Importing & registering help

[Katieh9293]

Hi all, I am new to this and am looking for help. I have recently brought a ford escort that was imported to the uk from South Africa. The person who I brought it off gave me a nova number and said I just needed to complete the registration with DVLA to get the car on the road.
In speaking to DVLA there was a problem with the nova. Have spoken to nova and the number isn’t actually the right number. And I have had to reapply for the nova. Have done that and now nova is saying they can’t give me a number because I didn’t bring it into the uk. I have no way of getting hold of the guy who originally brought it into the uk. As the guy I got it of got it of someone ect ect.

Any help ??? Please

[CQ8]

Katieh9293 said:

Hi all, I am new to this and am looking for help. I have recently brought a ford escort that was imported to the uk from South Africa. The person who I brought it off gave me a nova number and said I just needed to complete the registration with DVLA to get the car on the road.
In speaking to DVLA there was a problem with the nova. Have spoken to nova and the number isn’t actually the right number. And I have had to reapply for the nova. Have done that and now nova is saying they can’t give me a number because I didn’t bring it into the uk. I have no way of getting hold of the guy who originally brought it into the uk. As the guy I got it of got it of someone ect ect.

Any help ??? Please

The problem with the DVLA and HMRC is there are some people who are really helpful and some who are not. You need to keep ringing until you get a helpful person. You need the NOVA from HMRC then submit this to the DVLA. As it's not a UK car originally, you may also need a letter from the relevant owners club confirming the car is what it is (DVLA outsourced this to owners clubs).

Their response does sound like nonsense to me. Plenty of people bring in cars but don't go through the NOVA process. It sounds like the NOVA process hasn't actually been done. If it has there should be a letter from the HMRC stating it is clear. If it has been done, can they not look up on their system? Do you know when the car was brought into the UK?

I bought a car that was a restoration project, came into the UK from Europe but nobody ever completed the NOVA process. So I needed a NOVA letter from HMRC stating that no taxes were due on the car. This letter took an age to get as nobody at HMRC seemed able to tell me what the correct forms I needed to fill out were. I kept getting passed from department to department and back again. The problem they said was that, as my car was originally a UK car which was at some point in its life had been exported to Europe, in theory the tax would have been paid when it was sold new in the U.K. but someone could (theoretically but extremely unlikely) have claimed it back when it was exported. But nobody knew, or was that interested, in resolving the issue. They all spoke with great authority but had little clue what they were talking about. The HMRC are not well geared up for dealing with the public on individual cases.

Eventually, after several weeks of trying, I got through to a very helpful lady who told me to just fill out a standard NOVA form and ignore all the other forms I had been told to fill out. A lot of time and effort wasted but once this was done, the NOVA Letter appeared very quickly.

Once you have that, you can then move onto the next stage with the DVLA.

Edited by CQ8 on Tuesday 21st April 20:26

[healeyfan]

When you submit a Nova application you are given two numbers a submission number and a Nova number. The Nova number is the only one that the DVLA will recognise. It should be the word NOVA followed by the year ie. 20 then a letter and 6 numbers. I suspect it's the 6 numbers that they want. If you have only the submission number which is much longer then phone NOVA on 0300 322 7071. They are very helpful and will speak to the DVLA direct on your behalf. The DVLA will require the original South African equivalent of the V5, a bill of sale and a fee of £55 to register it.