Re-registering a car in the North Dordogne

[Penny29]

Hi ,

Am posting this here as it might help someone.

Re-registered our car today and it was a breeze - less than an hour and now just have to wait 10 days for the carte gris to arrive then the plates can be made up.

Thought I would list the process and the paperwork required as I know it varies so much from Departement to Departement. This information is specific to the North Dordogne.

1. Before Xmas we phoned our car manufacturers and asked how we went about getting a cert of Conformity. They sent us a form, we filled it in and send it back with several gold ingots, and eventually the certificate arrived (this was the longest step, took months & may not be necessary depending on your make of car).

2. Once we had the Cert of Conformity we sent the tear-off slip on the log book to DVLA telling them we had exported the car. Before sending it we colour copied the whole document. We only surrendered the tear-off portion and the tax disc we did NOT send them the whole log book (important). They refunded the car tax via a cheque sent in the post (point worth mentioning here is that the refund got sent to our old UK address!).

3. In the meantime we took our passports, an EDF bill and our UK log book into a French garage and asked them to do a Controle Technique and to change the lights (1 day). The light-change was VERY expensive.

4. Then we went into our local branch of AXA and arranged French insurance - they completed the normal "carte gris" information boxes with the words "en course."

These were the docs we took to the insurance company: Controle Technique paperwork, English logbook, paper and photo UK driving licences, passports, ruddy EDF bill (well dog-eared), copy of current UK insurance certificate with details of no claims bonus, the car handbook & original purchase docs (found these useful as some information they needed was not on the log book), plus of course our cheque book.

Once they gave us the insurance certificate (2 days) we cancelled our policy with our UK insurers.

5. We were then able to start the real re-registering process.

We found out that, if you live in the North Dordogne, you do not have to go all the way into Perigueux (where there is nowhere to park near the government offices), instead you go to the Hotel Des Impots in the Town Square & explain that you want to "immatriculate" your English vehicle. The lady there is wonderful - very friendly and she fills the forms out for you. This all took less than 10 minutes.

These are the documents she needed: English logbook (she photocopied), controle technique docs (copied), EDF bill (copied), she did not want to see the original purchase docs (proving VAT had already been paid) as our car is too old (1999). She gave us the completed & signed form and told us NOT to waste our time driving to the Prefecture in Perigueux for the next stage, but to go to the Sous-Prefecture in Nontron instead.

6. So we walked around the corner to the S.P. met another wonderfully friendly lady (who also filled in all the forms for us AND posted them for us). Here we needed: EDF Bill (sigh), passport, Cert of Conformity, English logbook, Controle Technique docs and the original purchase papers (all copied), plus we also needed a cheque for E197, an envelope and a stamp. She completed all the paperwork (10 minutes max) and told us to sit back and wait for 10 days for our Carte Grise to arrive at our home address.

7 When we receive the carte gris all we will need to do is go back to the garage where we had the CT done so that they can amend the CT docs with the new reg number, get the plates fitted and take the carte grise into our insurance company so that they can issue an amended insurance cert. Then it is done!

I had been dreading doing this little job, mainly because the government offices in Perigueux are so big, so confusing and so unfriendly, but I can honestly say that dealing with the people at Nontron was a total pleasure. (I think it also helped that we had ALL the necesary paperwork - a relief to them & the cause of big smiles all round). This has been absurdly simple and I really don't know why I was so worried about it all (and I do not speak French particularly brilliantly - yet this was all conducted in French!)

Hope this helps some other soul in the same position.

Penny

[Bon_M1Bcv]

Hi
At last it is all crystal clear regarding required paperwork.
We will be living south of Bergerac, so will we still have to go to Perigueux.

Not long now 4 weeks to go.

Peter and Christine.

[Jhc]

Penny - Many thanks for that info which was really clear. As it happens we went to Hotel Des Impots in Sarlat today and realised from your mail that we did not have a certificate of conformity. We did not need it for the Hotel Des Impot, but we then went on to the Sous Prefecture in Sarlat (no need to go to Perigueux) but could not complete the process without a Certificate of Conformity. We have just phoned Nissan UK (our car is a Nissan) and they said we can't get the cert though them but will need to phone Nissan France for a form. Did you get your cert from your UK dealership or did you get it in France?? Hope it's not going to take us the several months you talk of. Many thanks - Julie

[Penny29]

Just to finish the story.

The carte gris arrived in the post this morning.

We took it down to the insurance company where they copied it and changed our details on their computer) - 5 minutes.

Went to the garage where we got the car CT'd - showed them the carte grise - the receptionist got on the phone and ordered the new plates (E24 including installation), the CT documen did not need to be amended. We are to go back tomorrow morning with the carte grise and they will fix the new plates on - she said this should take 5 minutes.

Then we are done!!!!! (Now if only my French tax return turns out to be so easy......................)

Penny