cjm

Im_and_Er is right, I know what is supposed to happen and I didn't follow the rules. Another vehicle, registered in France and not SORNd in UK, was logged. To re-register, I had to have fresh MoT etc, no mention of fines or sanctions for being a bad boy. In the end, with French plates I sold it to a couple of Polish lads to go back to their home country to pull a plough .... told DVLA it was sold and they sent me a slip saying - thank-you.

I didn't mean for my comments to hijack these threads as earlier info was good knowledge for original poster, so can we call it quits?

Chatter Static

Well it is better to advise folk on how to do things correctly

cjm

Absolutely - pax.

Im_and_Er

And then let them make an informed choice as opposed to an uninformed one

miss limousin

Hi - I am interested in this because I may want to take my car back to the UK. I sent the tear-off 'export' portion of the V5 to DVLA, but haven't got around to doing the Carte Grise yet, so it's insured here in France, with UK plates still. Can I just get an advance MOT appointment, drive it back to the UK, and retax it? Can it be that simple?-

Im_and_Er

No, you declared it exported and have been using it illegally in France ever since so you cannot just turn up in UK with it as if nothing had happened.

How long is that by the way ?

Best advice I can give you is to register it as you should have done, no problems at all taking it back then.

Or flog it to a Brit mug in France who doesn't realise what he's taking on.

EuroTrash

Unfortunately no, it's not that simple. Your problem is that since you never registered it in another country it won't have been taken off the DVLA database, so it will currently be showing as on the road but untaxed and uninsured. By law UK reg vehicles must be continuously taxed and insured, or else SORNed, or you risk an automatic fine - there may be a few letters from DVLA waiting for you at the UK address on the log book. The insurance issue you may be able to argue your way round if you can prove you had French insurance, but there's no excuses you can use about the tax. If the tax has lapsed and it hasn't been SORNed, when you pop up to retax it you'll have to pay the backtax back to when the last tax disc expired, plus any penalties.

Im_and_Er

I don't think that's quite the situation.

Sending in the export slip from the V5 will cause DVLA to flag the vehicle as declared exported even though it's actual proof of nothing.

They will only officially and finally record a vehicle as exported when or if they receive the V5 back from the country where it has been exported and registered, if that is not a European country then that information will probably never be received which will leave the vehicle in a state of limbo.

In that circumstance, and so long as it is not reported as being sighted in the UK, they will assume that it has been exported and therefore not take any action against the registered keeper for not insuring it or renewing the road tax.

If it suddenly turns up again years later and still on it's UK plates some very awkward questions will be bound to follow.

miss limousin

Thanks for that. I only brought it over last year, and the MOT is actually still valid. It's just that things are not working out for me here, and I want to go back to the UK, and having gone through the carte grise thing with a 2003 Citroen, I dread to think what lies ahead trying to register a 1993 5 series, and just thought it easier not to bother. But it sounds like I have no choice. It's the certificate of conformity that's the trouble, and the €170 that BMW want to produce it. Talk about money for old rope....one of the reasons I've got fed up here is the never-ending officialdom for just day to day living in a house, and their apparent glee for making a person's life difficult, just because they can...well it's back to living on a boat for me....

Novocastrian

I think the essential thing to remember when you're living in a foreign country (we have in various ones since 1977) is that you're living in a foreign country.

If you insist on comparing everything to the UK's way of doing things, you're doomed.

Good luck with sorting out all your issues and your return to the homeland.

Im_and_Er

I'm not sure what never-ending officialdom for just day to day living in a house, and their apparent glee for making a person's life difficult, just because they can. you are talking about.

There is more officialdom to deal with here that's true but much of it is to do with the very fact of moving to a new country and therefore to be expected but once that stuff is put to bed contact with routine bureaucracy is pretty minimal, do you speak French ?

It would appear that you are not 100% compatible with life in France, not everyone is, so perhaps UK is best for you.

If it's only been a few months since you declared it exported it might be worth talking to DVLA and perhaps say that you've hit problems trying to register the car or give them some sort of sob story and say that you want to bring it back to UK, they may be sympathetic and just charge you the back tax.

EuroTrash

I didn't read the post properly, sorry.

The OP can easily confirm that car's status at DVLA by checking at
https://www.gov.uk/get-vehicle-information-from-dvla
- put your reg no in and it should confirm whether the vehicle is recorded as exported and that there is no road tax liability outstanding.

