HBG

I don’t know how to answer that, Mitz. I arrived in Denia with a Brit car and kept it for years, always properly insured and with ITVs ( I used the guy in Ondara).

When I moved to Torrevieja I found that things were a bit more lax. My wife bought a car and drove it away on the same day, with no documents whatsoever, they arrived months later with numbers that the garage had made up.

My present Spanish car was bought for cash from a Spanish dealer, all above board. Funnily enough I was nearly legal, but the dealer didn’t want to know, his forms were already filled out, with only the purchase price missing.

It’s no different to England – what do they want from us? No residencias, no NIES, no nothing, just the dosh.

Mitzyboy

For sure, with spanish plates its fine ... but an ITV on a brit plate car is really not worth the paper its written on

I guess, as we proved before, you can get away with doing things differently in different places. Ondara ITV has tightened up a lot now .... they are part of the reason my Brit Spanish plated car has gone back to the UK

HBG

I suppose it’s too late now, but I used the English garage at km1 travelling from Ondara in the Oliva direction. I think the name was Richard, he’s been there for years and knows everyone.

Loco

http://ec.europa.eu/youreurope/citiz...s/index_en.htm


You can only register a car in the country where you normally live or have permanent residence.

You cannot register your car in a country where you have a secondary residence or holiday house.

Best

Loco

jdr

Thanks Loco. ;-))

Nige

Isn't it daft that a member of the European Community can spend months in another EEC country and not be able to use a car locally ? They can hire a car from a rental company with no problem. But to actually run their own car whilst at the same time owning a property is surely much better than making people drive/travel long distances (Edinburgh to Malaga for example) every time they need to use a car without renting.
No this law is ridiculous and there should be simple means to rectify it to make it possible. But will the over paid Eurocrats deal with this ?

Fred James

Whatever the EU law may say, it is a well established FACT that the Spanish authorities do allow non residents to buy and register a car in Spain with simple proof that they have an address in Spain usually involving signing on the padron.

What they do not do is check your tax resident status.

It all comes down to the well known confusion between "residency" and tax residency.

Another factor is that, notwithstanding what an EU directive lays down, individual countries are often allowed to offer "more favourable" rules and there are many cases where this applies.

Bri and Katee

So can someone definitively tell me whether I can buy a car?

We are resident in the UK but have a Spanish home, at the moment we are spending around 2000€ a year renting cars at the airport, a quite ridiculous amount of money wasted.

We have decided to either bring one over and have it changed to spanish plates or buy one over there, can we do that? We have the usual, nie, escritura etc, just not padron.

Seems our local office is very loathe to hand them out to anyone anymore! not just us expats. Can't understand that if as they say, the amount of money they can claim from government is dependent on the people on the padron. Also what is the point of a piece of paper (padron) if it only lasts for 6 months?

Fred James

From the experience of others, you "should" be able to buy a car OK but you had better assume that you will need to be on the padron.

To get on the padron you will probably need to produce the new foreigners certificate - it depends on the local town hall as to how they interpret the law.

Your entry on the padron is permanent until you move somewhere else but the piece of paper you can get has a limited validity (depending on what you want it for).

As I have pointed out on another thread, legally you are only allowed to sign on the Padron if your house is your "habitual residence" but many town halls ignore that.

Bomber Harris

It should be noted that the information contained in that link refers to importing and registering a car in another country. It does not refer to buying a car native to that country and registering your ownership of it.

If you have a holiday home in any EU country you can buy a car native to that country and register it in your name.

handy sue

Hi.
We are in the same position, our town hall (Benitachell) states on it's web site that you have to be resident to sign on the padron.
Our solution to the problem is this.
We drive out in our english car in spring, we use it for the summer months when the car hire is most expensive. we drive it back in Autumn. The car is never in Spain for longer than 6 months, and we insure it through SAGA. if you are not over 50, this may be a problem, but there may be some other insurer who will do that for you.
Sue H

Nige

Thanks for that clear and concise explanation of how the Law works.

Nige

Just a small point. What is a car 'native ' to the country ? For example Spain. Which car is native to Spain ?

Fred James

I would assume it means a car either new, supplied by a Spanish dealer or a second hand, Spanish registered car.

Nige

Thanks Fred. So as I understand it, for the sake of clarity, if my nice UK registered car was bought by my Spanish neighbour and he arranged to matriculate it onto Spanish plates (with help from myself who would cover all the costs) and then once it was on Spanish plates I could offer a fair price for it and drive it away. So that would come under buying a native car I guess.