Foreign plated cars with no tax

[Campo Kenny]

With the UK being an island I think your ferry ticket will prove you are telling the truth.

I also agree with above posts re. this matter. It's supposed to be the "European Union" for gods sake. Politicians have rammed this down our throats for years, yet we only seem to reap the negative benefits of it.

If it is truly a union there should be a unified MOT/ITV recoginised by all members, a tax disc for all countries and insurers would not then have a problem Problem solved but revenue down I think.

Kenny

[daneinspain]

No because the driver would have evidence of having been to france and uk. Try and get a hold of you and the law in spain by david searl, explains it better. Sometimes you dont even have to leave the country with the car, theres a law where if you live here for a few months of the year its ok too

[blondie]

I think in that case if you can prove with paperwork you have been away it would be ok, but then again if you drive then how do you prove it?

It´s a sticky situation with loopholes, and as you say if you can be insured with and ITV and insurance then why bother? Especially when it costs shed loads of money to do so.

I also know someone who brought over two very expensive cars and in the same month that he applied for residencia he also changed the plates on his cars and it came to about 1000 euros for them both - yet another loophole in the system. Unfortunately if you already have your residencia then maybe you can´t do this but it would be interesting to try all the same.

[BENIDORM]

I think that you will find that it is any 6 months during the past 12

months, that you are allowed to keep and use the car on UK plates. I

have for many years driven UK and Spanish plated cars, all legal,

backwards and forwards to UK, without any problems.And I have been

stopped many times in the Spanish cars , in Spain, France ,Germany and

Holland, but never in UK, and only stopped a few times in Uk cars.

..I always keep ferry tickets,toll receipts, petrol

receipts and hotel receipts to prove where I have been, but have

never been asked to prove my movements.

[blondie]

Thanks Benidorm,

I always wondered if they would bother going to such lengths to check stuff like that when they must have more important tsuff to do.

I got stopped in my old Brit plated car here in Spain, showed the insurance document, which was in english I might add, and they sent me on my way- I also showed them my residencia card but they still said nothing.

[Campo Kenny]

Do the police check the airport car parks? Reason I ask is my current car over there is now fully Spanish plated etc., but when I brought it across I had a full Mot, 12 months RFL and insured in UK for one year, to give me the full year before converting it.

Although I only spent probably 10 weeks in Spain that year the car was in Spain for a continuous 12 months albeit in a car park.

I did wonder if this was legal and assumed with the carpark being private all was OK...........but I guess you never know.

Is this another grey area as the carpark is full of UK plated motors.

[daneinspain]

They cant do anything about a car not in circulation it can have no plates for all they care, as long as its not moving they wont be able to look at it unless it matches a stolen car description

[spanish_lad]

Also I still dont understand the problem if someone has english plates and the tax has run out but its insured. And even if they are keeping it on uk plates as long as it is insured, whats the problem?

All UK insurance policies say something like "the policy is only valid if..the car has a valid licence....and has a valid test certificate (if required).." so no road tax=no insurance. No insurance = should be locked up for a good time, and fined the equivalent of ten years road fund licence.
In Spain, a car on Brit plates must only be used by the person who brought it into the country, for a maximum of six months - surely any use that exceeds that means also that it cannot have valid insurance?
It is the same morality as being drunk, yet "only nipping down to the shops/pub/bank" - hoping not to kill someone along the way, and feeling hard done by if stopped, breathalysed and banned.
But then again, if I am given 1 Euro too much change, I give it back - it's not mine, so keeping it is theft.

thats exactly it dane. not taxing a uk plated vehicle is illegal the vehicle in question must be road legal in its country of residence for it to be legal out of the country. this means that it must have a valid uk tax disc, a valid mot, and valid insurance in the uk or spain. (you can insure a uk plated vehicle thru a spanish company and it will be legaly insured) BUT there is something of a "grey area" where the tax and mot is concerned for claim purposes. Katy will tell you, she claimed and was paid out on a uk plated vehicle a few years back. i dont think that this would happen now - i fully belive that even with insurance, if you crashed a foreign plated vehicle in a different country and the vehicle did not have a valid road worthyness test certificate then the vehicle will be impounded and you will be fined / imprisoned for driving a defective vehicle.

