cs Posted September 19, 2006 Share Posted September 19, 2006 Help please !!I have just seen an article that states only one car may be taken to France on a permanent basis. Can anyone confirm whether or not this is correct.We are hoping to retire in France shortly. My husband has two cars and he is the only driver as I do not have a licence and have no intention of learning to drive now. So this could be a problem as we want to keep both.Can anyone enlighten us please........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Posted September 19, 2006 Share Posted September 19, 2006 Where did you find that article? We exported to France, at the same time, three cars and a van, all with the export certificates from DVLA, which were required then, so it doesn't quite ring true. Unless something has changed recently of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miki Posted September 19, 2006 Share Posted September 19, 2006 Blige me, I have brought in quite a few over the years and not just from the UK !Haven't seen or read anything, any clues at to where we can see this article? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassis Posted September 19, 2006 Share Posted September 19, 2006 That's just got to be wrong, hasn't it? We brought over two originally (2 years ago); we eventually took one back to the UK, but never had a problem while we had two registered here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cs Posted September 19, 2006 Author Share Posted September 19, 2006 Thanks for the replies. The article is a new book called Retiring to France by Victoria Pybus, page 189, Importing a Car.Maybe I am reading it wrongly but this is what the first paragraph states:'Under EU regulations, you can bring in one car for your personal use, as long as you can show that you are going to be permanently resident in France. There are few conditions attached to importing a car: you need to have the original registration papers, invoice and proof that you have paid VAT in your home country.Can anyone confirm this is correct - hopefully it's a typo in the book !!Many thanks for your replies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samdebretagne Posted September 19, 2006 Share Posted September 19, 2006 I believe the rule for cars from America is that you can bring in one car without having to pay all the import taxes on it - so you are not limited to only one car, you'll just have to pay more taxes on the others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassis Posted September 19, 2006 Share Posted September 19, 2006 I believe the author is American, from a brief search on Yahoo! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunday Driver Posted September 20, 2006 Share Posted September 20, 2006 Sam is right. If you're coming from outside the EU, then your car/caravan/aircraft/boat can be classed as a personal import and therefore free from customs import duties. There are rules on how long the vehicle has to have been owned and you can't sell it for at least a year after importing it. Additional vehicles don't qualify as personal imports and are subject to payment of duties. If you're coming from inside the EU, then there are no limits to the number of vehicles you can import and no restrictions on selling them.The definitive ruling is published on the French Douanes website. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 Yep, Sam and SD are right. We had to sign documents stating we would bring only one vehicle from the U.S. We were told we would have to pay VAT, etc. if we attempted to bring in another one. When our vehicle arrived, we had to provided the detailed list of household items that would be arriving later or we could expect to be charged for that arrival when it came (which was a year later). One port of call or something like that... We knew we would have to provide this, so I had the list ready. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Avery Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 [quote user="cs"] My husband has two cars and he is the only driver as I do not have a licence and have no intention of learning to drive now. So this could be a problem as we want to keep both.Can anyone enlighten us please........[/quote]Isn't another problem going to be how only one driver gets both cars to France? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renaud Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 I have a weird problem. I bought a car that had first been registered in Monaco (in 1992). Its owner later registered it in the UK. The DVLC logbook says that the date of first registration in the UK (1998) is the same as the date of its first registration. Clearly this is not so. I took this up with the DVLC and they say that this is standard practice.Problem is I cannot register the car in France as my local car registration office object to the date of first registration in the UK being stated as the same as the date of its first registration. Which is not the same as the certificate I got from the manufacturers (which is correct). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cs Posted September 21, 2006 Author Share Posted September 21, 2006 It would have been if it wasn't for friends who have offered to come and stay with us then bring us back to our home in the UK to take the second car over. Yes, it's started already friends who want to come and stay and we haven't even got there yet!! Ahh the price one has to pay for living in France !! Fortunately, we like these friends!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunday Driver Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 Renaud - check your V5C again. In section 5 (page 2), it should show (B) date of first registration as 1998 and (B.1) date of first registration in the UK as 1998 (when the vehicle was imported). As the DVLA say, this is their normal procedure.However, the critical entry is in section 3 (first page) which should say "Was registered overseas. Declared manufactured 1992." Your type approval certificate will also show 1992 as the original date of manufacture.So, you need to point out section 3 to the prefecture because they'll need to enter 1992 (nominally 1 January) as the "date de premier mis en circulation" on your new carte grise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 Renaud, we found something similar when repatriating a previously French car. That was pre-V5C so we had an export certificate which didn't provide the right information. We could have argued the toss but in our case the prefecture got in touch with the prefecture of the dept where it was last registered in France (we had a record of the old immatriculation number) who confirmed everything, and all was OK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renaud Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 Sunday Driver and Will - Brilliant, you have given me new hope, many thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunday Driver Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 Pints all round then! Black Sheep for me and Absynthe for Will........[+o(] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jc Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 There was another well-known book-supposedly completely updated for the new millenium which stated France still required "yellow" headlights;there were sufficient other errors to make you doubt any and all of the info in the book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunday Driver Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 They probably researched it by reading some of the variable responses found on these French forums......[:-))][:-))][:-))]But not this one, of course.....[;-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vaughat Posted September 24, 2006 Share Posted September 24, 2006 HiIm looking to buy an old VW campervan, been looking in France for a while without luck. There seem to be a lot of American imports for sale in the UK (no rust and LHD). What would be the problems involved with bringing an ex american, UK registered VW into France ? Tony (16) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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