Buying and importing a car from France

[oscar55]

Having just bought and driven a car back from France I thought it may be useful to go through the process on here. I picked up a lot of good advice on the forums but often the information was out of date or a bit fragmented, so here's an attempt at a one-stop shop.

The car I bought was a 1983 Renault R5 TL, so the info below is geared towards cars that are over 10 years old but a lot of info relevant to all.

Before Buying

After asking all your technical questions, condition etc. from the owner and if it looks like a goer, ask owner for copy of the following.

• Carte Grise - the french equivalent of the V5.

From this you can get all the information you need for further checks, ie VIN and reg number, owners name and address etc. (make sure seller's name is the same as on carte grise). Useful guide for carte grise HERE

With this info you can run a check on the vehicle for free through the government website HERE This is known as a "certificat de situation administrative" or "certificat non gage" and will tell you wether there are any red flags administratively against the vehicle.

• C.T. Contrôle Technique

This is the french MOT. When buying this must be less than six months old and that is the date from when last done not the next inspection date - which for cars in france over ten years old cars can be 5 years away!

Note: don't be shy to ask seller a lot of questions and for additional pics etc. if they are genuine they should be happy to supply. Also a phone conversation goes a long way to filtering out any transactions that might be dodgy or just too much agro.

Insurance

If you want to drive the car home you are going to need insurance. You can get this using the VIN number of the car, I used Footman James, £96 fully comp across whole of europe. Get a quote and reference number which you can then activate if you go ahead with purchase.

However, once you get to the UK you will not be allowed to drive the car...unless it is to a pre booked MOT. As I was planning on storing the car off road at my sisters in Suffolk until registered, I booked my MOT just down the road from her place and 250 miles away from Portsmouth (the port I arrived at with the car). As far as I can see there is no limitation to the distance allowed for pre booked MOT but you should check with insurer that they will cover you for this part of journey. I was given the once over by highway police alongside me near Dartford Tunnel but must have looked suitably french for them not to bother (beret and Gauloises).
After MOT you will just have to arrange transport to wherever you will store the car before registration.

When Buying

If you are happy to go ahead with the purchase you will need the following when you go to collect:

• Certificat de cession d'un véhicule d'occasion

This is basically a formal transfer document and will list details of the sale, the car, make, model, mileage etc and details of both the seller and buyer. It will need to be filled in and signed in triplicate, one for you and two for the seller. I took three already completed so all we had to do was add date/time, mileage from the clock and signatures. Copies of form can be found HERE

• The original Carte Grise, which the owner must cross through, mark as sold, date and sign - after which they hand to you, the whole thing not just the tear off.

• Payment - as mine less than £2k, I paid cash, you can nock up a homemade receipt for the seller to sign.

• Call your insurer and activate insurance.

Shake of the hand and off you go.

Registration

Once in UK you have to do the following:

• Get MOT, as above.

• Notify HMRC of arrival. This part is basically for them to work out wether there is any duty/tax payable on the car. First you will need a Government Gateway account HERE After which you can log in to NOVA HERE and submit car details. I got mine back instantly with zero duty/tax to pay.

• Next you will need to fill out a V55/5 form HERE If your car is over 10 years old then this is pretty simple, you will only need to complete the following sections:

State country vehicle purchased from.
Tick box LHD or RHD
3. Period of tax applied for (12 months etc.)
4. Registration fee - tick box (currently £55), Tax payable - this is road tax, find out HERE then enter amount in box.
6. Make
7. Model
8. Type of body/vehicle
9. Wheelplan (normally 2 axle rigid)
10. Colour
18. Number of seats
30. Date from which tax is to run (todays date or 1st of next month)
31. Type of fuel
32. Vin no.
33. Engine no.
34. Cylinder capacity
46. Date of original registration (will be on carte grise)
47. Same as 30
57. Partial postcode of purchaser
62. Name address etc.
63. DOB
64. If more than 10 years old state here "exempt as over ten years old"

If car is less than 10 years old you will have to get a certificate of conformity.

Any doubts give DVLA a call, 0300 790 6802, I found them really helpful filling out the forms.

• Send in your documents to DVLA.

These will be:
1. Completed V55/5 form
2. The original Carte Gris
3. Copy of insurance
4. The original copy of UK MOT
5. Proof of address
6. Probably worth sending a copy of NOVA though they should have on file
7. Cheque for registration fee and road tax

In short, if the car is 10 years + it is fairly straight forward, a LOT cheaper than getting an import agent to do it for you and a nice road trip. I flew out to Toulouse for £11 one way, met the owner at the airport and then drove down to Bilbao to get the overnight ferry to Portsmouth (£280).

Bon chance!

[threespires]

Very interesting and comprehensive.

My sister has a dilemma.
She bought a house in France and in the garage there is a 1970's Mini that belonged to the deceased ex owner.
The car has not moved for many years, is stored in the garage. The car has no paperwork.
She's tried in vein to register it.
She'd like to sell it & I'm sure there are many who would like to buy it as it's in reasonable condition with not many KM's on the clock.

Any idea how she could save it from being scrapped?

[oscar55]

Try asking the french equiv of DVLA to find registered keeper for you, if the car was listed in the sale documents of the house, proving ownership shouldn't be a problem. Or I would tell her to speak to the local garage, they might have a work around or advise on process.

Failing that you could advertise on leboncoin, or ebay, both stating the car has no paperwork. Sure someone would take a view on it.

[lisajohny543]

Can you the customs charges?

[threespires]

Thanks Oscar.....