Arriving at the tribunal correctionnel behind the wheel of the same car completes a fresh offence in the car park. Do not present a translation alone as a licence. A sworn translation explains the document. It does not replace the licence, the residence permit or the ANTS receipt. And do not ask a friend to take the points or the blame. That is a separate criminal offence.
B. How do you stop your insurer refusing to pay and get a French licence back on track?
Treat the criminal file and the insurance file as two fronts of the same battle. The day you receive the fine or summons, notify your insurer in writing of the procedure, without volunteering a confession drafted in haste. Most French motor policies require prompt notice of any change in the risk and of any accident or prosecution. Late notice can itself trigger forfeiture (déchéance) for the loss concerned if the contract so provides and the delay prejudiced the insurer. Send a short registered letter or the insurer’s online claim declaration with acknowledgment: policy number, date and place of the check or accident, reference of the police report, statement that you contest the legal basis and are regularising the licence through ANTS, and a list of enclosed documents. Keep the tone factual. The detailed legal argument belongs in the contestation to the prosecutor or the court, which you can later send to the insurer.
Then freeze the risk. Until you hold either a still-recognised UK licence, a valid ANTS receipt covering the day, or a French licence, do not drive. Every additional journey is a fresh délit under Article L221-2 and a fresh argument for the insurer that you knowingly aggravated the risk. If the household needs a car, name the properly licensed driver on the policy, adjust the principal-driver clause, and keep proof. If you are back in the United Kingdom and the French case continues by post, appoint a French correspondence address and, where needed, a lawyer who can receive notifications and file the contestation. Ignoring French post while living in London is the fastest route to an increased fine and a judgment in your absence.
On the insurance substance, force the insurer to be specific. Ask in writing which guarantee is at stake, which clause it relies on, and whether it alleges intentional nullity under Article L113-8, proportional reduction under Article L113-9, contractual exclusion for driving without a valid licence, or forfeiture for late notice. The distinction decides the outcome. Nullity wipes out the contract from the date of the misrepresentation, with premiums kept as damages, but requires proof of intentional misrepresentation that changed the insurer’s view of the risk, even if the concealed fact did not cause the accident. Reduction merely cuts the payout in proportion to the premium shortfall. Exclusion leaves the contract alive but refuses the specific loss because an unlicensed driver is outside the defined risk. Forfeiture punishes late notice. The decision of 3 April 2025 is your shield against a lazy global refusal: the court required the appeal judges to ask, guarantee by guarantee, whether the undisclosed licence position had changed the object of the risk or the insurer’s view of it. A refusal to pay for a stolen-and-burnt car on the sole ground that the licence had been invalidated failed that test. By symmetry, a refusal to pay for third-party injuries caused while you drove without a recognised licence will usually pass it, because fitness to drive is at the heart of motor liability. Expect the insurer to pay victims first, as Article L211-1 obliges, and then to recover against you under the policy’s recourse clause and its statutory subrogation. Your leverage is therefore not to deny the obvious where the window had plainly expired, but to confine the insurer to the correct mechanism and amount, to protect guarantees where the licence position is irrelevant, and to negotiate a repayment schedule where recourse is established.
Regularisation runs through ANTS, and the steps differ according to your profile. If you are within the one-year window, file immediately. Gather a valid UK licence, a driving-rights certificate from the DVLA dated under six months, a sworn translation if required, identity, proof of address under six months, proof of lawful residence including the residence permit, the digital photograph and signature code, and where relevant proof of normal residence in the issuing state if you do not hold British nationality. File online through the France Titres-ANTS exchange procedure. Keep the filing receipt, respond the same week to any request for additional documents, and send the original licence by tracked post only when asked. Once the service holds the original, download the SDA and drive only within its four-month validity and within the recognition period. If you are already outside the window, file all the same, but do not drive until the French licence or a valid receipt covering you is issued. ANTS may still process a late file, and prefectures have practice for latecomers, but late filing does not erase driving done after expiry. Be ready for the examining service to ask why the file is late and to verify authenticity directly with the British authorities, which takes time.
If exchange is no longer available, for example because the licence expired, was cancelled, or cannot be authenticated, the only lawful route is the French licence: theory test (code), minimum driving hours in an approved school, and practical test. Enrolment certificates and test appointments do not authorise driving alone, but they show the court that reoffending will not recur. Drivers of heavy categories should declare whether they keep or waive those categories, with a medical fitness opinion where needed. Keep every medical certificate, school invoice and test convocation. They belong in the mitigation bundle.
British-specific paperwork deserves care. The DVLA driving-rights check shares a code that expires quickly. Generate it close to the ANTS filing so the certificate is fresh. If your UK photocard shows an old address, correct it with the DVLA before filing, because mismatched addresses trigger authenticity queries. If you changed your name on marriage or divorce, align passports, permits and licences first. If you hold a Gibraltar, Jersey, Guernsey or Isle of Man licence, say so expressly. The gov.uk France page confirms the same guidance applies to those licences, but ANTS officers process them under distinct reciprocity tables and will ask for the issuing authority’s certificate. Translations must be done by a translator qualified in France, not by a friend or a high-street service in London.
Limitation and record-cleaning close the loop. A paid fixed fine ends the prosecution but leaves a trace. A conviction by the tribunal correctionnel is entered on the criminal record (casier judiciaire) with consequences for regulated jobs and for future insurance questionnaires that ask about convictions and licence withdrawals. Ask about the exact bulletin affected, the period after which it becomes non-mentionable, and the rehabilitation rules. Keep the judgment, the proof of payment and the proof of the French licence once obtained. Future insurers will ask for them, and a complete file with a French licence cuts premiums more than any argument.
Conclusion
A British licence in France after Brexit is neither automatically void nor automatically valid. A licence first issued before 1 January 2021 remains recognised while valid, until expiry or a French sanction triggers exchange. A licence first issued on or after that date is recognised for one year from the start of your first residence permit, and Article R222-3 is blunt about what follows: once the year expires, the licence is no longer recognised and the right to drive is lost. Driving afterwards exposes you to Article L221-2, a year of imprisonment and 15,000 euros on paper, in practice a fixed fine of 800 euros, 640 if paid promptly and 1,600 if late, or a hearing before the tribunal correctionnel with confiscation, a driving ban and a record entry at stake. Insurance follows the same fault line: victims stay protected under Article L211-1, while the driver faces nullity, reduction or exclusion under Articles L113-8 and L113-9 and the policy’s recourse clause, each guarantee judged on its own link to the licence position, as the Cour de cassation insisted on 3 April 2025.
The defence that works is documentary, not rhetorical. Fix the start of normal residence from the first permit, not from a lease or a provisional receipt, as the criminal chamber required on 11 March 2020. Prove recognition on the day with the licence, the DVLA record and, where needed, the gov.uk distinction. Produce the ANTS filing receipt and the SDA where they exist, as the criminal chamber demanded on 9 March 2022. Contest the fixed fine in time or prepare the hearing bundle with the same papers, and freeze driving until cover is restored. Handled that way, a roadside stop becomes an administrative delay to close. Handled by denial or by continued driving, it becomes a criminal record with an insurance debt attached. If the notice is already on your table, compute the year today, file the ANTS exchange today, and put the contestation in the post before the reduced-fine clock runs out.