Mr Panda Posted November 12, 2017 Share Posted November 12, 2017 Hi, I got this letter to my UK address and don't understand what it's about? It relates to an English registered car I sold to a French resident 2 years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Panda Posted November 12, 2017 Author Share Posted November 12, 2017 How do I add a picture? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BritinBretagne Posted November 12, 2017 Share Posted November 12, 2017 That could be interesting. When you say French resident I presume you mean British, resident in France. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOther Posted November 12, 2017 Share Posted November 12, 2017 You'll have to scan and post it to a file hosting site like www.filedropper.com for instance then post the link.If you were French resident at the time then you should be aware that by selling a UK regged car you broke the law and it's completely feasible that the buyer never registered it and has used the cover of the UK plates to committed a string of offences in it and now they have tracked it back to via DVLA to lay them at your door.A warning to anybody else thinking of selling a UK regged car in France ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted November 12, 2017 Share Posted November 12, 2017 [quote user="AnOther"]If you were French resident at the time then you should be aware that by selling a UK regged car you broke the law [/quote] What law would that be? A UK or a French one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOther Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 EU actually but I'm not going to debate it with you. I know it to be fact but if you doubt it go do your own research.If the situation is as I suggest then it's possible the OP could also be in trouble in UK and failing to attend to that could see bailiffs attending the UK address where the car is still techically registered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suein56 Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 AnOther wrote : I know it to be fact but if you doubt it go do your own research. I know it too .. as does the UK resident French woman who tried to sell me her no-longer-required UK registered car when she decided she was staying here rather than returning to England. She found she had to re-register her car here to be on French plates before she could sell it on to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BritinBretagne Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 Don’t forger, Chancer puts the law and even the right way a fair way down on his list of priorities. I believe that only registered dealers are able to buy and sell foreign registered cars in France. I’d love to see the letter. In my head I see a SORNed car sold on to another Brit racking up speeding fines now being linked to the last registered owner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 Worry not, people are not likely to forget with you constantly reminding them BnB. It would be nice to know what this notional EU law is and who exactly would/could enforce it, where would the offence be considered to have been committed? Who is considered to be the victim or disadvantaged by a sale of a UK registered car in France? Anyway I have been duly warned, if anyone wants to own a beat up 16 year old 500000km Skoda they can meet me in any of the British cemetaries around here to do the deal [;-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 How do 'gens de voyage' register their vehicles ??? And where do the police send the speeding fines ?Keeps me awake wondering about that.Also, do you think on Portugese French forums they have endless debates about unregistered cars. LOL. Certainly a lot of Portugese cars about in France. Loads of Romanian ones as well, certainly in Paris. Do reckon they are working on the black as well ?Ahhh yes, European integration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 Sue.If you had met the woman in the UK and bought her vehicle and then registered it in the usual way that would not have been breaking any law would it? In your circumstances what difference would it have made that the handshake was done and the money exchanged in France? I can see that if there was any doubt by the seller that you may not register it and may commit offences in the UK then they might want to protect themselves. Another, I respect your desire not to debate and understand why you want me to serach out the EU law so the following is just a general comment and not aimed at you. Does an EU so called "law" not need to be implemented into national law for it to be enforced in that country for an offence committed in that country? I read often of EU laws that are simply EU régulations that may or may not have been adopted by all or any member countrys. The OP has not recieved a very warm welcome to this forum as a new member, being told that they have broken the law that they sold a Sorned car outside of the country, all of which is speculation, after all its not as if they have a username like Chancer is it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 Yes, I am surprised that the reception of this plea for help was dealt with so severely, in fact way over the top.All that is known is that a letter has been received from the police lost and found which could mean many things.Had there been criminal acts involving the car, I expect that a boy in blue would have banged on the door with a warrant or a lot of questions.Ernie, I do think you might have been a little less headmasterly with a new poster. As a result, he or she may never return, which is a pity as we could do with some new blood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 What would have been usefull to them and subsequently probably for the education of the forum would be how to show a photograph or scan of the letter, sadly I have no idea and cannot even post photos now Photobucket wants to charge users. To the OP, can you not just repeat the relevant text in the letter you recieved together with a few détails, sent by whom? to where? etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 I am confused about this, when you sell a vehicle in the UK, you let the DVLA know. You can do it on line.If this was done by the vendor, Mr Panda, why the problem????Was there really a good reason, in fact, any reason at all, not to have done this???