Importing a motorbike from Germany

[AndorranPhil]

I'm thinking of buying s bike in Germany and importing it to the UK.

Bike in question is a BMW K1, first registered in Germany in June 1992, so 28 years old.

I've had a look at the DVLA website and it seems

[a] that there's no VAT to pay because VAT will have been paid in an EU country - Germany - and the vehicle has been in use for more than 6 months, and it has covered more than 6,000 km - in fact 47,000 km

and

[b] it doesn't need type approval because it's more than 10 years old.

Has anyone gone through this process? And, if so, what advice could you give me.

TIA.

[V8RX7]

When we were part on the EU it was as simple as an MOT, filling in a form and a fee (£80 ?)

I'm unsure if it's still the same in the transition period

[CousinDupree]

It's still the same at the moment, of course.

You will also need the German log book to prove it's age. You can get by without it and a dating letter from an approved source, a bill of sale and a letter explaining this.

The DVLA can be quite random without the previous foreign log book. But still clearly not picky enough given that we are Europe's gateway to registering stolen cars / bikes. Everywhere else requires the original log book / export papers, or you're stuffed.

[NS400R]

You'll need a Nova certificate/number too. With that and the logbook it us quite easy.

[Edmor]

I recently imported a 6 year old motorcycle from Germany... below is the process i followed

1. Get the vehicle MOT'd
2. Certificate of conformity (not sure if you require this due to age of vehicle)
3. Get a letter from a garage saying the motorcycle has been converted for use in UK (headlight & Speedometer). Make sure you use the wording from the VCA website stating the changes made to the motorcycle. Note: a valid MOT certificate
4. Send the letter off to VCA and get a VCA certificate
5. Get the motorcycle insured (get it insured on VIN)
6. Fill in a V55/5 form and send the following supporting docs
1. Fee for registration + tax (6 or 12 months)
2. MOT certificate
3. Original registration document ( german registration doc is made up of 2 parts)
4. VCA certificate
5. Insurance covering letter
6. Certificate of conformity

DVLA normally take 10-15 days to review and send you a letter to say motorcycle will be issued with a V5

V5 takes a further 3-4 weeks to arrive

[zzrman]

Edmor said:

I recently imported a 6 year old motorcycle from Germany... below is the process i followed

1. Get the vehicle MOT'd
2. Certificate of conformity (not sure if you require this due to age of vehicle)
3. Get a letter from a garage saying the motorcycle has been converted for use in UK (headlight & Speedometer). Make sure you use the wording from the VCA website stating the changes made to the motorcycle. Note: a valid MOT certificate
4. Send the letter off to VCA and get a VCA certificate
5. Get the motorcycle insured (get it insured on VIN)
6. Fill in a V55/5 form and send the following supporting docs
1. Fee for registration + tax (6 or 12 months)
2. MOT certificate
3. Original registration document ( german registration doc is made up of 2 parts)
4. VCA certificate
5. Insurance covering letter
6. Certificate of conformity

DVLA normally take 10-15 days to review and send you a letter to say motorcycle will be issued with a V5

V5 takes a further 3-4 weeks to arrive

That's extremely helpful and thanks for the other replies as well!

[NS400R]

https://www.gov.uk/importing-vehicles-into-the-uk/...

Have a read at the link. It tells you all you need to know.

[TurnedEmo]

V8RX7 said:

When we were part on the EU it was as simple as an MOT, filling in a form and a fee (£80 ?)

I'm unsure if it's still the same in the transition period

Still the same - and unlikely to change even after transition as it's exactly how it works bringing in 10+ year old stuff from Japan, too.

[catso]

Edmor said:

I recently imported a 6 year old motorcycle from Germany... below is the process i followed

1. Get the vehicle MOT'd
2. Certificate of conformity (not sure if you require this due to age of vehicle)
3. Get a letter from a garage saying the motorcycle has been converted for use in UK (headlight & Speedometer). Make sure you use the wording from the VCA website stating the changes made to the motorcycle. Note: a valid MOT certificate
4. Send the letter off to VCA and get a VCA certificate
5. Get the motorcycle insured (get it insured on VIN)
6. Fill in a V55/5 form and send the following supporting docs
1. Fee for registration + tax (6 or 12 months)
2. MOT certificate
3. Original registration document ( german registration doc is made up of 2 parts)
4. VCA certificate
5. Insurance covering letter
6. Certificate of conformity

DVLA normally take 10-15 days to review and send you a letter to say motorcycle will be issued with a V5

V5 takes a further 3-4 weeks to arrive

I imported a bike from Italy, followed a similar procedure to the above except didn't get any letter regarding converting speedo and headlight, just an MOT.

Don't forget the NOVA form, which is to asses if any tax/VAT is due (unsurprisingly this seemed to be the most important part!) in my case no tax was due but you can't proceed without this.

Also, I didn't need a certificate of conformity but I believe was not required due to the age (old bike) and my V5 arrived in about a week.

All in I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was.

[crowned]

Hi all,

Got a question. I am moving from Germany to England. What do I need to do beforehand in Germany in order to export the bike?


The steps earlier in the thread all seem to relate to the English side of things.

Thanks !

[CousinDupree]

Hi there,
You need to de-register the bike in Germany. Get the EU CoC document if it's from 2002 onwards.

You can register it in the UK with the V55 form, an MOT and a NOVA declaration you can do online. You don't need insurance to register in the UK mainland.

Check with HMRC if you are migrating here. I believe there are allowances.

Cheers.

[zzrman]

crowned said:

Hi all,

Got a question. I am moving from Germany to England. What do I need to do beforehand in Germany in order to export the bike?


The steps earlier in the thread all seem to relate to the English side of things.

Thanks !

Last year I exported a bike to Andorra rather than the UK but the principle is the same - you are exporting the bike out of the EEC. The German vendor organised various bits of paper including visits to the local registration office and the German customs. New temporary plates were put on the bike and I got a form from the local German customs office which I presented to the customs office on the Andorran border with France. The French customs scanned the document and the bike was then officially exported from the EU.

The UK end of things is as set in an earlier thread.

Edited by zzrman on Tuesday 27th July 15:41

[crowned]

Thanks guys.

It's model year 2000, and I am already the owner, I'm just moving from Germany to the UK. Does that change anything ?

Thanks !

[dibblecorse]

Bennetts have a guide but you're in for a potentially hefty Tax Bill as its under 30 years old ...

https://www.bennetts.co.uk/bikesocial/news-and-vie...

The NOVA declaration is the key piece as until thats done you can't get the documentation to get it registered.

What you need to do in Germany you'll need to discover separately as i suspect they need notifying of its export, same way DVLA would going the other way.

[zzrman]

dibblecorse said:

What you need to do in Germany you'll need to discover separately as i suspect they need notifying of its export, same way DVLA would going the other way.

As indicated in my earlier post you will need to go your local registration office and the German Customs so that you can officially export the bike out of the EU.

[beambeam1]

Few years old now so apologies for the thread bump but just wondering if there are any revisions to this process when bringing a 30 year old bike from Germany to the UK now. Advert describes the bike coming with documents.

[Xcore]

Recently imported a scooter from Italy, needed to pay 5% duty to a customs agent to get nova, then dating cert from owners club and a dvla inspection to register. Make sure the bike has a legible frame and engine number