this may be complicated but ..... worth asking

[friend of stouby]

We bought a French car in the summer of 1990, drove it from Paris to the UK, paid the import duty at Dover (yes there was import duty to pay in 1990!!), UK MoT'd it the next day and have promptly stored it since then.

We now own a property in France and wish to register it in France as our local transport. All the original paper work including the carte grise is with the car and also the original Parisien number plates.

The question is, as this car hasn't been registered in France for 16 and a half years, is it possible to re-register it now or is there some form of time lapse that means that we have to start at the beginning as if it were a new car or worse have to scrap it ?

The year is 1978 if that has any bearing on this.

I know that is may be as obscure a question as will ever be posted here, but there just maybe some soul out there who has come across this. I would be eternally grateful for any info that will help us to register our lovely old car.

Many many thanks in advance, Jamie

 

[dogwood]

Hi Jamie

Just read your post. I think providing you still have all the original paperwork you should be able to get it registered back in France OK as it must still be on there system.

dogwood

 

[Sunday Driver]

If you have the carte grise in your name, then it'll still be registered to you, therefore there'd be no problem in re-registering it at your new address. 

Don't forget it'll need a new CT....[;-)]

 

[friend of stouby]

Thanks for that, it is reassuring to read both these comments. One little thing though in your reply Sunday Driver was  " if you have the carte grise in your name " .  At the point the car was bought, I believe the then owner de-registered it in his name ?? although not 100% on that. I know that he had to do something official as we had to wait an extra day to leave, so that an office that dealt with vehicle details was informed of the vehicle sale. Also we told him that the car was to go to England to be registered there (even though it never was registered in the UK), so maybe the car was marked as exported? But I am reasonably sure that as we didn't attend any official office that we didn't register the car in our name in France, although maybe the seller did?

I am sorry to be vague but it was a long time ago and we didn't have the faintest idea of what was required in France, and were led by the seller in matters of the paper work.

Thanks 

[Will]

We went through something similar a few years ago, when we bought a LHD car in England that had previously been exported from France with a view to repatriating it. So naturally enough we didn't have a carte grise either, though we had an old CT certificate that showed its last French number. It should have been totally straightforward - no worries about French conformity, just take the sticky tape off the lights, but it wasn't. The prefecture insisted on a letter of conformity, as all imported vehicles needed one. We could have argued the toss but as Peugeot France were happy to let us have an attestation for free it wasn't worth the hassle. The real difficulty for the prefecture was that the date of 'mise en circulation' in Britain on the export certificate wasn't the correct year for the vehicle number. We made them understand why that was bound to be the case, but apparently ther system would not permit them to issue an immatriculation number. Eventually it was solved by them faxing the prefecture for dept 60 where it was previously registered, who confirmed the date of original registration in France, and after that all was OK.

[Sunday Driver]

FoS

Mmm..gets a touch more complicated.

When he sold you the car, the seller wouldn't have reported the vehicle as being exported (as the buyer, that would have been your responsibility).  He would have just sent off a certificate de cession (similar to the DVLA notification of change of keeper) telling his prefecture that you were the new owner and to expect you to turn up to re-register it in your name.  Bit late, I know, but it might just work....

Best to call into your prefecture with the carte grise and see if the vehicle is still "on the books"(ie, showing as sold to you).  If that's the case, then you may be OK.