EU plate in London

[Nico]

Hi all,

I am in the exact same situation as er-minio, who mentioned the foreign plate issue in a previuos post:

I'm still investigating how this works...
I think I can drive without problems for six months and the insurance green card. Then you are obliged to register the bike/car here in england.

My bike has a Spanish plate and I am bringing it over in May.

Today I went to the BMW dealer in Park Lane to ask for the price of the clock (km into miles) + lights: approx. £800 plus fitting . This is complete nonsense!!! Plus you'll have to add the DVLA registration and the insurance, which will be much higher than my current one becuase I don't have any driving track record in the UK Of course if I leave the Spanish plate I will keep paying my insurance abroad, I would never go around without coverage!!!

Does anyone know if it is strictly mandatory to change the plate after six months? I mean, do you get into trouble if you cross the Channel to go back to Europe after six months or if you get stopped by the police?

My bike is only two years old and I am not planning to sell it, but all this hassle is just so bad and absolutely pointless!!!

Thanks!

Nico

 

[Timpo]

DVLA say:-

Temporarily importing a vehicle
There are international agreements which provide for the temporary use of a vehicle in a foreign country for a limited time, usually six months in a 12 month period. A visitor to the UK may use a vehicle displaying foreign plates, provided that all taxes (including vehicle excise duty) are paid in their country of origin.
If a vehicle bearing foreign plates is stopped by the police, it is the responsibility of the keeper to demonstrate that he or she is eligible to use the vehicle in the UK without registering and taxing it.

Non European Union (EU) vehicles
The drivers of vehicles from outside the EU will need to demonstrate via HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) that they are eligible to use the vehicle here on a temporary basis. If this is achieved a HMRC Notice 3 is issued, which will be date stamped with the date the vehicle should leave the country. The decision lies with HMRC whether a visiting vehicle, from outside the EU can be granted visitor status. HMRC will decide whether an extension to the six month period can be granted, if not they will issue status certificates (forms C&E 386 or C&E 388). The vehicle must then be registered at a DVLA local office.

European Union vehicles
It is the responsibility for the driver to prove how long the vehicle has been in the country. This can be achieved by producing ferry tickets. Used or unregistered vehicles brought into the UK will be allowed to circulate freely for six months in any 12 month period without the need to register. Certain vehicles will be required to display a temporary 'Q' plate. Temporary visitor status is not appropriate to these vehicles.


From here:-
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motorin...hicle/ImportingAndExportingAVehicle/index.htm


Timpo.

 

[DrFarkoff]

The Big Issue is are you staying or are you visiting??

Visting??? then Don't bother! just get all yer palls on here to send you "Used" return ferry tickets

If you're coming here to live?? Sell it back in Spain you should get good money for it there and if you have fancy panniers or gadgets get them all taken off and buy a UK bike! S'easy! Sorted!

 

[Wapping]

Hi all,

I am in the exact same situation as er-minio, who mentioned the foreign plate issue in a previuos post:



My bike has a Spanish plate and I am bringing it over in May.

Today I went to the BMW dealer in Park Lane to ask for the price of the clock (km into miles) + lights: approx. £800 plus fitting . This is complete nonsense!!! Plus you'll have to add the DVLA registration and the insurance, which will be much higher than my current one becuase I don't have any driving track record in the UK Of course if I leave the Spanish plate I will keep paying my insurance abroad, I would never go around without coverage!!!

Does anyone know if it is strictly mandatory to change the plate after six months? I mean, do you get into trouble if you cross the Channel to go back to Europe after six months or if you get stopped by the police?

My bike is only two years old and I am not planning to sell it, but all this hassle is just so bad and absolutely pointless!!!

Thanks!

Nico

Hi Nico,

Welcome to London.

The rules are quite simple, my German neighbour had the same problem with her bike.

The bike will need to be re-registered if it is here for more than 6 months in total in a 12 month period.

Depending on the age of your bike the rules change regarding as to what alterations have to be made. My friend had to change the lights, the speedo but not the fuel cap (it is raised), which she would have had to change (meaning a new tank) had the bike not been over, I think, 10 years old. You have to take the bike to an official Government test station to have the certification done.

Insurance, she too had your problem. We solved it by talking to Axa, who are in Germany as well, via Colonia, who accepted her German No Claims experience into account. I think Axa are also in Spain, try them. If you talk to one of the good brokers here in the UK you may well be able to persuade them the common sense of accepting a foreign owned claims discount, providing you can prove it.