I know I should keep out of the officialdom issue but comments like that do get up my nose - France has rules, same as any country, and if you follow them you don't get grief. If you insist on trying to swim against the tide you will get constant grief. The secret is not to start out with the attitude 'Here I am and this is what I'm going to do, so how do I do it?' but 'I'm going to move to France, how does this work in France and what would be the easiest way to prepare for it and approach it?' Some things just ain't doable here because France doesn't want it. Probably you thought you liked France because it seemed a calm, orderly, well-regulated place, well there's a reason for that.

Anyhow, all the best with your move and I hope it all works well for you.

Frenchy2004

I'm following this post with interest, having lived in France for 2yrs, in the thick of it, husband is French too, is fluent English and has lived in England since 1996. He hates the French bureaucracy, damned rudeness and lack of customer service. Yes, you read it correctly lol, a native Frenchman moaning about his own country. Hence, we're bk in the UK, to our own home that we rented out in the meantime. We went over, lock stock and barrel, we moved ourselves, to 3 depts over 2yrs AND then bk to the UK, exported and imported 2 Ford cars, submitted 2x tax returns for each of us, (whether you work or not, I didn't work, hubby did), a bereavement/notaire forms galore via FAX only lol, 3x carte vitales (your 70% card as one English chap once called in the Mairi's office in Antibes) haha, carte Mutuelle (and car/house insurance) via Matmut (your remaining 30%, though not compulsory, but keep your fingers crossed if you don't buy into it!)

Anything you need to know except auto-entrepreneur regime (I do have a fairly recent 40 page translated auto-entrepreneur booklet, should anyone want it) I/we can answer, done it, got the t-shirt, video, bruises and scars (and my in law's are all French natives) to prove it haha. In the meantime, I'll clarify one myth as it's relevant here.....
1. It is NOT compulsory to change your headlights. Yes, this is correct believe it or not, despite what you have been told by other 'expats'. The prefecture will not ask for this as it's not compulsory in order to register your car and for them to 'generate' you a French reg number, voila! If you want the list of docs required, I have it.

When you take your car for it's 1st 'MOT' approx 50€, mention that you are fully aware and understand that the lights DO NOT have to be changed in order to pass. They won't fob you off then and you've saved yourself £££'s I can't tell you how much money my hubby has saved his past colleagues, but one nearly £2k just to order and replace lights at the local speedy. He'd only been in France 2 months from the UK and already felt nearly 'ripped off'!

Remember, above anything else, the French 'look after' the French and when push comes to shove, they will favour a French native over an immigrant/non-native, trust me on that one. I love the country/2hrs lunches/petit maisons etc etc, but the paperwork omg. We have now decided to have a foot in each country, buy a house/piece of land and build, keep all docs English and vacate to France when we like, but no more than 180 days, voila. Salut

Frenchy2004

When we imported our cars bk to the UK, I had to NOVA them (I did this online) so as to declare no tax due on both cars (a 57 and 08 reg) and they both went bk on their original reg numbers (we bought them from new) and all VIN numbers had to be declared on the online form. I was told by DVLA in Swansea that all UK cars imported, will go bk on their orig number plates. They say/won't guarantee it, but the cars do. I had to register with insurance companies under the VIN number as advised by DVLA, then when the V5 arrives on the mat, I could call the insurance co and tell them/confirm the reg number. Not all UK insurance co's will insure you on a VIN btw, so I had to shop around as our orig insurers would not, direct line do and did for us. Hope this helps anyone who is importing their car/s bk into the UK

EuroTrash

It's not compulsory to change your headlamps if they don't need changing, but it is compulsory for the beam alignment to be with the parameters required by the CT regulations. If you can adjust your headlmps so that they point at a good enough angle, obviously there is no point changing them. But if your headlamps can't be adjusted to point the right way, then your car won't get a CT, and it needs to, and that is why people often find they need to change the headlamps. And before you say it, no the rules are not there simply to p155 off the Brits, the rules are there so that drivers don't get dazzled and crash into each other. It's the same in the UK, a French car might fail the MOT on incorrect beam alignment and have to be fitted with UK headlamps. Equally, a French car whose headlamps had got out of alignment wouldn't pass its CT. It's a safety issue.

If you do need to replace the units, eBay is usually the easiest and cheapest solution.