I have heard that an MOT performed in England is valid in France if it te MOT is less than 6 months old for the purposes of obtaining a carte grise.
Is this true, and if it is where is the relevant legislation. And from experience is merely having the law on your side enough?
I ask as someone who had to produce a marriage certificate to obtain the quitus fiscal.
But that is the same whether you are importing a car or just changing owner. Everyone in France has to pay the regisration fee, which varies depending on age & engine size, only an importer would have to pay for a c of c.
I’d say you can Ian. Even if you can’t trying wouldn’t do any harm becase hooking up a charger to the points will only have a tiny effect compared to thr whack from jump starting.
Agreed. I wanted to know, via e-mail, if I could charge the battery, under the drivers seat, via the jump start points over a month ago. Still waiting on a reply. As good as the French response rate to e-mails.
Perhaps not when it costs 299.50€ to change the registration details!!
Would this work in reverse in the UK Just a thought
Doreen,
I just picked up on what you said earlier about nipping across to Italy.
That would be a whole different ball game. If you don't have an address in Italy, I suspect you would have problems registering the car there, so the vehicle would not be street legal. There are rules about that. You would need to obtain French documentation to bring the car in - like all French paperwork, not as simple as you might wish. Maybe you could get around that by bringing it in on a trailer, but you wouldn't be allowed to drive it until you got the documentation sorted. You should also be aware that if a car is drivable, even if not in use, it must be insured - imagine trying to explain your requirements to the insurance company! I guess that some might be tempted to drive it in illegally, but heaven help them if they have an accident or get nicked for any other reason.
There are companies who will deal with all the legalities for you - at a price. Could be worth doing for a top-of-the-range model.
The six months for non-residents and one month for French residents would only apply to vehicles legally registered to the current owner in the country of origin. But I am not a legal expert. Perhaps someone else could confirm that?
Doreen,
I think your first line should read "any" vehicle - it doesn't have to be new........
Doreen,
I dont think there is any contradiction here.
If you are already a resident in France and you import a foreign car, you have one month to register it.
If you are a UK resident, you will be able to use your UK registered car for up to 6 months, so long as it street legal in the UK, has beam adjustment or deflectors, and has insurance cover for use in France.
Doreen, that one opens another can of worms about residency... but an imported vehicle has to be registered here.. by a french resident within one month.. unless there are difficulties?
Lights should be checked for alignment not just that they are working but then again the MOT was a joke and will always be a joke until it is done as in France by an independent body that hasn't got a vested interest in ant repaires
just glad you got it sorted easily, Mark ;-)
I occurs to me that the English MOT only checks that the lights work and not whether they are correctly aligned. If so, that explains why your car passed.
But do take a printout of the reference to the law into the prefecture. Mine didn't know about it until I showed them, then they accepted it immediately.
As I said previously my headlights were correct for France, which begs the question how did it pass the English MOT? Meh, what do I care? Now got French numberplates fixed on too!
Good point, never thought of that.
ha - I can understand it for european harmonisation but not for the headlights!
That's worth knowing, thanks.
Hi Brian, yes the law says that they must accept CT equivalents from every other EU country provided it is less than six months old.
Hi Andrew, no, I have been given a date for the next CT, which is when my current English MOT runs out.
More extraordinary still, the carte grise has arrived, less than two days after I applied for it!