Importing a car from Southern Ireland - Advice Needed

[100 IAN]

I'm considering buying a particular car in Southern Ireland and have been told by the dealer that i'd need to pay for it in full and then wait for him to claim the Tax back before he'll release the car to me.

Is this normal / essential?

I'm wary about paying a significant amount of money and then not actually getting the car or registration documents for a few weeks just in case something were to happen in the meantime i.e. If the dealer went bust.

NB. The dealer is an established one and whilst i do not have any concerns about him per-se, reputable businesses can and do sometimes fail.

My other question is, is there a Southern Irish equivalent of the UK HPI check that i can do on the vehicle?

[ZX10R NIN]

Why not pay a deposit & when he's got the tax back he can get the rest? I wouldn't pay in full for something I'm not driving away with.

[cianha]

You can run a cartell.co.uk check on an ROI registration.

We have a separate registration tax on plates (VRT) in ROI which is what he's claiming back on export.

http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/vrt/export-repayment-...

With £STG so strong relative to the €EUR, lots of interesting metal is being exported at the moment.

[Paddymcc]

100 IAN said:

I'm considering buying a particular car in Southern Ireland and have been told by the dealer that i'd need to pay for it in full and then wait for him to claim the Tax back before he'll release the car to me.

Is this normal / essential?

I'm wary about paying a significant amount of money and then not actually getting the car or registration documents for a few weeks just in case something were to happen in the meantime i.e. If the dealer went bust.

NB. The dealer is an established one and whilst i do not have any concerns about him per-se, reputable businesses can and do sometimes fail.

My other question is, is there a Southern Irish equivalent of the UK HPI check that i can do on the vehicle?

It sounds to me like he's trying to claim the VRT back from the sale once it has been exported.

This could something in the region of 20% of the sale.

If you're paying for the car you can take it to the UK, apply for an MOT using chassis number. Once passed MOT apply for V5 and send all the paper work off to DVLA along with money for car tax. Some people have reported needing a certificate of conformity to register the car in the UK.

[tileart]

cianha said:

You can run a cartell.co.uk check on an ROI registration.

I have come across this old thread as I have been considering a car that is located in Ireland (on ROI plates, previously on UK plates). I ran a Cartell check and it shows two alerts regarding NCT/CVRT:
NCT passed May 2016, due date was May 207 so is overdue
Tax expired December 2016, so is well overdue

I have imported/exported cars previously from/to "mainland Europe", but this is all new jargon to me. Any thoughts as to what else I should check-out/do, before contacting the seller ? I still can't figure out if the car could be used on Irish roads as is for test driving and getting to a ferry port, or whether a big amount of ££'s (Euros) would need to be paid -- and/or whether it would mean trailering it to England, all of which sounds like a royal pain.

[E34]

tileart said:

cianha said:

You can run a cartell.co.uk check on an ROI registration.

I have come across this old thread as I have been considering a car that is located in Ireland (on ROI plates, previously on UK plates). I ran a Cartell check and it shows two alerts regarding NCT/CVRT:
NCT passed May 2016, due date was May 207 so is overdue
Tax expired December 2016, so is well overdue

I have imported/exported cars previously from/to "mainland Europe", but this is all new jargon to me. Any thoughts as to what else I should check-out/do, before contacting the seller ? I still can't figure out if the car could be used on Irish roads as is for test driving and getting to a ferry port, or whether a big amount of ££'s (Euros) would need to be paid -- and/or whether it would mean trailering it to England, all of which sounds like a royal pain.

It sounds like the car was probably parked up or in storage since the end of 2016, which may bring it's own issues. I would request the seller/dealer puts an NCT on the car or guarantees it will pass a UK MOT. The NCT is arguably stricter than the MOT as it's run by a single company rather than independent garages.

As for getting it to the ferry, I would just go for it and produce the ferry booking if you were stopped.

[tileart]

Great advice, thanks -- and especially the "what if it's been stood" part.