Hey guys...I really need your help on this (Imported EU car nightmare)!!

Hi everyone..just need to run this by you..

Ok some of you might have read my past posting about how i brought my fathers car from Austria to London..well here's whats going on..we were on my fathers insurance policy in Austria for about 3 months..we decided to stop paying the insurance through my dad because believe it or not..it is way more expensive than London..100 GBP per month, and my dad has a 30 year spotless record.

Anyway, we have just discoverd that the only way they will allaw us to discontinue the insurance policy is if WE SURRENDER THE LICENSE PLATES!!!

So excuses like " my daughter is overseas with the car " or the car broke down in England right now " wont work because they will say " but you can still give us back the license plates " .
what sort of a f*&%$d rule is this guys ??
I am sooo pissed right now...mainly because i dont want my dad to be going through all this drama.
Which brings me to the main root of the problem..we only have street parking so if we returned the plates we will no longer be able to use our residential parking..or park anywhere on the street legally....yes parking it in someone's indoor garage but i am sure that will cost an arm and a leg.

I really need your support on this guys

I really need your support on this guys

It's difficult to support you if we've never done this before...
Is there any reason you cant get the car registered in the UK and get UK registration plates for it?

Yeah i know...it is an unsusual problem that few peeps have had to go through..basically the " change-over " might take time..i can go to a UK site and just fill out insurance forms online but the problem is if we have to surrender the plates..the " inbetween " time is what will be a problem..we did eventually plan on re-registering the car to UK plates but did not anticipate the Austrian rule of having to return the plates if you are not " Austrian insured " ...what an absured law....its one thing to say you cannot drive the car  if you are not insured.(i.e. non operational..like they do in the States )but to surrender the plates the minute you stop insurane???..thats really is ridiculous!!

The law is the same in the CZ. It prevents people from driving w/out insurance. Why should they take someones word that the car is not on the road? Back in the states I believe, their are some states that the minute your insurance lapses the State police are made aware.

Will a UK company insure you with foreign plates? If not you will have to change them over anyways. My suggestion would be to change the plates and insurance just before your Austrian insurance runs out and fax the paperwork to your dads insurance people to prove the car is no longer on the road w/out insurance. Then cut the plates in two and post them to the insurance company.

As for the parking permit,its easier to get a permit with UK plates than foreign ones. Greenwich council wont give a permit to me because I have CZ plates.

I'm not at all familiar with the Austrian system, but I assume that the license plates are issued officially through the local DMV rather than being just bought privately as happens here in Britain.  

If that's the case, surely any "turning in" of plates should be to the appropriate licensing authority rather than to the insurance company?   It sounds weird.    

If you need a refund of the unsued portion of the insurance you may be stuck, but if you have been paying in monthly installments, maybe you could just tell them you're canceling and just stop making any further payments.

Have you tried asking the Austrian licensing authority what you're supposed to do?  

You peeps are great..thanks to all, for responding as quickly as you did..

Basically we are under my dads insurance..he added the car on to his insurance so we pay him every months..well we've paid for a total of 3 months which is set to expire in a couple of days.

We had no idea that if we stopped Austrian insurance that they would immediatley require us to surrender the license plates...the whole thing is YES we will transfer over to UK plates but we would have done it when our London residence parking permit expired...in other words, we just want to  park the darn thing right now..and work on the next step...but without the plates, we wont be able to park on the street we live on..or any other street for that matter.
So our immediate problem is PARKING the car...so we can take a breather and work on getting the other things done.
Does anyone in london have an off-street parking spot they might consider renting ?

Paul_1966
From my understanding..the austrian "DMV " and the insurance compaines and all tied together..well thats my understanding....my father does not have a very good understanding of the austrian insurance rules but it is an EU member so it should be the same as in other EU member countries i reckon.

I guess the big question is, when one stops insurance...how long will it take the DMV to request we surrender the license plates...God i am so stressed out about this!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have tried googling for austrian insurance info but nothing worth while so far.

Zu

but it is an EU member so it should be the same as in other EU member countries i reckon.

That's what the bureaucrats keep trying to tell us, but practice varies wildy from theory, and there are still many differences in the systems despite the various "harmonization" directives the EU keeps issuing.