we've been over this subject so many times its unreal.

if what you said was true, whats to stop someone having a 20 year old transit van on uk plates thats falling to bits with holes in the floor and the doors tied together with string... in your eyes if it had a "valid" (i use the term loosly) insurance document but no tax or mot and the owner was driving it, it would be ok, no matter what condition it was in?

i really dont "get" people who think like you.

[blondie]

Spanish lad,

not sur eif you read my post but cars are getting paid out on NOW , brit plated cars with spanish insurance, spanish MOT and no UK road tax - as it´s not needed here in Spain, and before you shout I even read a letter from the DVLA last year which was posted in the SUR in english stating as much.

[BENIDORM]

Personally I think this subject is one were there could be numerous , 'outcomes', regarding insurance claims, fines etc..I think that it would really depend on the circumstances and how they are interpreted by the police, insurance companies etc
.However if you run a UK plated car here in Spain and ensure that you have uk road tax, mot, and insurance you really should have no problems. The Spanish police do have a full understanding about the validity of uk road tax etc, and you are more likely to be stopped if they see you are not displaying one.
I always read press reports and letters from other expats about this type of subject, but I never take it as Gospel, I always get it in writing from the insurance company about how I am personally covered for all eventualities, and I did contact the dvlc a few years ago, and their understanding was that although it is a 'grey area', they recommended that I kept up to date with uk road tax...
So basically you could drive around Spain for the next 10 years without problems, but then again tomorrow 'The Green Man' might be waiting for you around the corner !
I know what I would do....but it is 'up to you', what you think is correct....

[peteroldracer]

Whatever the rules, loopholes, exceptions.....in my view - and that of any responsible citizen, I contend - is that car owners know that their obligations are: to have a current road fund licence or its equivalent; to have valid insurance; to hold a valid driving licence; that the vehicle should have passed a road-worthiness test (if required by age of vehicle); that the authorities should be able to identify and contact the owner from its registration plate.
All of these should be appropriate and valid for the country in which the vehicle is being used.
Anything less than compliance with all the above is evasion, and should result in the loss of the privilege of driving a car.
It is time that the silent majority showed their disgust at the rule-benders in the same way that all responsible citizens now acknowledge that drunk-driving is not acceptable behaviour.
It's not big, it's not macho, and its not clever!

[Campo Kenny]

I obviously believe the posters who say payouts have been made although it surprises me.

Nowhere can I seem to find a single legal page which says any form of mix and matching is acceptable to cover you...ie UK plates/Spanish ITV/etc. etc.

When ever I've asked who says this is OK the answer seems always to be the broker.

From a laymans point of view it seems black and white to me, i.e. either fully complying UK papers or fully complying Spanish.

As I said though some people say this is not the case..........I don't know for sure but I'd prefer to stay legal in case the worst happened in the meantime.

However if these stories are legit then it's bloody good news and my next car I bring over won't need the time, money and grief spent on it matriculating it.

Somebody IS wrong here and I'd just like to find out why we bother with re-plating if it is not neccessary.

Kenny

[BENIDORM]

This could go on and on etc...But it still 'boils down ' to the fact that if you have a UK reg. vehicle here in Spain without road tax you are breaking the law here, and it could affect insurance etc..The road tax is paid wherever you live in Europe and gives you the right to drive on the roads in Europe,so if you don't pay the road tax somewhere , then you are breaking the law, which then can lead to all the complications...The Spanish have to pay road tax here , I know it's not much compared with Uk, so why should anyone think that they can drive around in Spain without paying the road tax...? I know that it is probably not what a lot of people want to hear, but I am quite sure that it is correct, as it stands at the moment..Although technically wrong, but if you keep a UK vehicle here with up to date road tax etc., it is unlikely that you would have any problems..If you can make the journey once a year to Uk, and have the mot etc,you would then be reasonably safe, but still not entirely legal...

