martin-vlc

Let me start by saying Hello to all the other expats here in spain. I am in Valencia and have a question i hope someone can help me with... Was stopped by the trafico police today and told that they would impound my motorbike as it was UK reg and as i am classed as a resident (have the card) but I work on a temp contract and pay tax etc in UK. The bike has to be Spanish resident too So to the question Can i take it out of the country for x amount of time then return? many thanks in advance

jdr

No, as a Spanish resident it is illegal to drive it, you have to matriculate it.
As they have given you a tug already I would do it fast. ;-)

Beachcomber

The Spanish have there own way of dealing with these problems:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTrjbTjhy3s

I should get it legal before you regret it

jdr

The third copper to him stuck the boot in too. ;-))

martin-vlc

Residents In Community Countries

No, we are not making a mistake, it is really residents in the community area, and not only citizens we are talking about in this group. This means that a Chinese with legal residency in Denmark comes in this group.

Persons belonging to this group may use cars registered in their country of residence, in Spain, without any time limits and without paying any taxes. The only condition is that they may not be fiscal residents in Spain. Residents in community countries can also have a car in Spain registered on Spanish tourist plates, valid for six months, renewable.
Thanks i got the above from a link on your site Spain-the foreigner and the car. I am not a fiscal resident of spain i am a fiscal resident of the UK... ???????

pwwm

If you have a residencia car, you have to matriculate as the others have said.

mikelincs

Don't think tourist plates even exist nowadays. Just look in the free beer thread, or search for UK car reg on the forum. There have been many many threads, and they all say the same thing, if you have residencia here in Spain, then your UK vehicle MUST be matriculated onto Spanish plates. The Spanish traffico have the ultimate sanction, they impound the vehicle, and if you don't get things sorted quickly, then your vehicle becomes a small heap of crushed metal and plastic.

Casa Santo Estevo

Tourist plates do exist as I saw one in my local garage the other day. However If they are available to EU citizens is not clear.
But if you are really interested you can head this lot.
www.dgt.es/was6/portal/contenidos/documentos/oficina_virtual/vehiculos/turistica.pdf

El Capitan

The positive side is that it can be quite quick and cheap to switch matriculation. I did it last year and there is actually an advantage in that a 4 yr old bike only needs ITV every 2 years. Get yourself a good gestor, if the bike is a bog standard european model, absolutley unmodified, get the gestor to obtain an engineer's report of conformity and a ficha reducida, pop over to your ITV station and get a special ITV for change of matriculation. Your speedo will already have mph and km/h and they didnt even ask me to change headlamp dipping as it is not quite like a car when you are leaning over all the time round corners. It wont cost a fortune to switch plate but you will probably not be able to get fully comp insurance on any big bike in Spain without forking out an arm and both legs.

scampicat

Can't get it on a four-year-old Spanish registered scooter. Linea Directa woouldn't even quote for third party only when it was brand new without sending 'someone to look at it'.

We took out TPFT insurance elsewhere!

martin-vlc

Thanks for the info El Capitan. The bike is not fully standard both rear indicators are after market as they were smashed when someone knocked it over in the car park here and the exhaust end can is also non standard (but fully UK road legal ) It does sound like it maybe easy but then again this is spain......and i am not Spanish.....