Axa were also very helpful, giving another friend more than two's years Europe wide cover on a bike with Nepalese number plates, which are just squiggles.

I think the speedo can be re-set electronically to read in MPH - your Spanish dealer can do it. Lights, buy a complete second hand unit from a UK breaker - it willl then show MPH anyway - it's easy to take out and swap over. If they are very fussy they can check that the indicator lenses have the correct E-mark, so if you have aftermaket (mini) indicators, change them back.

Similarly, if you have a 'fruity' exhaust, you might like to take a look at it before taking it to a Governmental run test establishment, they can be very awkward. If you are in London there is a friendlier 'test station' in Kent (or there was) where we took the Nepalese bike. Don't forget it's a full test, so your tyres and everything else will need to be within limits. It's annoying to go all the way, then fail for one mm of rubber.

I do not know where you plan to live in London but if you need a resident's parking permit, many authorities (and many private landlords) demand to see the registration and insurance documents. They will often only allow six months for foreign vehicles, meaning you have to re-register the vehicle in the UK, just to get an annual permit. It's a basted. I work with several overseas nationals, who have been caught by this simple fact.

 

[Nico]

The Big Issue is are you staying or are you visiting??

Visting??? then Don't bother! just get all yer palls on here to send you "Used" return ferry tickets

If you're coming here to live?? Sell it back in Spain you should get good money for it there and if you have fancy panniers or gadgets get them all taken off and buy a UK bike! S'easy! Sorted!

Thank you guys for all the responses. I've come to London to live for a few years at least, however the situation is not as straightfoward. The bike has a Spanish plate (I bought it in Barcelona) but currently it is parked in Italy at my parents'. Yeah I could put an Italian plate and sell it down there, but I did the same with my car and the new plate costs £400, I'd better do a nice ride back to Spain and I still have some money left !!!

Honestly I find it quite odd that if for whatever reason you've lived in different EU countries in a short timeframe, every time you move you have to face a completely different world!!! Most EU countries are just a few days ride away, come on!!!!! In the UK it's even worse becuase you're forced to replace some parts!!!

Anyway, to cut it short, I think I will look for a breaker and replace the speedo and lights before the six months, do you know anyone in London?
The bike is 100% stock so I should not have any problems with the test. I am not sure you can reset km into miles, the dealer told me you have to change the clocks entirely!!!

Also, Wapping: what is this thing about the fuel cap? It is not mentioned on the dvla website: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motorin...hicle/ImportingAndExportingAVehicle/DG_071781

Luckily I am currently covered by Axa in Spain, so I can try to ask for some No Claims referral

Many thanks!!!

Nico

 

[Deleted Member I]

Forget the official rules ..

Just ride it to London, buy your Spanish insurance to cover you for UK (which should be cheaper than UK prices). Then just use it.

A colleague from a previous assignment has been using his (and his wife's) Belgium plated cars for at least 4 years. Goes back to Belgium every year. Just tell the customs people .. it's being changed. He has it properly insured and taxed in Belgium (both things are cheaper in Belgium).

No hassles. He also has the priviledge of throwing away all his parking tickets.

 

[Nico]

Forget the official rules ..

Just ride it to London, buy your Spanish insurance to cover you for UK (which should be cheaper than UK prices). Then just use it.

A colleague from a previous assignment has been using his (and his wife's) Belgium plated cars for at least 4 years. Goes back to Belgium every year. Just tell the customs people .. it's being changed. He has it properly insured and taxed in Belgium (both things are cheaper in Belgium).

No hassles. He also has the priviledge of throwing away all his parking tickets.

Sounds like a good idea...

 

[PaulXC]

Hi Nico

There are insurance companies in Gibraltar who will insure UK or Spanish plated vehicles for 12 months at a time regardless of where the vehicle is in Europe. We had our UK plated car insured in via one of these when we lived in Barcelona for a year. I can't find the paperwork to see who they were but try a Google search and they should come up.

I am just plating my French reg XChallenge on to UK plates - that has a km digital speedo and you can just reset it to MPH by following a certain sequence of button pressing. If yours is digital you should be able to do the same ... though BMW UK will tell you its not possible. As long as you can prove that you changed the headlight then you should get the type approval cert to register it in the UK.

Paul

 

[Wapping]

Forget the official rules ..

Just ride it to London, buy your Spanish insurance to cover you for UK (which should be cheaper than UK prices). Then just use it.

