Selling car and reregistering in UK

[rico]

I live in France and have a car which I brought over from UK and is currently registered and insured in France. My son in UK wants the car and will come over to France to pick it up.

Can anyone please explain what needs to be done this end? Who do I inform of the sale, what documents do I need and what would he need to do to reregister it back in the UK?

Thanks for any information.

[Anton Redman]

Get the UK vechile import pack as below

https://www.gov.uk/importing-vehicles-into-the-uk/overview

File a French Certificate de Cessation as below

http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/R20300.xhtml

Copy part 3 to your insurance company once your son is insured in UK.

[AnOther]

Don't forget that stictly speaking as a UK resident he cannot drive it in UK on French plates, not even out of the ferry port !

Worst case scenario is that if he was stopped the car could be confiscated, admittedly it's unlikely but it's still possible.

Personally in the circumstances to be 100% safe and legal I would drive the car to UK for him and fly back.

[sid]

AnO, Isn't this a bit too strict? I thought there were exceptions (concessions really) in the case where you are importing a foreign vehicle. It was quite common at one time to buy a car in Belgium or Germany and drive it back on temporary (export?) plates, in the case of a new vehicle.

I had it at the back of my mind that you have a number of days (not many) in which to carry out the registration process.

 

[Pickles]

[quote user="sid"]Isn't this a bit too strict? [/quote]

Yes, but I'm afraid that although it is to my mind too strict (and stupid), it is the law that is in place.

[quote user="sid"]I thought there were exceptions (concessions really) in the case where you are importing a foreign vehicle. It was quite common at one time to buy a car in Belgium or Germany and drive it back on temporary (export?) plates, in the case of a new vehicle.[/quote]

AFAIK, there never was any official exception or exemption or concession; the fact that people did this did not mean that the law allowed it.

[quote user="sid"]I had it at the back of my mind that you have a number of days (not many) in which to carry out the registration process.[/quote]

This is the whole problem: you do not have ANY days of grace to re-register an imported car in the UK. If you were importing a foreign-registered car into France, you would have 30 days, but NOT in the UK. 

The car really needs to be driven to its destination in the UK by a non-UK-resident, or else trailered from the port of entry.

It is entirely possible that a case could be made that this state of affairs is contrary to the principle of freedom of movement of goods, but that case has not so far been made to the EU Commission, AFAIK.

There may be a good chance of getting away with it, but the question is: do you feel lucky?

[AnOther]

I agree it is strict but this is the DVLA booklet on the subject and in the introduction on p3 it quite clearly states the official position

http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/@motor/documents/digitalasset/dg_199220.pdf

In practice it's sort of accepted that you can drive a vehicle to your

destination but that is not actually supported in law.

One of the most serious aspects of what you propose is the insurance. While we all know that generally French insurance covers any driver that is not readily apparent from the vignette or the other part of the insurance document (and it's all in a foreign language anyway !) so proving to UK plod that a UK resident driving a French car belonging to another person is in fact insured could well be an interesting challenge.

I'm not entirely sure either that the owners French insurance would extend to a foreign trip by a 3rd party, you'd would have to specifically ask them and not just assume that it does.

There are different rules for purchasing new (previously unregistered) cars in other EU countries and there you are required to register as soon as possible and in any case within 14 days.

UK is not totally out of step because technically French residents are not permitted to drive foreign registered cars but we all know how rigorously that rule is observed !

[sid]

Thanks for the link to the leaflet AnO, the first paragraph "Introduction" says it all! I have to admit to being very surprised.

 

[AnOther]

You're far from alone !

[YCCMB]

[quote user="AnOther"]

UK is not totally out of step because technically French residents are not permitted to drive foreign registered cars but we all know how rigorously that rule is observed !

[/quote]

And it's the same in the UK....I can provide you with a list of probably 30 people I know personally who are UK residents but are driving around in cars registered all over Europe. I have no idea what their insurance arrangements are, but I know they live, work and pay tax in the UK and yet are still driving the un-re-registered cars they came here in. The most blatant example is, coincidentally, a French colleague of mine, who recently married here, has two school-age children (both born in the UK) and is a teacher in a local secondary school. I reckon she's been here at least as long as I've been teaching at my local FE college (10 years) yet she's still driving a French-registered LHD car.

I think the "do you feel lucky" comment could probably be answered with a cautious "yes". In fact, I'm quite surprised that so much fuss is made about the question. Yes, of course, there's an insurance issue to be resolved, but despite the law, it's commonplace for people to be driving round in cars registered abroad and yet being resident in the UK. A trip to my local supermarket car park would show you just how widespread this practice is.

[AnOther]

You might call it 'fuss' Betty but I think it's important for people to understand what the rules are in order to make an informed choice rather than blindly blunder along not aware that they are even taking a risk.

The first rule for breaking rules is to know the rules - and the possible consequences of breaking them !

[Russethouse]

Didn't one past forum member spend a night in the cells over this?

[AnOther]

I think it was more a weekend but allegedly he sued the police and got squillions so probably relocated to the Bahamas by now [Www]

Search 'insurance quandry' [;-)]

[Pickles]

[quote user="Russethouse"]Didn't one past forum member spend a night in the cells over this?[/quote]

IIRC, that case concerned a bona fide non-UK resident who was a UK citizen. The other case that I have come across was a result of "Operation Andover" where a Spanish-resident UK citizen was illegally deprived of his car by the Nottinghamshire constabulary. So, the law is sometimes enforced, but they seem to choose the wrong people on which to enforce it.

[YCCMB]

[quote user="AnOther"]You might call it 'fuss' Betty but I think it's important for people to understand what the rules are in order to make an informed choice rather than blindly blunder along not aware that they are even taking a risk.

The first rule for breaking rules is to know the rules - and the possible consequences of breaking them !

[/quote]

Thing is, I have a sneaking suspicion (and I'm still bypassing the insurance question which is probably a very individual thing between the driver and insurance company) in general, as long as there are no driving contraventions, PC 49 is probably too busy with other things to stop everyone driving a foreign registered car to check their bona-fides. If you're living outside the UK you probably can't begin to imagine the number of foreign-registered cars on the road here. You could get stopped and questioned, of course. I could win the lottery, too.

[Pickles]

[quote user="You can call me Betty"]Thing is, I have a sneaking suspicion (and I'm still bypassing the insurance question which is probably a very individual thing between the driver and insurance company) in general, as long as there are no driving contraventions, PC 49 is probably too busy with other things to stop everyone driving a foreign registered car to check their bona-fides. If you're living outside the UK you probably can't begin to imagine the number of foreign-registered cars on the road here. You could get stopped and questioned, of course. I could win the lottery, too.[/quote]

Yes. I reckon that if you get checked by the police in the UK on the grounds of residency vs reg of car, you should immediately run out and buy a lottery ticket.