Bringing a car into the UK - Advice please

[Anonymous]

Hello,
I'm new to this newsgroup and a bit of a novice in this area, but
would be very grateful for any help.
My fiancee is moving to the UK from Poland and she wishes to bring her
car with her. The car is on a four year lease with a Polish bank.
We plan to drive the car here in April.
What's the situation with regard to car registration, insurance, etc?
Could the fact that its still on a lease be a problem?
Will Poland's entry to the EU on May 1st make any difference?

And less importantly, does anyone know the cheapest way to take a car
across the Channel? The best i've found so far is 120 Euro one-way.

Thanks for any help,

Jonathan

[Anonymous]

In "Bringing a car into the UK - Advice please", jonathankey@hotmail.com (jon)
wrote:

My fiancee is moving to the UK from Poland and she wishes to bring her
car with her. The car is on a four year lease with a Polish bank.
We plan to drive the car here in April.
What's the situation with regard to car registration, insurance, etc?

You can keep the original plates for a while (up to 6 months, I believe) but any
longer and you will have to re-register here. If the car is EU-conformant
already (which it probably is if it's new), you shouldn't have too much bother
doing that. The two main differences for British registration are that the
speedo shows mph as well as kph and that the headlamps dip to the right. I'm not
sure if you'll be obliged to do the first when importing a used car, but you'll
probably want to do the latter for safety's sake anyway rather than continue to
rely on the "stuck-on" dip converters you must use from day-1. You can always
keep the original headlamps for restoration if the car has to go back to Poland
later.

I don't know how the 6-month registration allowance may be affected by return
trips to Poland, but if your fiancee is making regular return trips at least
once every 6 months maybe you can avoid having to register here at all. (I would
still do the headlamp conversion, though...)

You'll be able to get by for a short while with "green card" cover from your
Polish insurer, I expect, but you'll probably need to take out British insurance
before too long. Universal EU-wide insurance cover just doesn't seem to be
available, which IMHO is a disgrace in this day and age. Your main insurance
headache may be protecting yourself from any obligation to return the car to
Poland at the end of its lease in the event that it is wrecked in an accident
here in the UK...

Could the fact that its still on a lease be a problem?

Not as far as anyone here's concerned, I shouldn't think. If the terms of the
lease require the vehicle to be handed back, you'll have to return it to Poland
(and thus re-register it there, if you've registered it here in the meantime; I
don't know if it would even be legal in Poland to keep the original plates and
maintain concurrent registration there, but that would presumably cost you too
much anyway.)

Will Poland's entry to the EU on May 1st make any difference?

I doubt it. Even within the EU, national boundaries still tend to be the major
determinant of everything, even the supposed "universal" euro...

And less importantly, does anyone know the cheapest way to take a car
across the Channel? The best i've found so far is 120 Euro one-way.

Eurotunnel may offer quite cheap day-trips to England from France; you don't
_have_ to use the return part, of course! (For current prices, check their
website.)

[Anonymous]

R. J. Sutherland (rj.sutherland.removethis@ntlworld.com) gurgled
happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Eurotunnel may offer quite cheap day-trips to England from France; you
don't _have_ to use the return part, of course

You don't, but they will charge you for the extra cost to a single...

Hoverspeed offer singles for about £60 or so - that seems about the
cheapest.

[Anonymous]

Will Poland's entry to the EU on May 1st make any difference?

I would have thought so - at the moment the car (if it in the UK) will be a
car on which 'tax has not been paid in an EU country'. May 01 onwards
changes that, and would make it 17.5% cheaper to register here. I think.

[Anonymous]

R. J. Sutherland <rj.sutherland.removethis@ntlworld.com> wrote in message news:<7pr850h7bieskor2m4nkglaf4qt1eoqk2l@4ax.com>. ..
In "Bringing a car into the UK - Advice please", jonathankey@hotmail.com (jon)
wrote:

My fiancee is moving to the UK from Poland and she wishes to bring her
car with her. The car is on a four year lease with a Polish bank.
We plan to drive the car here in April.
What's the situation with regard to car registration, insurance, etc?

You can keep the original plates for a while (up to 6 months, I believe) but any
longer and you will have to re-register here. If the car is EU-conformant
already (which it probably is if it's new), you shouldn't have too much bother
doing that. The two main differences for British registration are that the
speedo shows mph as well as kph and that the headlamps dip to the right. I'm not
sure if you'll be obliged to do the first when importing a used car, but you'll
probably want to do the latter for safety's sake anyway rather than continue to
rely on the "stuck-on" dip converters you must use from day-1. You can always
keep the original headlamps for restoration if the car has to go back to Poland
later.


Many thanks for all your advice.
According to the DVLA the regulation is that a car can only stay in
the UK for a maximum of 6 months in a twelve month period. Does
anyone know if there is any way the authorities can check this, and if
they found you to have had the car here for longer than 6 months on
foreign plates, what would the penalty be?

Thanks,

Jonathan

[Anonymous]

jonathankey@hotmail.com (jon) wrote:

Does
anyone know if there is any way the authorities can check this, and if
they found you to have had the car here for longer than 6 months on
foreign plates, what would the penalty be?

They can't automatically check it, same way as you can get away with
driving for years with no road tax if you never park outside of a
garage. Having foreign plates (and a foreign passport in case you
actually get stopped) is also a good way to avoid speeding tickets.

I can't see how anybody can keep track of how long a foreign-plate
vehicle has been in the UK, unless there is an incident and somebody
checks.

[Anonymous]

In "Re: Bringing a car into the UK - Advice please", Peter
<nobody@somewhere-in-the-uk.com> wrote:

jonathankey@hotmail.com (jon) wrote:

Does
anyone know if there is any way the authorities can check this, and if
they found you to have had the car here for longer than 6 months on
foreign plates, what would the penalty be?

They can't automatically check it, same way as you can get away with
driving for years with no road tax if you never park outside of a
garage. Having foreign plates (and a foreign passport in case you
actually get stopped) is also a good way to avoid speeding tickets.

I can't see how anybody can keep track of how long a foreign-plate
vehicle has been in the UK, unless there is an incident and somebody
checks.

Probably true, like saving money by driving without insurance. But if you are
unfortunate enough to have an accident, you'll (deservedly) get a double whammy.
I don't know what the penalty actually is, but basically it's >>tax evasion<<.
Use our roads, pay for them like everyone else...!

(OTOH, personally I would scrap road tax entirely and make up for it in fuel
duty, so people pay in proportion to use rather than to vehicle ownership, but
just look how popular fuel duty increases were not so long ago...!)

[Anonymous]

R. J. Sutherland <rj.sutherland.removethis@ntlworld.com> wrote:

They can't automatically check it, same way as you can get away with
driving for years with no road tax if you never park outside of a
garage. Having foreign plates (and a foreign passport in case you
actually get stopped) is also a good way to avoid speeding tickets.

I can't see how anybody can keep track of how long a foreign-plate
vehicle has been in the UK, unless there is an incident and somebody
checks.

Probably true, like saving money by driving without insurance. But if you are
unfortunate enough to have an accident, you'll (deservedly) get a double whammy.
I don't know what the penalty actually is, but basically it's >>tax evasion<<.
Use our roads, pay for them like everyone else...!

You could be driving in the UK on foreign plates and in principle
still be insured by the foreign insurer.

It's a funny question... if you drive a UK-reg and UK-insured car in
the UK, but with French plates (i.e. in effect false plates) would the
insurance be valid?