Hello, I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction please.

 

I'm looking to buy a project LHD car in th UK. Short reason being, my parents need a vehicle and they live in an EU country.

 

I found a french registered car on ebay in UK for a reasonable price with 1 years CT (MOT), and from a dealer that only sells LHD cars.

 

I will be keeping it in the uk for a month or 2 before shipping it out to a different EU country where it will need to be re-registered.

 

Questions:

1. How does it work when I buy a french registered car in the uk?
2. How do I transfer it over in my name?
3. How do I insure it?
4. How do I pay tax on it?
5. Do I pay tax on it?

 

Any advice is very very much appreciated.

 

P.s. Please try and stick to the questions asked, I'm not looking for advice regarding financial benefits, hassle or difficulty. I am aware of that already. This is the path I'm choosing to go through

 

Edited 7 December, 20205 yr by Bertie90

@J.R. might be the person that can help you with his knowledge.

 

?

Is the car going to France to stay and be registered or to some other EU country?

 

?

Did you ask the person that deals just in LHD cars for any advice?

Edited 7 December, 20205 yr by e-Roottoot

good questions.

1. No it will be a different one again, meaning it will be re-registered.

2. No, I will do. I just didn't want to be completley clueless before I engage in a conversation.

I have nothing to offer I'm afraid if its going to yet another EU country, with what I know of the registration requirements in my EU country if you have chosen your path for an easier ride than sourcing a car in the EU country concerned I think you may be opening yourself up for a world of grief.

 

Possibly the EU country which you have not specified is more lax but my gut feeling is that the only way to avoid being stuck with something that you cannot register is if you present the vehicle and the documentation to show that you bought the vehicle direct from the French registered keeper and imported it directly to the new EU country and have no trace of the involvment of a 3rd party reseller in another soon to be non EU country.

 

Naturally this would involve a certain amount of creativity in the documentation which could leave you in even more doo-dah.

2 hours ago, Bertie90 said:

1. How does it work when I buy a french registered car in the uk?
2. How do I transfer it over in my name?
3. How do I insure it?
4. How do I pay tax on it?
5. Do I pay tax on it?

 

I will try an answer what I can with the limited info you have given.

 

2. - As a non French resident you cannot other than re-registering it on UK plates.

 

3- With great difficulty, even the temporary insurances are for UK registered vehicles.

 

4 & 5. - If you register it on UK plates then the taxes to be paid will be part of the registration process, the same will be true of the other EU country.

 

Beware that many EU countries like mine have a heavy malus tax on newer and higher CO2 vehicles, for my country this applies on first regstration in the country and you are treated as if its a brand new vehicle, on my 5 year old Yeti it was an additional €1000 on top of the normal regsitartion fee, for a Range Rover etc it could have been as much as €25K

 

Worse still you might have no choice but to pay that in the UK and again in the other EU country if you cannot make the deal look like you bought it in France and took it to the other EU country.

 

You asked for no comments regarding the financial benefits, hassle or difficulty so I will respect your wishes but please be aware that there might be considerable financial non benefits.

@Bertie90

Can you not just say what EU Country the car is going to to get Registered in?

 

There might well be members from there or with experience of the bureaucracy.

Thank you for that input, it's much appreciated. The country is Romania, 40% of their cars on the road are import from Germany, Belgium, France etc. The issue is not registering it in Romania, what I'm asking is, when I buy this car with the french registration in the UK, how does it transfer in my name? Or does it not, I just have to re-regiter it if that's the case?

 

Either way this is still an option I'm willing to undertake. I guess it will be a learning curve. 

 

You cannot register it in your name with the French registration authorities, even if you could come up with a French address and satisfy the identity checks to access the on line ANTS procedure or even if it were still possible to submit a demande for une carte grise at the préfecture (which you can no longer do) it would be refused because the vehicle has not been CT tested within the last 6 months (1 yr CT remaining means it was done 1 year ago) and also you would need a certificate de cession signed by the previous owner and for them to have submitted it via ANTS.

 

Others will advise on how you could register it in the UK but there will equally be paperwork required including an EU certificate of conformity and there may well be the same punitive first registration charges, of that I have no idea & unless you state what the vehicle is nobody else will be able to advise.