One of HJ's old columns has a story about someone getting hit by an untaxed English registered car in France.
HJ then says you can only use a British registered car overseas for 6 months on any 12. But where does it actually say this? Does that mean my brother who works 4 days a week in Belguim has to re-register his car? And what if he goes to Germany for one of those 4 days?
Before I moved here, I spoke to the Swedish vehicle registration people, and as far as they were concerned you could keep it here for as long as you liked, as long everything was in order. They said the 6 month rule only applied to cars from outside the EU. I know a lot of people that live in Sweden and work in Denmark, commuting each day in their cars, but Denmark doesn't insist on re-registration.
He also says an un-MOT'd car will mean the other driver's insurance would be invalidated so they wouldn't be able to claim from the other driver. As far as I'm aware, there's nothing to stop another person claiming from you, MOT or not, tax or not, overseas (in Europe) or not.
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Surely a vehicle needs to have insurance taking into account where it is normally kept (overnight) as part of the risk assement? Otherwise you could insure a car in a country/town deemed low risk and then "visit" the UK. Don't we also need to take account of where the driver is normally resident?
If there's a loophole then when the youngest passes his test I will take that into account ;-)
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There was a bloke selling a motorcycle on ebay and said that he'd had it registered in Poland as the insurance was less than a quarter of what it would be in the UK.
I would have thought the rules for how long you could drive in another country would be set by the country you are in.
www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/BuyingAndSellingAVeh...3
There are international agreements which provide for the temporary use of a vehicle in a foreign country for a limited time, usually six months in a 12 month period. A visitor to the UK may use a vehicle displaying foreign plates, provided that all taxes (including vehicle excise duty) are paid in their country of origin.
European Union vehicles
It is the responsibility for the driver to prove how long the vehicle has been in the country. This can be achieved by producing ferry tickets. Used or unregistered vehicles brought into the UK will be allowed to circulate freely for six months in any 12 month period without the need to register. Certain vehicles will be required to display a temporary 'Q' plate. Temporary visitor status is not appropriate to these vehicles.
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Everyone quotes the 6 month rule, but the above text in the first paragraph uses the word 'usually', then goes on to say 'A visitor to the UK may use a vehicle displaying foreign plates, provided that all taxes (including vehicle excise duty) are paid in their country of origin' with no mention of a time limit. Also no mention of MOT's etc.
But then under EU vehicles (aren't they foreign as well?) it then mentions a 6 month rule. Of course, it's easy for us to say produce ferry tickets (or Channel tunnel, I guess), but the rest of Europe doesn't need ferries, so the car could spend 1 month in each country, thereby somewhat difficult to prove anything.
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