New laws and taxes on bringing uk car on uk plates.

Hi Sue,

Haven't read all the posts on this but I think your vehicle is commercial which means, when Spanish-registered, ITV every 6 months, not a problem if your local ITV station is on the way to the supermarket. Changing plates might be a little more difficult/expensive (e.g. the headlights but LHD Nivara lights are going cheap on German eBay) but, in my view, worth it and, in my experience, when local authorties know you're "doing something about it', they'll leave you alone. Incidentally, where do you live in France?

John+

If you are only in Spain for 6 weeks a year, the car should not be on Spanish plates.  If you live the rest of the year in France, it should be on French plates. If you live in the UK it should be on British plates. The annual vehicle safety test must be done in the country in which it is registered.

As an UK registered vehicle with an UK MOT and up to date tax disc you are entitled to drive the Navarra in Spain.

The EU rules are simple but they have not woken up to the idea that people might live in two countries. In fact until you have a residence in Spain, you are not permitted to register on Spanish plates, so you wil have to wait until your plot becomes your main home.

Keep all vehcile papers with you and receipts of motorway tolls paid in France, ferry tickets etc at all times in the vehicle, in case you have top prove that you do not live all year in Spain. .

If you want to leave the vehicle in Spain whilst you fly back home, it would be best to keep it off the public road.

Thanks to everyone for their comments.

Just to clarify:

The car is permanently in Spain and off road when we're not there.

We know we wouldn't be able to start the process of putting it on to full Spanish plates until we are resident but wanted to make sure we complied with the relevant law in the meantime. We were hoping we could put it onto Tourist Plates to avoid having to take it back to the UK for its MOT every year.

The main issue is whether it's possible to get a light commercial vehicle onto Spanish plates.

I suspect we will have to drive it back to the UK and sell it.

If anyone has managed to get a Nissan Navara or similar 4x4 onto Spanish plates please let me know.

Sue

Yes, Sue, I'm non-resident in Spain and have registered (Spanish plates) both a RHD Nissan Terrano, which fortunately isn't commercial, and a very large Lamborghini tractor -- with a wheel kind of in the middle -- to work the olive grove. OK, initially there were "raised eyebrows" particularly when fuelling with red diesel but local officials apparently decided it was the only legal way around the problem, so I didn't ask my lawyer to intervene. And I hear (don't know) there are 300,000 non-residents with holiday homes (presumably many with Spanish registered holiday cars) in Malaga province alone. I think it's a question of not "trying to get away with it", so I advise changing your plates, go through ITV, get Spanish insurance and (at least in my case so far) the Guardia Civil's perfectly happy. They aren't surprised my licence is foreign (I obviously am) and indeed the only question was from my insurers who thought (wrongly) the Lambo needed HGV. Yup, these stories of is/is not UK MoT/road tax/whatever legal & for how long are interesting but, in reality, you try arguing with the Guardia Civil who just stopped you and he'll confiscate your vehicle+

Thanks John for your update. 

Have just received a reply from the local gestor:

" I do not have good news for you on the Nissan as it is a right hand drive it would not be possible to proceed with the registration onto Spanish plate."

I would still like to know what the law says as the cab has windows all round and very good visibilty.

Might PM you, if you wouldn't mind, as we have an olive grove too and any useful tips would be most welcome!

Regards

Sue

European law permits both LHD and RHD vehicles to carry any European registration.. There are plenty of LHD cars registered in the UK and quite a few RHD cars registered in Germany - the British Embassy does that amongst others.

So long as you are British domiciled, all your vehicles must be registered in Britain. This is simply so that the police can trace you. You can keep the Nissan for six months in Spain on UK plates but then it must either come off the public road or move into Portugal or Gibraltar. You may be able to get a British MOT in Gibraltar, where the authorities are likely to be much more helpful - especially if you tell them that you are having trouble in Spain.

This message was last edited by jamesensor on 25/06/2012.

CARS4SPAIN.COM  carries the following informatio n, which is correct.

Temporary importation
If you are a non-resident of Spain but from an EU member state then you can import your vehicle into Spain and use it with its own licence plates without paying any Spanish taxes for up to six months in one calendar year. The vehicle must be road worthy and legal in the country of registration. Your car may remain in Spain indefinitely, provided its UK tax and MOT are maintained, but you may not stay in Spain for any longer than 182 days in any one calendar year and neither you nor anyone else can use the vehicle in Spain during the remaining part of the year. Your car must also be insured in its country of registration under EU Law.

However, you automatically become a resident, from a tax perspective, after being in Spain for 182 days in a year. At this point you are by law required to pay import tax (unless you register as non-resident) and re-register your vehicle with Spanish plates, and can be fined for non-compliance. If you are taking your vehicle out of the UK on a temporary basis, you must take the registration document or certificate with you to present to the Spanish authorities if required.

Permanent importation
The procedures relating to permanent importation are complex, and it is undoubtedly easier to sell your car in the UK and buy a new one in Spain. If you do wish to import a car, the use of professional help (Gestor) is almost a necessity unless you are patient and a good Spanish speaker.

If you are taking your vehicle out of the UK on a permanent basis you must notify the DVLA and send them the vehicle's registration documents, which will be exchanged for a certificate of permanent export (V561).

Virtually any vehicle, including cars, motorcycles, campervans etc, whether right or left- hand drive, can be imported, with the general exception of right hand drive commercial vehicles such as panel vans, due to lack of vision from the driver’s position.