Also if you have a Uk vehicle in Spain taxed or not, and leave it behind when you leave the country, then again you are technically breaking the law.

I am not a lawyer, so I can only give advice based on my own experiences, if you are not sure, I suggest that you make an appointment with a Abogado, and get him to put into writing how he sees it...

Anyway I repeat that I am not a 'vigilante', and only offer my advice on the understanding that it might help someone..

[cfc.Kimo]

So are you saying that the old UK plated Transit van I'm driving should have a UK tax disc and not the Heineken beer mat I am using ?

[BENIDORM]

If I were you , I would change your Heineken beermat for a San Miguel

one, the boys in Green might not notice you then....

[katy]

In all the time I have been in spain I have never heard of a single brit not being paid out for an accident whilst driving a UK car. surely it would have come down on the grapevine I kept my UK car here because it was my pride and joy (an anniversary present). All the time I was insured with Norwich Union, Gibraltar. I ran into the back of a car in Los Boliches, cost of repair 4800 euros (don't know about the other car!) Two year later I had a head on with a 4x4 and they wrote it off, all straightforward in a few weeks. (Better than a spanish neighbour who had to wait for 6 weeks from a spanish co. to authorise repair).

OK. It was some years ago but considering the large number of UK cars we should have heard by now if someone had fallen foul of the insurers. Not one person has been on this forum to complain in the last 3 years.

I have spanish cars now but would just love one with the wheel on the other side

[katy]

Just to add, its easy to be legal if you are worried, get a relative to tax the car and there are plenty of places who will issue you with the UK test certificate

[dooby]

There are so many conflicting opinions on this debate. I can add only what happened to us last year.

We had been here in Spain for 8 months, renovating a house, with a house back in the UK (at that time). Our car was fully taxed, MOT'd and UK Insured (12 months green card, and insurer's knowledge and permission) when the nice boys in green came knocking at our door. We were not resident and had been back to the UK many times, although the car remained here. They had all the paperwork ready to stick in our car windows, I got denounced and the car was then kept off the road for 5 months while I changed the matriculation and got my residencia. Intervention from our local Mayor and advice from Traffico in Granada, made no difference. We are in a village in the back of beyond, 20 minutes in any direction to get to a town or motorway, to say we were stranded was an understatement. Three families were hit here at the same time, the others, granted were not taxed, but the remaining UK cars here which had been here longer than our own and were not taxed were not bothered and are still happily driving around.

All this was due to a sad English couple who being here first, didn't like new comer's "not conforming", the "queen" as she is affectionately known picked up all her useful information on foreign plated cars from this forum (similar thread last year) and freely admitted what she was doing. Funny thing was, she was driving an illegal German car at the time but that was soon hidden away on their land. Anyway what comes around goes around and they have made enemies with just about everyone and the Spanish here have also turned there back on them, realising what they are and that all British people are not the same. Hence they are now selling their "Empire" and have had to move into rented accommodation.

I know before I get slated that the car had been here 8 months and not the allocated 6 months, but it was still fully legal in its country of origin, so on my experience I wouldn't take the chance and for all you thinking of reporting UK cars, beware of the repercussions

[Campo Kenny]

I'd certainly be plotting my revenge on the "Queen"......ba***d.

Your story proves a point though about regs, even though it was a real pain for you.

Kenny

[dooby]

Thanks Kenny, revenge will be sweet when it comes, but at the moment I am enjoying the scenario they have brought upon themselves and their family who they talked into "investing in our village". The whole lot is up for sale. Unfortunately they seem to want "Marbella" prices so might find they are tied here a while longer. Meanwhile peace prevails within our community and we can all now start living our own lives without the disruption of the "King and Queen".