bil

Just seen a car for sale in the UK, on a Spanish registration.

Would that get round the problem of plating if I drive it over? Anything else to watch out for, and are there any questions I should ask the guy? I can't phone him till tomorrow.

zel

It would get around the import duty aspect but you have several other risks involved.

1> You will be liable for ALL backdated taxes (road tax) owed on the vehicle, if the road tax has expired then it's illegal to be driven without it and can only be renewed by the current owner or you once you have changed over ownership.
2> The vehicle may actually not be properly Spanish registered (there are Stolen LHD vehicles around with false reg info)
3> The vehicle may have outstanding finance you may not know about.
4> The vehicle may be stolen.
5> Driving it before you have changed over ownership is strictly speaking illegal, so if you are stopped throughout Europe and the reg doc is not in your name... Well, you know the rest.
6> You will be liable for any unpaid fines too.
7> The vehicle may not have a valid ITV, again illegal to drive over.
8> It might have originally been a Netto sale car (without iva/tax) due to being a lease/company car, so this would be payable when the car has changed ownership.

None of this will be able to find out until you change over the ownership when you're in Spain or possibly employ the help from a Gestor in Spain before you purchase to run some checks for you to see how legitimate it is.

My cardinal rule to anyone is either take your road legal RHD UK car or a LHD UK registered car otherwise it can create more hassle than it's worth with your new life abroad as you will be buying this car completely blindly in the hope it's legitimate, you wouldn't do that buying a RHD car in the UK!

Example: if the vehicle is a proper spanish car then who knows how long it's been out of Spain, you might go to change over registration to be landed with 5 years back dated taxes and other fines (parking, speeding + interest) etc

andyrich666

Zel, ok a good informative post but surely 2,3,4,5,6 and 7 can be looked into just as easy as buying any motor and should not scare the OP.

If there are unpaid fines on it, then someone knows about it, so surely the OP can check that out.

I do appreciate your post honestly, but You make it look really scary when im sure its just a few formalities need to be done

zel

Hence the part where i say this can be found out if your employ a Gestor to do a search before you purchase.

But you obviously missed that bit in favor of branding me a scaremonger

andyrich666

ok sorry I did jump in there maybe, however I think I have heard that you can check the history on any car in the EU now without the need to be in the country of origin. It was recently discussed as regards to Polish motors in the UK, exactly to do with MOT Stolen and Finance etc

valenciatim

Can you please tell us where then, so we don't all keep having to pay Gestors to do it for us?
Tim
Ps, that is a genuine request, not trying to shoot you down

zel

I would personally take that info with a gigantic pinch of salt.

There is no EU sharing of data when it comes to vehicle registration (will be by 2010ish)

It's LOL for me (someone who is a volume export/importer) to even think about how even the Polish government department knows what's going on with their own registered vehicles not alone other countries.

I've seen it more times than you can care to mention in Germany where the Polish turn up in a neighboring salvage yard and take away a completely written off vehicle.

The first time I asked the guy in BMW (where I was picking up a car and they were next door) asking him what on earth they will do with that?

The answer "well you see the back of that car is ok?"

me "yes?"

"they have another car with a good front end and it will be one complete car with some welding!"

me "wow"

him "yes!"



Note: When we buy cars from say Germany (or any western EU country) WE have to pay a company to do a search for us, we can not do it ourselves to make sure everything is legit so we or more importantly out client is lumbered or arrested

---

Oh and add to my scaremongering post 9> No idea if it was previously written off!

bil

I don't sadly have a tame gestor.

Would you suggest that the risk outweighs benefit?

valenciatim

Zel, I know that!
Tim

zel

Urm, If you PM me the details I can normally sniff a dodgy deal out at a 100 paces, tho I've even been stung recently

zel

Another great Polish story, I have a good Polish mate for decades and we went to Poland for a week and we made friends with a neighbor of the place were were staying in. He had 'heard' that I was in the car 'game' and asked me to take a look at his yellow/cream Mercedes as it seemed to be driving oddly.

Dunno if you've been to Germany but that's their official taxi colour and they're mostly Mercs.

Indeed I took it for a drive and something just didn't feel right (it didn't track properly but that's no biggie)

I took a look underneath and it was filthy as you've imagine for the climate but i noticed the exhaust had a weld mark. Asked myself who the hell would goto the trouble of saving a few quid by welding two bits of exhaust pipe together (then remembered where we were)

Anyway alarm bells and got it up on a lift and noticed it was a two cars welded together and it was ever so slightly off by about .5 a cm so that's why it felt odd

It was really amusing to see expanding foam in other areas to try and hide it

andyrich666

It was that I was reading about, I just found the article, so Tim can hang on to his old banger for another 20 months then he can check for free

zel

See post below mate in my experience it's nonsense.

To get any sort of depth to the history of the vehicle you'd need someone on the ground in Poland to check and even then the info they can obtain is stunningly little compared to Western Europe registered vehicles.

Me being in the trade aside you'd have to be off your rocker to buy a Eastern European 'registered' car in Western Europe.

andyrich666

yes and no And I agree , but the Met have started putting Polish cars through Manhiem auctions rather than destroying them, so there is a market for them, Im 100% sure if you buy a car in a UK auction you have to be safe becuase they are liable for any comeback, so there must be some kind of data given to the UK Police for this to happen

bil

Well, the one I've seen (pm'd to you zel) is thru a dealer rather than a shady eastern european wide boy, but who knows?

If I get it my SIL who is a car person will be having a good look at it.