Jump to content
Complete France Forum

Buying classic car in UK witout papers.


Le 47

Recommended Posts

I have looked at previous posts on classic cars which were helpful but I would welcome some advice on this please.

If I bought a 26 year year old car in UK with French plates but no papers (no carte grise CT nothing!) what problems might I encounter getting it registered in France?

What would be the best approach to facilitating me driving to France?

Thanks in advance for any info from those in the know.

Bill

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Without a Carte Gris, I would think that you have very little chance of doing much with it. It would not be legal to drive here in France so would not be legal in the UK either. Who is to say that it is not a stolen car from any EU country that someone has had some plates made in a backstreet garage and stuck them on the car?

Would you buy a car for the UK, in France,  with no paperwork and UK plates and then expect to get it registered there?

I think that the only way to get it to France would be on a trailer, but remove the suspect plates. I think that any Prefecture is going to want some paperwork, either UK or French before they will let you register it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the reply Bob.

Of course if the vehicle was stolen there would be a range of issues. Assuming that it is not, you mentioned bringing it over on a trailer but what then?

I suppose I could register it in the UK first and then import it?

I dont know if and how the rules have changed in the UK but a few years back having no V5 was not an impediment to registering a vehicle in your name.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Le 47 - I'm quite sure that you can sort the situation out, athough it will take some work. After all people find cars in barns and manage to get them restored and registered.

Bob asks if you would expect to be able to register a UK registered in the UK having bought it in France without a V5 - the answer would be to apply to Swansea for a duplicate V5, since you'd have the vehicle, its chassis and engine numbers and the registration number. If you have those for the French vehicle, the place to start is the prefecture where the vehicle was last registered. See http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/particuliers/F1726.xhtml

I hope it works out for you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And certainly in the UK, if a vehicle has been off of the road so long that its number is no longer on the Swansea computer the classic car clubs will assist, even when there is no paperwork with the car, to have it placd on the computer and the number plate retained.

Paul

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A little more information would help in advising on this.

You say the car is on French plates but is it a French or British car and what is it ?

If it's british but on French plates then there should not be too much problem getting it re-registered in the UK and the owners club will probably be able to help.

Re getting it to France: If I understand your 1st post it is a runner so could be Insured/MOT'd etc. in UK enabling you to drive it to France and re-register it as if it had never been there in the first place.

The only fly in this ointment is if the French records are sufficiently complete and accurate (ha ha ha) for it to show up as previously registered, but even that might not be an insurmountable problem if it's coming from UK a second time with a valid V5.

Good luck anyway.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This section of [url=http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/particuliers/F10465.xhtml?&n=Transports&l=N18&n=Automobiles%20et%20deux-roues&l=N529&n=Papiers%20du%20v%C3%A9hicule&l=N533&n=Carte%20grise&l=N367]Vos Droits[/url] provides the answer to the question about buying a car without any registration papers and the difficulty you will have in getting it registered.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Verbatim from Babelfish, reasonably understandable for a change I thought !

 

 

"I bought or a vehicle was yielded to me, but the former owner was not in measurement of me to give the automobile license from it. How to proceed to regularize the situation and to carry out the registration of the vehicle? As regards registration, the salesman must justify origin of the vehicle. The production of the elements of origin of the vehicle was wanted by the legislator to prevent, as much as it may be, the registration of stolen vehicles. In the case running, it is the handing-over of the old automobile license which justifies origin of the vehicle and which allows the services registration to carry out a control with the computer file or the registers of registration. It is thus very imprudent to accept the transfer or to acquire of a vehicle without the salesman (or assignee) giving you the automobile license of this vehicle; while accepting you fraudulently expose yourselves to be victim of a traffic of vehicle stolen or given in circulation (seriously broken vehicle repaired without report/ratio of expert attesting the conformity of the repairs carried out with its specifications, for example). If it opposes to you the "disappearance" of the automobile license, you must thus require of the salesman whom it solicits, if the number under which the vehicle is registered is known, a duplicate of the automobile license in prefecture so that the transaction can be carried out by evacuating any risk of fraud. In the particular case where the vehicle is acquired by adjudication or near the fields and is given to you without his automobile license, its reception on a purely basis insulated by the mines inspectorate (technical center of control of the vehicles of the regional direction of the industry of research and environment [ DRIRE ]) is necessary. With regard to the vehicles bought abroad, it is obligatory to have in its possession the travel document of the country of origin, or failing this, an official part of its administration indicating that the title was restored to him. In the first case, as in the second, the vehicle could not be registered in France without these elements. Also should not one buy a vehicle apart from these conditions. If by imprudence and in all good faith you let yourselves take, will know that jurisprudence is constant: a sale is null full, if the salesman does not provide all the parts necessary to the registration of the vehicle."
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks to everyone for the replies which have provided food for thought.

The car is owned by a film production company who do not have any details of the previous owner. It has French number plates so if it is straight the vehicle could be traced. I understand there is no info about the previous owner held by the company who have had the vehicle for several years, they tell me.

There we have it.

Thanks again everyone.

Bill

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...