Spanish registration and the meaning of words

Information and questions about driving in Andalucia, buying or importing cars and motorbikes plus legal issues surrounding taxes and licenses.
Viejo
Tourist
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Nov 26, 2015 11:41 am

Spanish registration and the meaning of words

Postby Viejo » Sun Nov 29, 2015 5:24 pm

This is about registering my car in Spain, but it is also about the meaning of words like “Residencia” and “Padron”. To lay out the story briefly I have a nice old sports car I'm very attached to, it is LHD and started life outside the EU. It has a UK Single Vehicle Approval and is on UK plates.

A specialist in doing these transfers, but not one given to chatty explanations, told me that if I was moving to Spain I could still register the car provided I had owned it prior to the move. This is key and needs an answer. In their final email they wrote -

“If you have the residency, we only need a copy of the townhall certificate/padrón/empadronamiento and we can proceed.

The SVA or individual type approval is only valid in the country of origin (the UK).

But in the case of your vehicle, it´s to old for obtaining the Spanish SVA, so the change of residency process is the only possibility to register the car onto Spanish plates”


When I got my NIE the lady in the police station also offered me something called, “Certificado de Registro de Ciudadano de la Union” which I understood at the time to be some kind of right of residency. This certificate pre-dates my purchase of the car and is maybe six or seven years old so I have assumed my plan was dead in the water on all three possible options.

In these pages, it is suggested the necessary qualifying document might be a registration at the local town hall, and this I have never done. Is this a loophole I can slip through?

I am not, need not, and do not wish to become a fiscal resident of Spain. I am here in winter for periods of up to six months a year, usually less, and normally take the car home for summer, MOT's, service etc. We need a larger car for this trans-continental stuff so a change is in the air.

gus-lopez
Resident
Posts: 1572
Joined: Tue Nov 23, 2010 8:55 am
Location: Lorca, Murcia ,Spain

Re: Spanish registration and the meaning of words

Postby gus-lopez » Sun Nov 29, 2015 9:27 pm

If it is legal in one EU state then in theory no other State can refuse to re-register it . By being registered in one, the UK , it is deemed to be legal in all EU states. I.e. the UK has already done anything that Spain can possibly ask for & according to 'EU rules' it is a rubber stamping job.Although we all know the hurdles they can put in the way. You should be able to get it replated as " historic" surely ?
Todos somos Lorca.

El Cid
Andalucia Guru
Posts: 16058
Joined: Sun Oct 24, 2004 10:42 pm
Location: La Herradura, Costa Tropical, Granada

Re: Spanish registration and the meaning of words

Postby El Cid » Sun Nov 29, 2015 9:44 pm

I doubt that is true in practice. There are loads of cars registered in the UK with after market additions or modifications that are acceptable in the UK that would result in a ITV failure in Spain if they were brought to Spain.

If the car does not conform to the manufacturers original specification or has extras that were not factory fitted there can be major problems.

My wife has a 4x4 which had bull bars fitted by the original vendor garage. Some years later the rules changed and it failed the ITV as they were not factory fitted. Getting them homolgated and having the log book changed took some time, lots of paperwork and expense and that was on a Spanish registered car.

Sid


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