driving english reg. vehicle in spain

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Bongtrees
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Re: IBEX response

Postby Bongtrees » Tue Feb 14, 2006 12:08 pm

meseta wrote:Hi Bongtrees et al !

"I contacted Ibex and they pointed out to me that they are coverholders for Lloyd's of London. Refer to www.lloyds.com, that is they represent major syndicates at Lloyd's.

When you insure with Ibex you insure with Lloyd's in the UK.You have complete financial security.
In the very unlikely event that an Ibex policyholder has a complaint which Ibex cannot resolve the matter may be referred to Lloyd's,then the UK Ombudsman.A final resort would be a UK court.

Check out their website:www.ibexinsure.com"


I refer you to the last suggestion, and hope this helps.

The messenger is not available for shooting, by the way.....
Your reply did not address the question so I called them myself, spoke to underwriters who told me that the law is specific, the vehicle has to be legal in the country it is registered in. So a UK reg vehicle requires valid MOT and road tax paid.

So his answer to my question ¨would Ibex pay a claim if the insured vehicle did not have valid UK MOT¨,,,,,,he said NO.

Reason being the car was not considered maintained roadworthy according to the law.

When asked why agents are saying different he said is up to them what they say. He said that as there is no question on the form about MOT or Road tax, that is their get out apparently.

I wonder if anyone knows if insurers pay out on an accident claim in the UK if the vehicle is neither taxed or MOT´d........if as I suspect the answer is no, why does anyone think it will be any different here?

Mike

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meseta
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Postby meseta » Tue Feb 14, 2006 12:40 pm

Mike,
My response is the official line. If you have any further concerns please direct them to the office in Gibraltar as you have done already.

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spanish_lad
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Postby spanish_lad » Tue Feb 14, 2006 12:53 pm

chrisuk wrote:When removing a car or any road going registered means of wheels, including quad bikes you need to fill in the export slip on the V5C form and post it to DVLA, if you dont then the process takes alot longer
?????

who cares how long it takes?? after you send the form in, it no longer has anything to do with you ? they dont inform you when it is registered...so why does it make any difference how long the process takes?

are you going to register your van and caravan as exported?
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Bongtrees
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Postby Bongtrees » Tue Feb 14, 2006 2:21 pm

meseta wrote:Mike,
My response is the official line. If you have any further concerns please direct them to the office in Gibraltar as you have done already.

I wont be drawn into an argument on ethics.

Suffice it to say that I would not recommend them to anyone based on personal experience of insurance on my Spanish registered car with them.

Mike

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meseta
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Postby meseta » Tue Feb 14, 2006 7:12 pm

How about sharing the details with us, I may be able to help. It's easy to give generalised statements like that. Lets hear all about it.

spanish hopes

Postby spanish hopes » Tue Feb 14, 2006 8:18 pm

meseta
I thought things would be bad enough admitting to being an estate agent without showing your hand as an insurance broker too. The double whammy.

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meseta
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Postby meseta » Wed Feb 15, 2006 6:29 am

i suppose that depends on how professionally I operate in those particular areas ! As regards showing my hand, why on earth not ?

anewlife
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Postby anewlife » Wed Feb 22, 2006 10:50 pm

If you declare SORN in UK cos UK plated car is here, and you are insured with MOT etc., what happens when SORN runs out and car is still here but you don't have a valid MOT (but was valid when you got last tax and certainly insurance through Spanish company) and you need to re-tax the car? How can someone keep a UK registered car here for 3 years and not pay road tax? Do you have to keep to-ing and fro-ing to UK to MOT etc???

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sioban
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Postby sioban » Thu Feb 23, 2006 9:06 am

Iv found a legal loophole on importing cars.
When you apply for your residencia and changing you car at the same time you dont have to pay the import tax, which could save you in some cases over 1000€.
Just make sure you use a decent gestoria and you will not have any problems.
For more info call me on 958700171

Regards
Sioban

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spanish_lad
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Postby spanish_lad » Thu Feb 23, 2006 11:30 am

anewlife wrote:If you declare SORN in UK cos UK plated car is here, and you are insured with MOT etc., what happens when SORN runs out and car is still here but you don't have a valid MOT (but was valid when you got last tax and certainly insurance through Spanish company) and you need to re-tax the car? How can someone keep a UK registered car here for 3 years and not pay road tax? Do you have to keep to-ing and fro-ing to UK to MOT etc???
yes, it is illegal to keep an english plated car in spain for more than 6 months.

everyone who keeps their english plated car in spain longer than that is comitting an offence.

unless of course they take it out of spain every six months and back to the uk every year to get it mot´d ... ;)
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Midnight Rambler

Postby Midnight Rambler » Thu Feb 23, 2006 2:09 pm

sioban wrote:Iv found a legal loophole on importing cars.
When you apply for your residencia and changing you car at the same time you dont have to pay the import tax, which could save you in some cases over 1000€.
Just make sure you use a decent gestoria and you will not have any problems.
For more info call me on 958700171

Regards
Sioban
Sioban, could you please explain what you mean precisely by the term "changing your car" if you mean importing and changing the registrattion of your english car onto Spanish plates then this is not a loop hole it's the law!

