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Exporting EU Car To UK


HertzVanHire
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In a couple of months I intend exporting my EU-born car to the UK.  A daresay I'm not the first to ask this question but it's not always easy to know what to search for.  My car is 14 years old.  It was first registered in The Netherlands and I re-registered it in France earlier this year.  I know there's a sticky about re-importing your UK car into the UK but this is slightly different.  Does anyone know what has to be done on the French side before taking the car to the UK?  For example, do you just drive it on French plates to the UK and change plates when you get there?

There's a lot of info on the DVLA website about registering the car in the UK, but does anyone know if a left-hand drive car has to be modified to be registered in the UK?  I'm thinking headlights in particular.

Thanks.

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For the importation you can apply to DVLA for an import pack.

In your case where you are keeping the car and UK registering it theoretically you can just drive it to UK and register it here without telling the French diddly squat. That said you will have to send your insurance company a Certificate de Cessation to enable you to cancel your cover but best to speak to them and ask exactly what they want from you in this regard as different companies may have different requirements.

There is no need to inform the Prefecture or anyone else.

You can normally get a UK mot with headlight deflectors but you might

want to investigate finding someone in France who needs LHD lights and

would be willing to swap their RHD with you.

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Thanks for that.

However, there's always more questions [:)]

I couldn't see a way of getting the DVLA import pack sent to France.  Will they only send it to a UK address?

I guess the fact that there's no car tax makes it easier to de-register.  What do they do about CT though?  Won't they begin to suspect when the car's CT hasn't been renewed in a couple of years?  Or is there some liaison between the DVLA and the French?

You say "theoretically" .... does that mean there could be a more "official" way to do it?

So, it IS necessary to adjust/change the headlights in order to pass an MoT in the UK.  Good to know.

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Doesn't say UK only on the page but if so you'll have to work around the problem, there's not much you can do until the car is in UK anyway so it should not be too much of a stumbling block.

As for the CT no, there is no obligation to keep that up to date and absolutely nobody will be chasing you up if you don't. There are no meaningful liaisons between the two authorities.

By 'theoretical' I meant that if you were completely decamping France with no intention of ever returning to live there again, leaving behind no property, assets, or bank accounts etc. then even though you should still properly cancel the French insurance, and if you don't they will automatically charge you for a renewal, the fact that you have left the country completely means that when their their registered letters go unsigned for and unanswered and they realise that you have left the country they will just write it off. It is unlikely in the extreme that they would start an international debt recovery action for the sake of piffling €3/400.

Once you have UK registered the car the DVLA will (eventually) return the Carte Grise to France so they will come to know that it has been exported by the back door.

No it is NOT neccessary to change the lights, just adjust them if possible or fit deflectors if not. I think this may only apply whilst it is on foreign plates though.

One important point: Technically the moment you arrive in UK intending to become resident you cannot drive the car (or any non UK registered car) another yard until it is UK registered. In practice you are permitted to drive it directly from your port of arrival to your UK destination but not beyond that. Subject to adequate insurance you can drive it to and from a pre-arranged MOT appointment and you might want to think about doing that immediately whilst you still have French insurance because once that expires you will find it very difficult to find a UK insurer who will insure you on French plates meaning you would have to trailer it for the MOT.

Of course nobody at the port stamps your forehead RESIDENT the moment you disembark so you could probably get away with driving for a short while.

Fun init [;-)]

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If you telephone the DVLA at Swansea and ask them for an import pack, they will send it to your French address.  It contains all the required forms and notes to help you through the process.

Before you can register and tax your vehicle you'll need to get a British insurance certificate using the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) from your vehicle.  The British Insurance Brokers' Association (BIBA) will be able to give you information on insurance brokers that provide this cover. You can contact them on 0870 950 1790.

Once you have obtained the insurance certificate, you write to your French insurer to advise them you have left the country and wish to cancel the policy.

In order to pass the UK MOT test, your speedometer will have to read in miles per hour.  If it doesn't, then there are companies which supply adhesive mph masks to convert existing kph speedos.

 

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Things may well have changed over the years but last time I imported a LHD car to UK I had a devil of a job getting insurance, companies like Direct Line categorically stated they would not insure a LHD vehicle.

