loveroy80

Dear EuroTrash,

Thank you very much for something which certainly put my worries in little rest. I never thought in the line of what you have mentioned i.e. it might not be unregistered YET. The DVLA showing red UnTaxed and UnMOT mark on the screen. So I pray that you are right.

Regarding the stay, it seems like I will be coming and going to France rather than staying permanently for longer than 12 months. So it might not be wise to register the car in France. Now I am thinking of MOT and Tax it in the UK and then will try to sell (or keep it in the UK).

Now the tricky part is:

If it's an UnMOT car, DVLA saying, I can drive to a pre-booked MOT centre, which I intend to do.

HOWEVER a lot of you rightfully pointed out that I might be stopped for not having the Tax. How to address the situation? I intend to get the MOT first and tax the car immediately online, then and there. Does that intention count? How could I prove that I intend to do that, say to the police at the UK port/Eurotunnel? Would I be able to travel/board the ferry or the Eurotunnel at the first place? And what happens afterwards?

Any advise please???

Thanks

EuroTrash

I can't imagine there is the slightest chance you would be prevented from travelling via the ferry or tunnel. But if your car is currently showing untaxed, ie on 28 June, that means the tax must have run out at the end of May if not before, so if you're caught driving it at the end of June or in July what can you do apart from pay the fine and the back tax, do the crime and pay the fine. It's not like it's one or two days overdue is it. Owning a UK registered car that is neither taxed nor SORN'd is an offence, you don't even have to be caught on the road to be fined, and I don't think the police would be very impressed by the fact that you intended to get round to taxing it eventually. But the fine isn't massive and AFAIK it doesn't go on your criminal record, I don't think you even get points on your licence. If you have an MOT booked you should be able to get off the fine for driving a car without an MOT, although there might be some hassle involved.

Dover certainly has ANPR cameras at the port so might be worth a miss as you'd almost certainly get picked up there. But maybe the other ports also have cameras these days, I wouldn't know.

Vinosity

The OP has access to an expert source of information, in the form of the DVLA. Not quite sure why he/she doesn't make contact with them directly, rather than asking a forum where the members can only make educated guesses.

Chatter Static

The online status on the tax checking website means nothing in regards to the export status of the car. Exported on not DVLA will keep the car on the database an exported flag is not something they choose the share with the public online.

I have just checked on the DVLA website and our old car which we successfully imported in to France and then it was written off but on the DVLA website it just shows as untaxed since a long time ago

Personally I think if the OP takes the car back to the UK for an MOT having sent in the export slip "The UK Police will have access to this information" the bigger fine will be applied if stopped. It quite cleary states on the Dot Gov Website that a car will have to be transported into the UK NOT DRIVEN. Dover port and the Channel tunnel both have active ANPR cameras which are connected the the nationwide ANPR network.

scrubbedexpat0105

As I see it, driving around in a car that has officially been declared exported (but not imported or registered anywhere else) is in principle the same as registering a car with the DVLA as being "off the road" (SORN), and then continuing to drive around in it in the UK.

If someone accidentally "SORNed" a car in the UK, surely the only advice would be to get it parked somewhere off the road immediately, then sort out the registration problem.

As Vinosity said: an expired MOT is trivial compared to driving around in what is effectively an unregistered vehicle.

scrubbedexpat0105

OK Pulaski, what have I understood incorrectly about this form?

Application for a ‘Certificate of Permanent Export’ (V561) when you do not have a vehicle registration certificate (V5C)

EuroTrash

In theory they do share this with the public online because when you check a vehicle on the new site, one of the fields shown is Export Marker, which says either Yes or No. Are you saying it is still set to No for your old car?

They do seem to be quite slack about it, but purposely leaving the marker set at No just to confuse you when in fact they are treating your vehicle as exported, would be devious. Apart from anything else, once they reclassify it as exported they must refund any full months of unused tax. So they can't have it both ways, they can't keep it in a grey area where they are actually classing it as exported but not marking it as such so that they don't have to send your tax back. Although cake and eat it does seem to be trending at the moment.

Either way the OP will find out when he tried to re-tax it, or presumably the MOT station would query it if it is no longer registered on the system.

Chatter Static

Yup it's still at no, we had very much registered it here and sent all the correct bit's and pieces to the right places. Although the site is in Beta !!!!!!!!!!
If anyone else has exported from the UK I would certainly in be interested in what the export marker says.

The Tax and MOT checker can be found HERE

Pulaski

I have no idea. ..... Either what you misunderstood, or what that form has to do with anything I posted.

scrubbedexpat0105

Pulaski:

It is also likely impossible* to sell to anyone in the same country because you have to be the legal owner to register it and you can't register a transfer with the DVLA when you aren't living in the UK


DVLA:

Have you had a Registration Certificate for this vehicle in your name? (please tick box)
If NO, are you notifying a change of keeper? if so, please tick this box

Keeper details
Please make sure you provide an overseas address

EuroTrash

I don't think you've misunderstood the form, but are you saying the préfecture will accept a certificate of export in lieu of a proof of ownership? Unless that is written down somewhere, I would be sceptical. The préfecture usually refuses to register a vehicle in your name unless you submit either the registration document in your own name, or a registration document in someone else's name and proof that you bought the vehicle from that person. A certificate of export certifies that the vehicle has been declared exported but why should it be accepted as proof of ownership?

Pulaski

I agree with Euro trash above, and in any case even if you can use the firm to transfer ownership you still have to persuade a buyer or dealer to accept some British transfer document they have never seen before. And obviously a scrap yard is absolutely not going to be interested in going through any sort of international reregistration process.

The way that pretty much everyone is facing requires you to register the vehicle yourself in the country you have moved to before transferring ownership by sale, or trying to scrap it.

scrubbedexpat0105

It's clearly possible to get a certificate of export from the DVLA in the name of a new keeper (and designated as such by the DVLA) who is resident outside the UK. From the French perspective, surely that would have the same status as a DVLA registration document in the name of the keeper. Both furnish proof by the DVLA of who is currently the keeper.

How else are cars exported? It obviously isn't the case that you can only export your own car by moving country. People buy cars in other countries in which they're not resident all the time and export them.

The French may require some kind of sales contract as well, as proof of ownership, but if they require that, it must also be possible to obtain it. (Here in Germany we just download standard forms, e.g. from the ADAC.)

Countryreverie

Fascinating. Yep mine, exported/imported 2015, has ExportMarker -Yes.

scrubbedexpat0105

Keepership. ;-)

The problem isn't getting a someone to accept "some British transfer document". This is Europe, there are used-car dealers that do this all the time. There are a surprising number of RHD, UK-registered cars (yes, with original DVLA registration documents, "mit englischem Brief" as they say here) on the German used car market, in fact.

The problem would be finding a dealer in France who would be interested in taking an older, RHD car (even if it were registered in France) or if the car is newer, paying as much as it might fetch in the UK.

If the car's going to be scrapped, it doesn't need to be reregistered, does it. The scrapyard notifies the relevant authorities that it's been scrapped.

Well, Germany doesn't. Here's the info on the TÜV page:

www.tuv.com/de/germanyinfothek/infothek/rund_ums_auto/zulassen_abmelden_ummelden/anmelden_importfahrzeug/anmelden_importfahrzeug.html

If the French are "difficult" and the OP lives near the German border, perhaps that's the solution.