Under the U.K. system you are required by law to have insurance, but that's as far as it goes.  Your contract with the insurance company is a purely private affair and if you tell them to stop cover from a certain date that's what they do.  They're not the slightest bit concerned over whether you are declaring the car off road or anything (although the cancelation goes onto an insurance database which can be checked by the police for valid insurance).

I'd be inclined to explain the situation to the insurance company again, emphasizing that you now have insurance in the U.K.   There definitely is a provision in all that EU legislation which states you are perfectly within your rights to get insurance from another EU country.   

I guess the big question is, when one stops insurance...how long will it take the DMV to request we surrender the license plates...

No idea.   But if the Austrian DMV was notified of the cancelation by your father's insurance company and demanded the plates, personally I'd adopt the same approach -- Tell them you now have insurance in the U.K.  (send them a photocopy of the insurance certificate as proof maybe).     

Isn't it great to know that all these extra EU rules were supposed to make it easier to move between countries?          

D*** government!   

If you were paying £100/month for Austrian insurance and you have stopped that insurance then you have £100 in your pocket that you would have paid in.  Putting the car in a garage for a few days or a week should be quite a bit less than that, perhaps you could use some of this money to garage it while you get your UK insurance and new number plates from the DVLA?

You've probably already checked out information from the DVLA but this page says that your imported car can be registered with them within 48-72 hours:  http://www.dvla.gov.uk/vehicles/exptimpt.htm.

The DVLA FAQ might be of some assistance, http://www.dvla.gov.uk/faq/faq_register_numberplate.htm, if nothing else, you'll probably want to speak with them to see how fast you can get your new plates.

Matt

Matt-
Thanks heaps!!
No i havn't actually checked out the site yet...but will do so right away..
Cheers
Zu

Matt-
Thanks heaps!!
No i havn't actually checked out the site yet...but will do so right away..
Cheers
Zu

Not being funny, but why wasn't the DVLA your first port of call?  It's always best to go straight to the source and then ask around for other people's experiences. 

Don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but DVLA will probably be of no help with the problem at the Austrian end.     If it's outside the British system they'll just tell you to contact the auhtorities concerned because they don't deal with it.

It's when you get conflicting rules from two different bureaucracies, neither of which recognizes the other that all these problems arise.  Sometimes you just have to be a little inventive and if not break the rules, just kind of stretch them a little, if you get my drift.......   

Thanks Paul1966! i couldnt have said it better )
Hi Mindy..i think Paul1966 said it for me..this involves a Foreign car so it from the Austrian end that you need to do most of the leg work.

We have decided to pay the AUSTRIAN insurance on our car for the next couple months until my hubby gets back from the States..and then we will see just how complicated it is to get our 1989 honda civic, transfered over to UK plates...i am hoping that because the car is a bit old, it wont cost too much transfer over.

Zufan

We-ell, I guess if it was me, I'd have worked this all out before I went through all the hassle.  If it's a 1989 civic you're dealing with wouldn't it be easier to just get rid of it and start over with a cheap car bought in the UK?

although its an '89 , its only got 52,000 original kilometers...the car drives like new.

then we will see just how complicated it is to get our 1989 honda civic, transfered over to UK plates...i am hoping that because the car is a bit old, it wont cost too much transfer over.

As you've already owned and used the car outside the U.K. for over 6 months, there should be no import duty to pay.  (Yes, I know there's not supposed to be any import taxes between EU countries anymore, but vehicles are still an exception -- I guess the government saw a chance to play Dick Turpin for a little longer!)     

At least with the vehicle being over 10 years old you won't get mixed up in the horrendous SVA (Single Vehicle Approval) inspection system which now exists.

You might run into one or two minor snags on the MoT inspection though.  For example:

1.  Does the speedometer show MPH as well as km/h?     Even though the speedometer is not part of the regular MoT test here, MPH markings are required, and if it only has km/h it might be noticed along the re-registration process if somebody checks it.

2.  Does it have a single or dual rear fog lights?   If single, then the light will almost certainly be on the left-hand side whereas U.K.-registered cars are required to have it on the right-hand side.   This is part of the normal annual inspection.   (Never let it be said that the MoT is logical.)

Anyway, the general DVLA guide for importing/registering can be seen here:

http://www.dvla.gov.uk/vehicles/exptimpt.htm