Buying French reg'd car in UK help

[crossy67]

I saw it coming but I believe you need to keep an open mind if you want to get anywhere in life[;-)]  I believe if something seems too good to be true then it probably is, there is nothing to say the car isn't registered somewhere but the other scenario is much more plausible.  I emailed the seller my findings a while ago and haven't hear anything back.

The Gendarme we spoke to was great, really helpful.  We have had a good day all together, just got back from the Marie's house after repairing his wife's windscreen and having some pinot.  Top day[:D]

[AnOther]

[quote user="Boiling a frog"]It is highly doubtful if DVLA will reregister a vehicle in a name other than on the carte gris[/quote]

Sorry wrong again. The DVLA will have no problem with this any more than a prefecture will have when registering a vehicle with a UK V5C in a previous owners name.

Unless you are French resident, or at least have a genuine French address, you cannot register a vehicle in France which in effect means that no UK resident could ever register an imported car. This flies completely in the face of EU rules for the free movement of goods.

[Chancer]

There is a procedure for rematriculating a vehicle declared as scrapped or uneconomically repairable, SD once posted details of it, it was not particularly onerous in the english or french sense of the word, I doubt that it being sold through a non French intermediary would actually have caused a problem as most repaired salvage vehicles will have passed through several intermediaries.

[crossy67]

Oh I am aware it could be done but would you want to spend time and a fair chunk of money flying to the UK to look at a car that might well be a rough old lash up.  I have no problem at all with repairable cars, most of Julie's cars were bought and repaired by me.  I think it's best left there on balance.

[Boiling a frog]

[quote user="AnOther"]Sorry wrong again. The DVLA will have no problem with this any more than a prefecture will have when registering a vehicle with a UK V5C in a previous owners name.

Unless you are French resident, or at least have a genuine French address, you cannot register a vehicle in France which in effect means that no UK resident could ever register an imported car. This flies completely in the face of EU rules for the free movement of goods.

[/quote]

The DVLA will demand proof that you are the legal owner if your name is not on the registration document. I have been there done it got the T shirt.

EU rules on vehicle registration states that vehicles must be registered in the country of residence so EU rules are not being broken,

Wrong again Another ,you need to tighten up on your knowledge base.

[AnOther]

[quote user="Boiling a frog"]The DVLA will demand proof that you are the legal owner if your name is not on the registration document[/quote]Yep, a receipt of some sort real or fake, just as in France.

[quote user="Boiling a frog"]EU rules on vehicle registration states that vehicles must be registered

in the country of residence so EU rules are not being broken,

[/quote]Yep but I never said otherwise although the rules do allow for registration by non French second home owners for precisely this sort of reason. We don't know the OP's residential status either of course, from the avatar it could be either.

In any case I was responding to your earlier erroneous assertion that "It is highly doubtful if DVLA will reregister a vehicle in a name other than on the carte gris" a point which you have just contradicted yourself on so perhaps it is you who needs to tighten up and not me [;-)]

[Boiling a frog]

You did say

Unless you are French resident, or at least have a genuine French address, you cannot register a vehicle in France which in effect means that no UK resident could ever register an imported car. This flies completely in the face of EU rules for the free movement of goods.

Then you denied saying it by saying

Yep but I never said otherwise

when I pointed out that they were not breaching EU rules but in fact complying with them

[Pickles]

I've just had a look at the ebay auction listing for that car: quite misleading.

[derf]

"

You can only register a car in the country where you normally live or have permanent residence.

You cannot register your car in a country where you have a secondary residence or holiday house."

http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/vehicles/registration/formalities/index_en.htm

[Chancer]

[quote user="Pickles"]I've just had a look at the ebay auction listing for that car: quite misleading.
[/quote]

If its the one that I saw then I agree, it was also a relisting having been "sold" although clearly not once before.

If the price were right then I would have taken a punt, I agree that you should have an open mind and judge people on how they appear to be but the one thing that screamed NOOOOO!!!! to me was that it was a private listing, I will never bid on these and I have yet to hear a plausible reason that anyone other than a scammer would choose to hide the bidders identities.

[Pickles]

[quote user="derf"]"You can only register a car in the country where you normally live or have permanent residence.

You cannot register your car in a country where you have a secondary residence or holiday house."

http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/vehicles/registration/formalities/index_en.htm[/quote]

Yes ... and NO.

We have been here before:

http://services.completefrance.com/forums/completefrance/cs/forums/1/2315807/ShowPost.aspx#2315807

If you bother (in the sense that it is a lot of stuff to read through!) to read through that thread, you will see that what you are quoting is "the general case": most people are NOT in the happy position of being able to afford second homes elsewhere and being able to afford to base a car there. That website is there simply to report the general case. We have queried the statement - the details are in the thread above - and received assurance that your quote above is not actually definitive. What the website that you are quoting is getting at is that the car that you use on a day-to-day basis should be registered in the country where you normally live or have permanent residence (and even that may not necessarily hold for those subject to so-called "transfrontaliere" rules). However, if you have a second home and you have a car that is based there and spends most of its time there (and NOT at you principal residence), then it should be registered there. The site is saying simply that it is not allowed for you to use your car that is registered at your second home as your main car based at your principal residence.

[AnOther]

[quote user="derf"]"

You can only register a car in the country where you normally live or have permanent residence.

You cannot register your car in a country where you have a secondary residence or holiday house."

http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/vehicles/registration/formalities/index_en.htm

[/quote]

But !

After some research:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:51998PC0030:EN:HTML 

Article 9 - Permanent use in a Member State other than that of normal residence

"1. Where a person wishes to use a vehicle in a Member State other than

that in which he has his place of normal residence for a period in

excess of that provided for in Article 5, for example on an ongoing

basis in connection with a secondary residence, the Member State in

question shall register such vehicle.