Dave Kerr
Active Member
When I started all the carry on about importing my own MB from Holland I went through every detail, the one outstanding thing is you CANNOT insure a vehicle through a UK insurer that does not reside officially in this country. That is EU law.
Meaning, I asked my insurer, Direct Line if they could insure me from Hengelo, Holland, no was the answer. If I could supply them with a vin No. then it could be insured the moment it landed back in the UK. This is what I did. The dealer I bought it from supplied trade plates which included 7 days insurance at third party only.
To get it back you have a few choices, you can trailer it. You can insure it in Croatia, third party with trade plates, though since its outside the EU I am not sure about this.
On the EU cert of conformity, it won't have one since Croatia is not in the EU, so an SVA test it will have to have before it can be registered.
The third choice is there is one company who are authorised to insure vehicles that are driven back to the UK. The info is in Car buyer mag. I did inquire about this option until I found out the price. Bearing in mind the fully comp price for my C220 is £270, they were asking around a grand. Once you have their insurance you cannot cancel either, it is for the year only.
The next choice is there are vehicle transporters that will bring the vehicle back for you for a fee!!
Don't want to be a party poop but fall foul of the law they will have you and at the worst confiscate the vehicle, drive it back with no insurance and get stopped or worse have an accident then you're right in it.
You don't have to declare the vehicle at Dover customs either, drive straight through and out. When you go to register the car your local DVLA will help you with the paper work, they will inform Dover VAT people and then you will get a bill which you have a month to pay up.
The VAT is calculated on the bill of sale.
Read car import guide or Car buyer, all the info is laid out quite clearly, at the back of the mag is companies who will transport, insure etc,.
If you go to their web site contact the editor (I did this when the local DVLA refused to register my car until after March 1st) he came back twice with good solutions.
Dave
Meaning, I asked my insurer, Direct Line if they could insure me from Hengelo, Holland, no was the answer. If I could supply them with a vin No. then it could be insured the moment it landed back in the UK. This is what I did. The dealer I bought it from supplied trade plates which included 7 days insurance at third party only.
To get it back you have a few choices, you can trailer it. You can insure it in Croatia, third party with trade plates, though since its outside the EU I am not sure about this.
On the EU cert of conformity, it won't have one since Croatia is not in the EU, so an SVA test it will have to have before it can be registered.
The third choice is there is one company who are authorised to insure vehicles that are driven back to the UK. The info is in Car buyer mag. I did inquire about this option until I found out the price. Bearing in mind the fully comp price for my C220 is £270, they were asking around a grand. Once you have their insurance you cannot cancel either, it is for the year only.
The next choice is there are vehicle transporters that will bring the vehicle back for you for a fee!!
Don't want to be a party poop but fall foul of the law they will have you and at the worst confiscate the vehicle, drive it back with no insurance and get stopped or worse have an accident then you're right in it.
You don't have to declare the vehicle at Dover customs either, drive straight through and out. When you go to register the car your local DVLA will help you with the paper work, they will inform Dover VAT people and then you will get a bill which you have a month to pay up.
The VAT is calculated on the bill of sale.
Read car import guide or Car buyer, all the info is laid out quite clearly, at the back of the mag is companies who will transport, insure etc,.
If you go to their web site contact the editor (I did this when the local DVLA refused to register my car until after March 1st) he came back twice with good solutions.
Dave
Dieselman said:My understanding is that you would have to register the vehicle as a personal import as it is older than 14 days old, but as you should be able to produce the EU certificate of conformity this would mean the car won't be registered as a kit car and won't need to be SVA'd.
If you havn't got the cert. you can obtain another from the manufacturer.
You declare the vehicle at Dover customs and a VAT bill will need to be paid within 14 days, based on the original invoice price, not list price. As the vehicle is now not new maybe you could swing this to be paid against whatever price you buy the vehicle for. Not sure how this would work given that it's unregistered, having said that it could have been for off road use only so no registration needed.
You can definately insure the car by insuring it on the VIN number not a registration number. Most insurance companies will do this but only for a short period.
You could probably obtain some transit plates from Croatia so could simply drive it home then.
