Mornin' all.

I know this has been exhaustively written up in various forums but it still attracts interest so I though I would write up exactly what happens as I register our LR over here.

Story so far. We arrived 5 yars ago with RHD discovery british reg.

Drove for 12 months on UK tax, mot and insurance- saga.
After this arranged ITV over here and insurance through Liberty Seguros. Still UK plates and vhicle subjct to SORN so no UK tax.
We are not residents yet.
Finally decided to legalise the situation. Car not legal in UK and as on UK plates technically not legal in Spain either!

First job:
Change headlights. Could not find any in scrap yard so purchas new from dealer locally. Cost 120 uros the pair. Fitted by myslel.

Second job:

Arrange ficha technica. This is a translation of the technical details of the vehicle into Spanish and EU format.
For this I needed a technical engineer and having used one previously asked him to help again. He was too busy. So went to the college of technical engineers in Huelva to ask for details of others.
35 euros got me on a request email that they send to their engineers who were to get in touch. Am told the price will be a total of 179 euros.

One week passes and nothing so I ring the collge to ask what is happening.
Rapid xchange of phone calls that day gets and appointement the following day, Tuesday, with an engineer. They can be quick if they want.

Tuesday meet engineer who checks all details, asks if we are resident or have our empadronomieto (spelling?). We have the latter.
Says that the ficha will be ready thursdayand we can collect it from the college. Says we may have to pay a little more as there is no paperwork covering the towhitch. He also say to make an appointment - sita - at a specific ITV station in Huelva.
Ring college after thursday - not ready but will be friday.
Ring friday - yes ready to collect.
Ring to make an appointment but ITV station not responding.
Friday drive to Huelva and pick up paperwork and pay.

Go to wrong to ITV station who says there is no CE number on the vehicle ident plate and no engine number on paperwork so cannot proceed with the test or preparation of the ficha proper.
Says to get engineer to phone them.

Ring engineer who asks 'why wrong ITV station' and redirects me to correct one.
Drive to the 'correct' one who cannot do itt so and make an appointment for monday.
They also say the ficha ITV will be ready after about a week when I can collect it and if I come early can then go straight to traffico and complete the deal.

Ring engineer and relate the story so far who says there will b no probleem and to ask for the manager of the ITV station when I go and not to talk to anyone else!!!!

This is the story so far on Saturday and it is a bit frustrating as the round trip from our house to Huelva is about 2 hours but seems quite logical and time consuming.

More next week.

I thought that if it wasn't a "turismo" you couldn't change it over. Good luck! They let us purchase all the paperwork (Ficha Tecnica and letter from British Consulate) before ITV told us we couldn't do it cos it wasn't a "turismo" on the Registration Document.

Sounds horrible I know, but as you have been driving it illegally for at least 4 years, then you deserve all the problems you are getting. A car, to be driven in Spain MUST be either registered here, or legal in the country it was originally from, i.e. the UK, once your UK tax and MOT were out of date it was illegal to drive in the UK paticularly as you had declared it on a SORN, so therefore illegal to drive here. Your insurance was almost certainly invalid as you car was illegal. If you have read the other car threads on here you will know that the majority of those on here are fed up with people driving illegal cars here and only too pleased when problems befall them.

PM me for a copy of our procedures to change over matriculation, we have completed well over 100 cars

Dave

Thank goodness you have not had an accident and some innocent law abiding person suffered through your stupidity and ignorance.

Rosemary

Fully agree with that. There has just been a report in a local paper where a British Driver was doing an 'Airport' run with 7 passengers, he was stopped by the police, No Taxi licence, no valid insurance. They are throwing the book at him, car was escorted to the local pund. Seems a local licensed taxi driver reported him seeing him picking up this load from the airport, and I suspect he had been seen several times before. I know we all do it for friends, but he was charging.

Bet FS is happy now that he posted his little tale.

I still just don't understand why people are happy to drive around with illegal cars like this in Spain. One of my pet hates ....as you know

Although our matriculation took forever, (saga on another thread), we are really pleased it is done at last.

Other expats in our village are not going to get theirs done as 'the law is changing so that you don't have to do it'.

Don't know how correct that is, but we were hearing that three years ago.

One person with an illegal car has just stood as a councillor for the mayor's party, AND has had a drink-driving fine with her British plates. She's still driving the car. No one cares that much here.

People would care more if they had an accident and could not claim because the other car is illegal.

Rosemary

Couldn't agree more.

No, I mean the police and other law enforcers don't seem to care.

Its complete rubbish and does the rounds regularly .... why would the spanish government want to make it legal for lots of foreign registered cars to drive in Spain.
Tell your freinds they should be ashamed of themselves and keep away from them when you see em on the road

I think they mean that all we would have to do is register the cars (not matriculate them, they could still keep their British plates) and then we WOULD be able to tax them etc in Spain, so they would not be illegal.

I've heard it so many times before, and checked it with an abogado and they've not heard anything of the kind. I can't see why the Spanish would want to enter into all this extra administration ... dont forget it would be not just Brits but the whole of the EU .... big job ... for what?