Buying a car with French plates

[ec1 eex]

A friend of mine wants to get rid of his old car wihch he brought with him when he moved from France. The car is still on French plates and insured as though he lives in France.

Can anyone tell me what kind of paperwork is required to transfer the ownership of a French car to a UK citizen in the UK, and whether or not the car would need to be re-registered with UK plates. Does anyone here insure a car in the UK with foreign plates? Are there other things I haven't considered (perhaps MOT etc)?

Thanks in advance, Phil

[kevinday]

AFAIK you cannot register a foreign-plated car in the UK, it will have to be imported and registered correctly. Also IIRC if a foreign car is in the UK for more than 6 months it is a legal requirement to do all the paperwork. He is best off taking it back to France and flogging it, or, if it is a wreck, simply scrapping it.

[Dwight VanDriver]

www.dvla.gov.uk/vehicles/exptimpt.htm

dvd

[towman]

Flog it on Ebay, even if it is a complete nail. Lots of Brits with houses abroad want a daily hack to leave over there.

[8Pack]

Houses abroad Ste? My neighbours have: Polish, Austrian German, French, Belgian car registrations! An' we "Northerners".....ooop 'ere! are ....."Thick!"

200 yds away, my neighbour has 6 "Dutch" cars for his "Taxi" business. Don't quite know how he manages this, for at least 2 years now. He's a "tax payer" who complains on here, right?

[cooperman]

I checked this situation with the DVLA in respect of an office we are considering opening in Dublin. If you buy a car in S. Ireland and register it to a company address there, it may be used in the UK by the Irish company so long as it leaves this country at least once every 6 months. Under EU rues there must be 'no barriers to trade within the EU'. It can be insured in Dublin by the UK insurer as most have Irish offices and your NC Bonus is transferrable there.
If you so wish, you can swap your UK driving licence for a S. Irish one so long as you have an address in S. Ireland. In fact I know a guy who lives in S.Wales, has a holiday cottage in Waterford and has had an Irish licence for the past 10 years. When stopped on the M4 for 97 mph, he was just politely asked to "slow it down a bit, sir". Even if his UK company gets an NIP, his name and Irish address get listed, so it all goes away.

[fulham911club]

ec1 eex said:

A friend of mine wants to get rid of his old car wihch he brought with him when he moved from France. The car is still on French plates and insured as though he lives in France. Can anyone tell me what kind of paperwork is required to transfer the ownership of a French car to a UK citizen in the UK, and whether or not the car would need to be re-registered with UK plates. Does anyone here insure a car in the UK with foreign plates? Are there other things I haven't considered (perhaps MOT etc)? Thanks in advance, Phil

what's the car as I'm looking for something cheap & cheerful to keep at our house in the south of france?

[gilbertd]

fulham911club said:

ec1 eex said: A friend of mine wants to get rid of his old car wihch he brought with him when he moved from France. The car is still on French plates and insured as though he lives in France. Can anyone tell me what kind of paperwork is required to transfer the ownership of a French car to a UK citizen in the UK, and whether or not the car would need to be re-registered with UK plates. Does anyone here insure a car in the UK with foreign plates? Are there other things I haven't considered (perhaps MOT etc)? Thanks in advance, Phil what's the car as I'm looking for something cheap & cheerful to keep at our house in the south of france?

I was about to ask the same question.

To answer the original question, he'd have difficulty (legally) selling it to anyone without a French address to register it to. He'd need to register it here (which isn't difficult) first. If he sold it still on French plates it gets very difficult as the new owner did not import it so it is not classed as a personal import.