Goodhead

Think I'm in trouble!
I bought a UK registered car in Spain, RHD, from an ex-pat'.
The car was kosha & came with a new 2 year Spanish m.o.t.
Of course everyone told me I was daft however I'm a woman....

I'm non resident & own a property here; have an NIE, bank account etc. & had no problem getting insurance under long term European use.

The UK MOT & tax expired just after I'd bought it. I registered it as 'exported' in the UK & thought I was legally correct.
I now suspect I'm not & that due to the expiration of the MOT etc. in the UK my insurance would be invalid here.
Any advice would be welcome.
Thanks.

Mitzyboy

You are most probably correct in your assumptions. I hope you didn't pay too much, as you will need to get it re registerd onto Spanish plates if you want to stay legal .... immediately.
You can see the references in the free beer thread, but a UK car is not legal in Spain if it is not road legal in its country of registration, which yours isn't.
Your insurance may well be invalid because of htis, sorry

andyrich666

you are covered for third party risks in the UK even if the car has no MOT, dont listen to anybody who says different, If you are worried phone your insurance company for conformation.

IANAL but I dont know how that affects you in Spain, I dont know the legal situation there.

In the UK having no MOT is a Fixed penalty offence, It is certainly not the same as driving an unroadworthy car, this is completely different.

It would probably be best to get it re-registered in Spain seeing as you have all the documents allready

Mitzyboy

The poster is in Spain, not the UK, so the whole picture is different A car has to be street legal in the UK, i.e. have a current MOT certificate, to be deemed legal by the authorities here

Can you confirm then that if the MOT runs out on a car in the UK, the insurance company will still pay out on the car to athird part even though its not got a roadworthy certificate? I didn't know that

rugbymatt

The car is insured 3rd party without an MOT but only if it is sat in your drive stationary, otherwise why would we bother getting a car legal??!!

Lionda

I assume that as you have a Spanish MOT (ITV) then your car has Spanish plates and the lights correspond with LHD vehicles. Therefore you aren't doing anything wrong. A UK MOT is not recognised in Spain, we brought our car over and the MOT had only been done in March but we still had to have a Spanish ITV (after having the lights changed for LHD) Surely the previous owners had already informed DVLA that the car was being exported (?) Why did you have to do it also they must have re-registered the vehicle to get the Spanish ITV.

andyrich666

Yes I agree, But I am making the point that you are still covered, For instance you are allowed to drive to MOT Station or MOT repairs without an MOT.

If you wish to drive a car permanently without an MOT and you are caught you will be dealt with by that of Fixed Penalty.

You can drive around with no tax asell if you like, It does not make any difference to the third party liability you are covered for.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) says that insurance policies will still pay out in full on any third party claims, and in the case of damage to or theft of your own vehicle, payouts may be reduced to reflect the lower market value of a car without an MoT

rugbymatt

The ABI may well tell you a thousand things but show me a company that will pay out on a car with no MOT. The MOT is a certificate of road worthiness, and in the insurance small print the insured car has to have a valid certificate of road worthiness, otherwise it would be perfectly fine to drive around with no MOT, because after all, your still insured.

Being pedantic about Insurance guidelines doesn't create an excuse for being either uninsured or driving without an MOT, and of course you are allowed to drive to a valid test center, you are allowed to drive there in a rolling chassis for god sake.

zel

FACTS:

1> Your car has now no registration in any country.

Therefore any insurance is invalid, sure they will take your money from you but in the case of paying out you would be extremely lucky if they did.

Even if it did have UK registration, the law says it's 3PTF only to a pre-bookable MOT appointment. This MOT station has to be within a certain distance from the address the car is registered at (so no, you couldn't drive it from Spain to say a Dover MOT station, which is all academic as it does no longer has UK registration)

2> As you do not have residency within Spain I'm quite confident that you can not register it in your name there until so. You will also be liable for import duty as the UK V5 is evidence of how long you have owned the vehicle for and as it's probably not in your name it's useless as evidence of ownership.

3> Your ITV certificate is only useful for the Spanish registration process.

Basically your choices (legal ones) as I see it are ; scrap it, transport it back to the UK and re-reg it, or go for residency in Spain and register it, sell it onto someone else and give them the headache (Although technically they could sue you if you gave them the UK V5 document when it no longer has UK registration and didn't tell them the full story)

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Very importantly if you are caught driving it in its present form you will be prosecuted to the extent of the local law. Most of time that means a fine and car is crushed.

Mitzyboy

Drive around with no tax and you can have your car taken off you and crushed in England
Drive around endlessly with no MOT and its illegal

Andy, its immaterial I guess ... the car is in Spain on UK plates and thats the problem ... we have this question so many times and it just doesn't seem to sink in

UK plated car belonging to resident in Spain with no MOT = Fine and car taken away if caught ... its already happening in Spain

Mitzyboy

Goodhead you say you are a non resident, but do you live here?

gallerie9

we dont have residencia in spain. we have the nie numbers and a tax number, we needed that to buy a car and get insurance
We do not have residencia, why should that be a problem when we have free movement of ppl through out Europe

zel

Because to import a vehicle into any EU member state you have to be a resident of it.

It's really that simple.

gallerie9

but do you to live here

zel

I do not understand the relevance of your question?