Bringing car back to UK

searcher30

our UK MOT has run out and we need to bring our car back to the UK to sell it. DVLA say something along the lines that it must be on trailer if it does not have a tax disc from what i gather but this seems pricey and unnecessary(?). the car is in france and we still have insurance (it is off road at the moment) though it says that they only insure for 2 months when abroad. any ideas appreciated. thanks in advance!

zappahey

Why don't you just book an MOT in somewhere like Dover. You are allowed to drive directly to a pre-booked test at an MOT station with no tax or MOT. You may have a problem if it fails, though.

Wig

IMO the system sucks and is rediculously inflexible. If I were you I'd just drive it to where you want it driven, book a Ferry which arrives at night, and you won't have any problems what so ever.

Curious though, if it has no Tax disc how are you getting away with that? Because you cannot SORN a vehicle kept overseas (which is in itself a rediculous stupid rule). Sounds like you are already in conflict with the law. If it is still in it's first month of "no tax" you can Still SORN it (but not if it is not in UK)

searcher30

Wig wrote:

IMO the system sucks and is rediculously inflexible. If I were you I'd just drive it to where you want it driven, book a Ferry which arrives at night, and you won't have any problems what so ever.

Curious though, if it has no Tax disc how are you getting away with that? Because you cannot SORN a vehicle kept overseas (which is in itself a rediculous stupid rule). Sounds like you are already in conflict with the law. If it is still in it's first month of "no tax" you can Still SORN it (but not if it is not in UK)

we were going to sell in france but as so much admin around it we thought it easier to bring back to uk and then sell it this way. in france road tax no longer exists!

hope that helps!

Lob_Rockster

be careful - you might find your insurance is INVALID should you have no current tax disc. You know they like to get out of these things

Wig

searcher30 wrote:

we were going to sell in france but as so much admin around it we thought it easier to bring back to uk and then sell it this way. in france road tax no longer exists!

hope that helps!

I'm only thinking of you here, don't want you getting a fine.

Basically your car has to have a registered UK address, it then subsequently has to have either a valid tax disc OR a SORN declaration. If it without either of these for more than 30 days you **will** get a fine of 80 pounds.

I hope for your sake the car is still within the first month or declared SORN even though you lied and said it was SORNd in the UK (which you have to do).

Good luck anyway, bringing it home is the best thing you can do, just arrive here after dark, the customs men won't notice, if they are there at all. And if they do you can always argue you are going to park it on the Port premises (not take it onto highway) whilst you arrange for someone to meet you with a trailer.