A colleague from a previous assignment has been using his (and his wife's) Belgium plated cars for at least 4 years. Goes back to Belgium every year. Just tell the customs people .. it's being changed. He has it properly insured and taxed in Belgium (both things are cheaper in Belgium).

No hassles. He also has the priviledge of throwing away all his parking tickets.

You have become remarkably tough, Tom.

You miss the obvious fact that matey has just committed insurance fraud, declaring a bike to be in Spain when it is, quite obviously, garaged permanently in London. Add to this, evasion of road fund and / or import duty into the UK and it's quite a growing list.

Of course, the chances of him being caught are very, very slim, but...just remind me to remind you when the next Romanian (Romania is now in the EU, so little different from the bull runners of Spain) who pulls the same stunt, smashes into you grubby 1200, with no insurance, busting your legs. I can hear the squeals now.

Let's not forget that it's easy to be stopped on quite a minor offence, then see it spiral...imagine Waldin, talking to Swiss coppers, without his papers.....

It's not difficult to re-register a vehicle, it's not really expensive to insure it, either via Spain or here in the UK. My mother, bless her, manages to do it in France at the age of 75, without too much difficulty.

Everyone dreams up more and more complex ways of evading peanuts (friends with ferry tickets, which assumes matey has tons of mates coming to see him, for instance).

 

[Nico]

You miss the obvious fact that matey has just committed insurance fraud, declaring a bike to be in Spain when it is, quite obviously, garaged permanently in London. Add to this, evasion of road fund and / or import duty into the UK and it's quite a growing list.

Thanks, I agree actually. A few years I was stopped in Spain riding with Italian plates and I got la triple fine for anything illegal you could imagine!!! And that was just for crossing a red light that I didn't see...

 

[BaldBaBoon]

It also makes a difference which DVLA station you deal with.

I had a very heavily modified motorbike when i was serving in Germany,bored out engine,complete new frame...basically as far from a simple paperwork exercise as you can get.....also it was a British bike that was tested and run on German plates.

I thought i was going to have a nightmare getting it back to British plates and was expecting it to be on Q plates.

I dealt with the DVLA office down in MAIDSTONE,Kent.
They have a huge experience with overseas vehicles as most the British Army overseas seem to go there to get their vehicles sorted out...they should be able to help you from experience rather than just quoting or abiding by the rule book.

 

[Wapping]

It also makes a difference which DVLA station you deal with.

I dealt with the DVLA office down in MAIDSTONE,Kent.

They have a huge experience with overseas vehicles as most the British Army overseas seem to go there to get their vehicles sorted out...they should be able to help you from experience rather than just quoting or abiding by the rule book.

I think that was the place used to get approval for the lump of tat bought in from Nepal. Very 'user friendly' bod running the place.... He used a lot of imagination when interpreting the exhaust output readings....and the Chinese tyres.

Some of the sites are staffed by Government numpties with no automotive knowledge or sense of fun. They do it strictly 'By the book' in a very dull, 'Computer says, no' basis. One chap admitted he had a degree in geography and was keen to join HMG's Civil Service, but had been sent to cut his teeth in vehicle import / excise. He was very dull and a real, it "It says, here...." merchant.

 

[Nico]

I dealt with the DVLA office down in MAIDSTONE,Kent.
They have a huge experience with overseas vehicles as most the British Army overseas seem to go there to get their vehicles sorted out...they should be able to help you from experience rather than just quoting or abiding by the rule book.

This DVLA office seems to be worth the trip, thanks!!! First I need to find the parts to replace and bring my bike here of course...one month to go !!!

Cheers

Nico

 

[er-minio]

Hi Nico, since my last post I "imported" my car in UK.
I've obtained the Camden Park Permit (6 months per year), it will expire by the end of september. I'm considering wheter sending the car back to italy or converting it to UK plates.

Friday I'll head back to London with my bike, so same thing. After 6 months I'll decide what to do. The only difference is that I'll park the bike inside the court where I live now... so I don't need any park permit and basically they will never know when the bike entered UK (I registered the car with the camden council the very same day it arrived in London).

In London I'll replace the headlight with the UK one - first thing.
I have a "fruity" exhaust...

No hassles. He also has the priviledge of throwing away all his parking tickets.

hmmmm... I got a 120gbp ticket a month ago. Paid online (60 pounds) the day after.
They had a lot of details about my car... not sure you can trow the tickets away.

 

[richie]

Keep coming west... To Ireland, then you can really complain...