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 The OP mentioned Lost and Found, which could mean car lost/stolen and found, contents lost and found,............ many things. Let's see if we get more facts, svpppp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 Depends. We brought a vehicle. (large van) to France when we moved. We were going to re register it after we got here permenantly but an Englishman we knew ( who had a business ) was in dire need of a van and purchased it. He then registered it in France. We rang the DVLA to tell them we had sold it but they didn't want to know as we were in France as was the buyer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nomoss Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 [quote user="Chancer"]What would have been usefull to them and subsequently probably for the education of the forum would be how to show a photograph or scan of the letter, sadly I have no idea and cannot even post photos now Photobucket wants to charge users. To the OP, can you not just repeat the relevant text in the letter you recieved together with a few détails, sent by whom? to where? etc.[/quote]To be fair, ANO answered that question in his first replyIt seems doubtful that the OP will bother to return here, although I hope I'm wrong.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 Yes, I realised that after posting, apologies to ANO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 I'm not here to do anyone down and I have no problem with people being kind to a "newish" member. After all this person has been on the Forum for 2 years and, even if not very active, would know about who would be knowledgeable about this kind of issue. For example, Ano is definitely well informed and Sue too.Of course, whether they take any of the advice given is up to them.I seem to remember a Panda on here years ago who had problems with the police and so on. Panda, if it's nothing to do with you or if you have never had problems with the police, then I have made an error and beg your pardon.If you have inadvertently got yourself into a bit of a pickle about this, then I wish you luck with sorting it out.I wouldn't be too quick to say people have been unkind, etc; sometimes there is no way tell it other than as it is![I] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Panda Posted November 13, 2017 Author Share Posted November 13, 2017 Hi everyone and thanks for advice and scaring me! I shall try and get the letter translated as I can't seem to post a pic here :( It was sold to a Chinese guy living and working in Paris but he's probably fled to China now and dumped the car in Paris as there is a mention of abandoned in the letter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 Thank you for coming back, Mr Panda. Was the car French registered, sold under French law, in other words, sold all legal like with all the documentation, or was it a UK plated vehicle sold perhaps illegally in France? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOther Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 Out of curiosity would anybody else care suggest potential reasons for the French to have taken the trouble to track down and write to the registered keeper of a car two years after it had been sold in France, there may be others but it's hard to think of many which you might term good.The least 'bad' I can think of is that for an otherwise innocent reason, routine control or minor traffic accident for instance, the car came to their attention and the irregularity of a French citizen being in possession of and driving a UK regged car without being able to proffer any valid excuse for it might have led them to suspect it to be stolen.Unless we see the letter though it remains speculation, the OP knows how to post it if they want to.Could be it's no more than an opening gambit to establish contact and you'll only find out what it's actually about once they know they have the right person. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 Just a guess but its probably dumped and they are following protocole before they scrap it, there was a UK reg Galaxy with flat tyres and covered in dust, tax disc 2 years out of date etc left in the multi-storey car park of Auchan when I arrived here, looked like it had already been there a year and it certainly stood like that for another 6 months before it went. French reg vehicles once reported get a paint stripe on the tyre and across the ground to prove that it does not move and within days they are towed away but in that instance its fairly easy for the towing fee to be recovered. Its probably the fourrière trying to get the towing and storage fee or someone acting on his behalf, maybe even the Police Municipale. I doubt that it will be speeding or parking fines, they dont seem to bother with them, could be something more serious like used in a crime. I know they are sticklers for following procedure, I saw a UK number plate pop rivetted to the roof of a wreck in a French scrapyard, turned out to be a RHD, owner said he had to do that, it was the procedure, as if anybody apart fromme was even going to notice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Panda Posted November 13, 2017 Author Share Posted November 13, 2017 I do not know how to post a picture and asked if anyone can enlighten me? The car was sold in the UK to the Paris resident. He later sent me forms to sign in order to register it in France. But he obviously did not do that. I have found him on Facebook as he he has a very unusual name. He is now living in Shanghai and has a very highly paid job (he worked for Goldman Sachs in Paris) I suspect he dumped the car as he felt he couldn't be tracked to China. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Panda Posted November 13, 2017 Author Share Posted November 13, 2017 It states on the letter according to code de route articles L325-6 L325-7 L325-8I have looked these up and used google translate to establish that it was abandoned and will be sold as state furniture or destroyed after 30 days. Should I ignore it? I wouldn't mind having the car back as it was superb when I sold it and it's worth far more than the €300 they seem to require. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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