How to get rid of your british car in spain?
 

Hello,
I moved in Spain about 3 months ago and I came from UK with my british car. The car is road taxed, mot is valid and insurance cover european travels. However it was kinda of an old model with no aircon so
I've opted out to purchase a spanish one. Now the question is, how can I get rid of my old car? I've tried to put a milanuncio advert explaining that the car need to be re-registered in spain and i've got only dodgy request
(like people that would like to bring in africa without any paperwork and stuff like that), then I read online that is illegal to sell a british car in spain that is not registered and it is illegal even for a scrapyard!
The car has also low mileage (70k), ideally it would be good for a return travel in uk for some other british expat, it would be cheaper than renting I guess (and in uk can be sold again) , so I've posted in an expat forum of my area with no result.
Now the question is does anyone know how to get rid of the car? I guess some of you've been in a similar situation...
Thanks.

Re: How to get rid of your british car in spain?
 

Advice only please. No offers to buy. As you all know it is against the forum rules to advertise but as the poster is only asking what he should do I am not deleting this thread.

Rosemary

Re: How to get rid of your british car in spain?
 

Your realistic choices are likely only to either [1] return it to the UK yourself, or [2] register it in Spain yourself prior to selling it in Spain. There is the theoretical chance that you could sell it to a British citizen who returns it to the UK and registers their ownership there, but I think that is rather unlikely, and only a fool would buy a car registered in the UK and try to register it in Spain themselves.

And all that advice also applies to scrapping it - a Spanish scrapyard is highly unlikely to accept the British registration documents, and it may not even be lawful for them to do so, so to scrap it in Spain you would first have to register it in Spain,

Re: How to get rid of your british car in spain?
 

Hello Rosemary,
yes, I was not asking anyone to buy my car. I just wanted advices"
Pulanski, Oh that's really bad news as a trip to the uk with the car and back from with the fly will cost a bit less than the value of the car, plus you need to take holidays just to do that.
Also bad timing, since coronavirus outbreak is better to stay home!
Anyway thanks for the advice...

Re: How to get rid of your british car in spain?
 

Oh, and everything will become massively more difficult once you let the MOT expire as you won't be able to drive it legally, and you obviously can't get a new MOT in Spain either.

If it really worth that little you should offer to give it away (take €1, and get a signed bill of sale to formalize the transaction) to any British citizen who will take it off your hands to return it to the UK, or just bite the bullet and register it in Spain, even if only so you can scrap it.

Re: How to get rid of your british car in spain?
 

Hola

It CAN be scrapped in an authorised scrap yard. Just make sure you have a SORN or if not then send a copy of the documentation to the DVLC
Davexf

Re: How to get rid of your british car in spain?
 

Actually I would be happy to give it away for free, It would be a shame it would go to waste, the car could go on for another 100k miles easily.
Can I post the details in this forum or is it forbidden to offer free stuff?
MOT is still good till October 2020.

cheers,

Re: How to get rid of your british car in spain?
 

What's the registration number?

Re: How to get rid of your british car in spain?
 

Things may have changed(?) as it is a long time since I sold my UK registered VW Polo to a dealer. I got what I thought was a very fair price.

Re: How to get rid of your british car in spain?
 

I sold my uk registered car last year using using Facebook. I am on a couple of local Spanish Facebook sites frequented by other Brits and EU nationalities. I put the car on there and it went within a few hours!

Re: How to get rid of your british car in spain?
 

Make sure you advise DVLA when you dispose of the car.

Re: How to get rid of your british car in spain?
 

Nothing to do with me but these guys will scrap your UK registered car..........

Re: How to get rid of your british car in spain?
 

Some dealers will take RHD's as trade ins.
​​​​​​​
There will be no problem in registering it in Spain, it will be no different than if a buyer had imported it from UK themselves.

Re: How to get rid of your british car in spain?
 

In theory you are correct, but the buyer is taking on a risk that the vehicle may be unregisterable locally.

There is a very recent thread on this point in the France forum, where someone discovered, belatedly, that the person they bought a British-registered vehicle from is not the person whose name it is registered to, the person they bought it from has gone missing and is uncontactable (is thought to have returned to the UK), and they don't have any sort of purchase documentation that the French vehicle registration office will recognize, and the name mismatch between the British registration document and the (apparent) current owner makes it unregisterable in France, and the DVLA won't/can't register a change of ownership outside the UK, so it would have to be returned to the UK. Also the vehicle has no MOT and there is no obvious way to get one, other than have the vehicle transported back to the UK (at considerable expense), oh, and the vehicle has been flagged as permanently exported from the UK, so it is far from clear whether the vehicle can be reimported and re-registered in the UK if it was never registered in another country. All in all, a huge mess! :nod: .... Hence my comment in post #3 above, that "only a fool" would buy it in its current state (registered in the UK) and attempt to register in Spain themselves.

Re: How to get rid of your british car in spain?
 

Legally of course a resident cannot sell a foreign registered vehicle but leaving that aside if a V5 is not in your name then you can request a 'Certificate of Permanent Export' from DVLA which is official proof of ownership and from personal experience I know works in France for registration purposes.

The CoPE is specifically designed to overcome the problem you mention of DVLA not allowing vehicle transfer to a non UK address.

I've read the thread in the France section but saw no mention of the CoPE which may well have solved the problem but ONLY if the previous owner had not previously obtained one in their name in which case the new owner is totally stuffed, DVLA will have that information.

Taking a car back to UK now requires notification to HMRC via the NoVA (Notification of Vehicle Arrival) scheme without which registation there will not be possible.