If you are a Spanish resident already and wish to import a car from the UK, your foreign-plated car can only be driven from the Spanish border or point of entry to the place of residence in Spain and registration with the Department of Transport and application for Spanish plates should take place during the first 30 days of arrival in the country. The local provincial traffic department will issue a temporary green registration plate, which is valid for ten days, allowing you to complete an ITV test and receive a permanent registration number.

An application for an import licence must be made to the Ministry of Economics and Finance: Ministerio de Economía Hacienda. For this, a certificate is required from the Dirección de la Seguridad del Estado showing the date of issue of your resident's permit. The registration procedure involves acquiring a standardisation certificate for a right-hand drive car, which states that the vehicle complies with Spanish safety standards. This can be acquired from any Spanish ITV centre, which will perform an ITV test (equivalent to a MOT). Payment of IVA (VAT) at 16% will be required if not already paid, also import duty of 10% for vehicles imported from outside theEU. Payment of a Special Registration Tax ( impuesto sobre circulación de vehículos ) of 12% calculated on the vehicle's value may also be required, but may be avoided if a certificate of non-residence in the UK is produced, which can be provided by a UK embassy - applications for this exemption must be made within one month of the start date of your residence permit.

Road Tax (impuesto municipal sobre vehiculos de traccion mecanica) must be paid annually, between March and May, to your local town hall.

Permanent residents of Spain are not permitted to operate a car on foreign number plates, so if your status changes from non-resident to resident, and you have previously been driving a foreign plated car, it will be necessary to go through the process to obtain full national plates and pay the required taxes.

 Thanks James.

Our Nissan is not a panel van, but is still classed as a light goods vehicle on the UK registration document. It has extremely good visibilty with windows to the rear of the cab.

I have been told, by several people and several websites, that Gibraltar is not an option - unless we become residents there.

Sue

You cannot register your car in Gibraltar or in Spain for that matter so long as you live in Britain. But I think that you might get a British MOT in Gibraltar and be able to keep the 4x4  on British plates in Spain, parking it in Gibraltar if you have any difficulty. Near Faro airport in Portugal there is a boatyard which permits UK cars to park off road.  So you should be able to get around the bureaucracy.  Spain is wrong to ban your Navarra, but I would not waste time arguing.

Plenty of people move boats from one EU country to another to avoid paying special taxes on boats. You could do the same with a car or commercial vehicle and there are good flights from the UK into 3 EU countries close to Andalucia.

To be classed as a commercial vehicle in the UK the Navarra must have had some sort of cover on the back windows, which has perhaps since been removed. If it is old it may have originally been bought when there was a special car tax in Britain. We have a Suzuki Gran Vitara, which was registered as a commercial vehicle, but we have since changed the soft top  which was solid material to one with windows, so it has become a car.You can probably re-register the Navarra  quite easily in the UK as a car.

This message was last edited by jamesensor on 25/06/2012.

This message was last edited by jamesensor on 25/06/2012.

The saga of our Nissan Pickup 2003 with UK Type Approval - in case anyone is in a similar position:

Spoke to Nissan Denmark - where the pickup was originally imported, but not registered, being forwarded immediately to the UK.

It arrived as one of 3 and was given a Type Approval Number exclusively for registration in the UK - apparently not equivalent to  the European standards.

I have spoken to the DVLA who passed me back to Nissan, but told me categorically that they would not re-classify the pickup as anything other than a light commercial vehicle. (It never had a solid back, James and we live in France not the UK).

Nissan GB told me that if I paid them £111 they would send me a certificate of conformity confirming that it only had UK Type Approval - what a waste of money!

Nissan Spain said they we would have to take it to a local Nissan dealership for re-examining to see if it could have a Spanish Type Approval..

The really helpful guy from spanish-number-plates (Graham Shelton) checked this out for me and found out this was not possible because it would have to be a LHD in order to be granted national approval. However, as we have some land in Spain it would be possible to re-register a vehicle that had European Type Approval without living there if we were registered on the Padron.

Rang the vehicle registration centre in Gibraltar and they said that if the vehicle had been registered in the UK then they would re-register it in Gibraltar, so raised our hopes that we could sell it there rather than drive it back to the UK. Was suspicious of this because their website says it needs European Type Approval so, I asked for written confirmation of this and had a positive reply from the Senior Examiner - i.e. they would accept UK Type Approval. Found a local Gibraltarian dealer who sells Nissans and he said he wouldn't be interested in a RHD. Also can confirm that it is not possible to get an MOT in Gibraltar without having Gibraltarian plates,

SO…………..

 we've decided to fly down in August and drive it back to the UK before the MOT runs out and sell it.

If only we could find  a buyer for  our French house we could move to Spain and buy a Spanish vehicle!

Ho hum!

Stuart- why on earth did you leave a lap top and cash in your car, and then leave it unlocked?

Hello, does anyone know how I can get type approval for a RHD UK registered BMW in Spain. I want to register it in Spain on Spanish plates. Apparently it's suppose to have some type approval sticker on the chassis in the engine compartment but couldn't find it.

cheers in advance

kev

Kev-costa blanca news (also on line)  See articles   called "mediterranean motoring" by Graham Shelton. Send him an e mail, he deals with this kind of thing all the time. He advertises in the paper as well.

If any of you are still reading this post - we were successful in getting our RHD Nissan Navarra onto Spanish plates in 2014 and our local ITV centre - near Granada - is happy with all the paperwork. So it can be done!

We have almost finished building our house and this summer we hope to move in, so will no longer need our trusty workhorse. It still has low mileage - 80,000 miles, so will be looking to sell it before September - complete with hardtop.