English vehicles

Thanks for that information - I will contact Amanda.  Much appreciated! Cole

I have been speaking to a number of people in Fuengirola who have been through police check points and been warned to get their cars re registered as they are going to clamp down on cars from the UK that have been here more than 3 months. Apparently a system set up to counter terrorism collects all the ferry and channel tunnel manefests so they know when every vehicle crosses the channel. They don't have access to the DVLA database but they can use the counter terrorism system to check if you have been in Spain more than 3 months.

If your car is registered in any other Europena country they have no way of checking so leave you alone - good old Brussels Bureaucrats!

But they are not calling gruas or fining just saying you should get it re-registered if you're living here.

This goes on every year in/around Fuengirola/Benalmadena between Nov to Feb when most UK cars remaining clearly belong to "residents". After that the holiday makers return and there's too many UK reg cars and they get busy doing something else.

But I still think it's a good idea to re-register and it's not an overly diificult task - tedious yes....

Hi Guys as the originator of this topic which seems to have gone off a various tangents, does anyone no definitavly the answer to my original post please?

When I brought my UK car to Spain in October, I stayed on UK insurance for the 45days that my policy allowed and then tried to buy insurance from Linea Directa. They told me that they were no longer taking any new business on UK registered cars.   I bought my insurance from Abbeygate for €392 and cancelled it after 6 weeks when I sold the car, getting a €129 refund. OUCH!!

Now I have a nice legal Spanish car insured with Linea Directa, who I find really helpful and easy to deal with, and peace of mind knowing that I am not even bending any rules.

Jon

PS.  I was stopped for speeding in the English car and the genuinly charming Guardia Civil officer, who spoke excellent English told me that it was just a cynical revenue raising excercise and he didn't want to see any documents. He was almost apologetic at handing me my  €150 fine and told me to pay it quickly to avoid it being doubled.

jwtssm - over the summer they were putting extra effort into catching speeding foreign regisered vehicles as they got fed up of all the pictures of foreign plates and no cross-border co-operation in collecting fines. They were making use of their computer system and somehow relaying foreign plates to mobile vehicles. This was going on on the A-7. But like everything in Spain it's mostly money that matters. Half times they also don't want the hassle which is why at best they say if living get it re-registered and leave it at that.

Anyone falling foul probably do so for other reasons like no car insurance or  the car is clearly not raodworthy etc. It's the same everywhere they stop the car for a faulty breaklight and then spot 4 bald tyres - driver has no licence or identification and then compuer says also no insurance and then they might call the grua........

Charlie11 - it's a grey area. If it's a van then it can't be re-registered anyway. So get a new MOT before leaving UK and that will do you for 12 months. check your insurance and make sure you notify them and if they don't cover you beyond x days then take out a Spanish policy with the many ex-pat car insurance companies. After 12 months when MOT expires either return to Uk for MOT with a van load of cigs to cover cost or do like most and not bother and run the risk but try get in writing what your Spanish insurance company will accept in place of a certificate of road worthiness or flog the van to someone heading back to the UK.

In Spain you will never get a straight or definitive answer! The law says one thing and everyone does the opposite ....

Charlie asked:

After some info, I will be driving to Costa del Sol in my van for long term stay and was wondering if anyone could tell me what happens about road tax, mot etc? Is it ok to drive with UK road tax and valid mot and what happens when renewel comes up? Any info gratefully received.

I appreciate the thread has gone a bit awry, but the answers are all here. It's not such a grey area really, and Faro has pretty much summed it up. Yes, it's OK to drive with valid UK mot and tax, as long as you do not become a resident (go to the residency threads for all the arguments!) and depending on what "long term" means for you; when renewal comes up, you must return the vehicle to the UK (before the mot expires) Simples. Just ignore the bit about doing what everyone else does and "running the risk". Do you do it in the UK? Then don't do it here.