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sioban
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Postby sioban » Thu Feb 23, 2006 5:03 pm

fair point it is the law, but at the same time it is a legal loophole.
Alot of people donnot change the car reg because they think it is expensive with this information they could save alot of money, to my knowledge this info has not been put in any forum so I think it will help alot of people.

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Postby El Cid » Thu Feb 23, 2006 6:39 pm

In fact it has appeared on all of the forums that I know of at one time or another. It is also covered in David Searle's book - "You and the law in Spain".

The problem is that when people apply for residencia they know that they have 6 months before they have to reregister. When they find out this information it is usually too late - I think you only have 30 days from the date of application for residency.

If you want to read a first hand report on re registering a UK car, including the "loophole" you mention have a look at

http://tinyurl.com/zlc58

Sid

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Postby Midnight Rambler » Thu Feb 23, 2006 8:50 pm

sioban wrote:fair point it is the law, but at the same time it is a legal loophole.
many donot change the car reg because they think it is expensive with this information they could save alot of money, to my knowledge this info has not been put in any forum so I think it will help alot of people.
Sioban, a lot of people don't re register their car's here because they cannot, they're either on the run for something or they've bought a car on the drip just before they came here and have no intention of paying for it.

Yesterday evening I was in a golf club bar in Alhaurin el Grande when an "ex pat" gave me chapter and verse about how he had leased a jag eighteen months ago and drove it here and has never paid any other payments, yessir a real smart guy until,he has an accident because of course his insurance can't possibly be legal, I think the guy is an @rsehole and an idiot and I hope he gets caught and punished, apparently this practice is not uncommon especially amongst the Brits!

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spanish_lad
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Postby spanish_lad » Tue Mar 07, 2006 10:39 am

something which just came to mind - "we" (foreigners in spain) are going to loose out now arn´t we?

you can, under the current legislation, re-register your uk plated car in spain import tax free if you do so before 30 days after your application for residency.

but after april.. there is going to be no application for residency?? does that mean that everyone has to pay import tax now? or are they gonna abolish it? i doubt they will - imagine the loss in revenue! i´m sure we are going to be made to pay for import now, wether "we" have been here 5 days or 5 years!!!

definatly a loophole that i dont wanna think about ! :shock:
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Beachcomber
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Postby Beachcomber » Tue Mar 07, 2006 10:58 am

Don't worry Spanish_lad. See the post below from Sid in another thread:
El Cid wrote:The situation with regard to the "abolition of residents cards" has been clarified by the British Consul.

Speaking at a public meeting for British residents in Jalon, Mr Thomson said, “Above all, do not believe what you read. An English newspaper had a front page article saying resident cards are going to be abolished. They are not.”

He said the situation had been double-checked by diplomats in Madrid. “There are no plans to make any administrative changes.” Mr Thomson said the requirements of the Brussels directive, made in 2004 but given two years to come into force, had been adopted by a liberal Spanish government in a special decree 12 months earlier.


So it looks like it's business as usual then! :D

Sid

Bongtrees
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Postby Bongtrees » Tue Mar 07, 2006 10:58 am

spanish_lad wrote:

but after april.. there is going to be no application for residency??

Lad

The Ambassador has made it quite clear that the story printed in the CBNews is untrue and the requirements for Residencia remain unchanged.

My wife was accosted by the village busybody yesterday and berated on the subject of English living permanently in this area driving UK plated vehicles.

He said that a substantial source of income at the Town Hall was derived from car tax which the Brits were avoiding. Then going on to say they want this that and the other but contribute nothing.

He also remarked on the proliferation of handouts posted up everywhere in English offering services of all kinds and asked her if they paid tax and autonomos.

Mike

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spanish_lad
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Postby spanish_lad » Tue Mar 07, 2006 3:51 pm

ohhhh .. controversial ! the papers were wrong then :shock: big surprise there, i bet that caused havoc all over the place..

when was it due to come into effect ? april 1st ?? hmmmmm :?
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Postby Murciaboy » Thu Mar 09, 2006 10:26 am

Hi !

I am really confused now :?

Can someone please help me with my dilemma ?

I took some advice which I thought was correct from someone on another forum who told me that as long as I had an UK MOT I could get car insurance from a Spanish company for 1 year maximum.

It seems from reading all these threads that this advice was incorrect.

I need some advice now, my car has MOT until next Jan, I will have used my 3 months worth of green cards up by the end of April, so I need to get insurance from May until January. Can someone tell me if its possible to legally get insurance with a Spanish/Gib company ? (I am not a resident yet).

Also if it is possible can anybody recommend some companies to use ?

Many thanks in advance for your help 8)

Nikvin
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Postby Nikvin » Thu Mar 09, 2006 8:39 pm

they will all sell you insurance...............
just in manty cases int wont be worth the paper its printed on, as the vehicle needs to be road legal in its country of origin!!!
they re.insure Brit palted car, year after year, knowing full well, it cant be legal, they're just happy to take their fee. They dont ask about MOT and Tax, so no lies being told by vehicle owner!!, and technically someone could be driving back to the UK to get MOT and tax, though unlikely in most cases. Spaniards, and people with residencia, cant , by law, legally drive a foreign registered vehicle, so even taking it, and getting MOT and tax still leaves many outside of the law!


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