This was back in 85 so may not be a prevalent attitude now.

edit; correction it was 1995.

I also drove directly from Felixstowe to DVLA in Swansea to get a UK registration number and got an MOT on the strength of proving I had ordered RHD headlamps and was awaiting delivery. The speedo at that time was kph and nothing was ever said then or subsequently about the need for MPH.

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When I imported my LHD German camper back in 2000, I had to fit a mph mask to get it through its MOT so I assumed it was a current requirement.

Regulation 35 of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 states that every motor vehicle first registered on or after 1 April 1984 shall be fitted with a speedometer capable of indicating the speed in miles per hour and kilometres per hour.

 

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SD, I was not questioning the regs, just saying what actually happened.

I was informed by No1 Son that I should have a MPH speedo but the MOT station never mentioned it. Mind you, it was in deepest rural Wales so perhaps they should have expected speed to be measured in sheep per yard or something.

Subsequent MOTs were done without comment also.

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Import pack Eh!

Life hasn't become simpler since the EU, has it? [:D]

In 1989 I swapped our Canadian registered LHD Marina, which I had shipped to Europe, for a friend's Spanish registered Mini when he moved back to UK. I wanted to stop paying Spain about £100 a year to drive the Marina there, and he was happy to have a bigger car.

He wrote to tell me he got a form from Customs on arrival, took the Marina for an MOT the next day, sent the form and MOT to Swansea and received his new V5 a couple of days later.

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In the days when the MOT tester had to take the vehicle on the road to do the brake test, he could fail the vehicle on the speedometer technically by refusing to take the vehicle on the road, because he would be breaking the law by doing so.

He could not fail it on the legalities of the speedo itself, because as already mentioned, it's not in the manual.

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Talking of that it was only about 3 or 4 years ago that I took my daughters car for MOT but the rolling road brake testing equipment was out of order so the old inertia tester was dusted off and employed in the passenger footwell on a test drive. I can't really believe for a minute that it was officially sanctioned but it was that or they closed for the day and I got my MOT so did I care !

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[quote user="AnOther"]Talking of that it was only about 3 or 4 years ago that I took my daughters car for MOT but the rolling road brake testing equipment was out of order so the old inertia tester was dusted off and employed in the passenger footwell on a test drive. I can't really believe for a minute that it was officially sanctioned but it was that or they closed for the day and I got my MOT so did I care !

[/quote]

Totally legal, MOT stations have to keep the old inertia system for brake tests (Tapley meter) or similar, just in case of a failure of the rolling road. They also have to have the meter calibrated, I believe every 2 years  used or not.

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I hope soon to be returning to the UK and I propose taking my 2004 Renault Megane LHD and purchased here in France with me.

Where can I get cheap light deflectors and also stick on mask showing mph. I had a quote from a Renault garage in UK and those 2 items came to about £1000 which I don't have.

Do you have to have an MOT as soon as you arrive in UK?
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[quote user="Carole"]I hope soon to be returning to the UK and I propose taking my 2004 Renault Megane LHD and purchased here in France with me.

Where can I get cheap light deflectors and also stick on mask showing mph. I had a quote from a Renault garage in UK and those 2 items came to about £1000 which I don't have.

Do you have to have an MOT as soon as you arrive in UK?[/quote]

For the lights, ring scrapyards local to your UK address: they will probably be a reasonable price. In terms of deflectors, if you choose to go that route, I think the standard kits that you can buy at Halfrauds/motoring accesssory shops/cross-channel ferry terminals will do: just bear in mind that the instructions will be for RHD-to-LHD and you need to think a bit how to translate them into LHD-to-RHD. For the mask, IIRC, you can just make up one yourself: I believe that the key markings are 30 and 70 mph.

Quoting AnOther: Technically the moment you arrive in UK intending to become resident

you cannot drive the car (or any non UK registered car) another yard

until it is UK registered. In practice you are permitted to drive it

directly from your port of arrival to your UK destination but not

beyond that. Subject to adequate insurance you can drive it to and from

a pre-arranged MOT appointment and you might want to think about doing

that immediately whilst you still have French insurance because once

that expires you will find it very difficult to find a UK insurer who

will insure you on French plates meaning you would have to trailer it

for the MOT.

Regards

Pickles

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