My wife and I have recently bought a house in France that we intend to retire too once we get residency.
I want to take an old motorcycle of mine to restore while i’m there this summer but from what I here its not that easy to transport a vehicle as opposed to riding it over. I would ideally like to leave it there so that when we get residency I can register it in France.
can anyone give me any advice on this please.
I’ve been looking into this too since I plan to bring my motorcycle with me when I retire in France (hopefully sometime soon, but it depends on how long my 99 year old mother keeps going!)
The easiest way I think is to bring it as part of your personal belongings when you migrate, so that you don’t have to pay import duty (10%) or VAT (19%).
I rather suspect that if you bring it over in advance of your permanent move the Douanes will want to levy these charges. We have one or two members who have brought vehicles over who will hopefully be able to confirm or deny. @captainendeavour ?
(If the bike is over 30 years old then there is no import duty and VAT is reduced to 5.5%, but it’s still a expense).
I guess it depends on the value - if it has sentimental rather than significant monetary value then the VAT charge may be worth paying in order to get it where you want it, when you want it!
Have a snoop around the forum as there are a couple of threads on importing vehicles.
Easy. No problem at all. Hire/buy a van. Or get a tow-bar fitted to your car and hire/buy a small horse box/trailer
A Danish pal, a housemate of mine in Bristol, went rather bonkers when he saw the low prices of very good, used BMW bikes in UK. He bought 22! And a M/guzzi and a Ducati.
Buying is easy. Selling is not. 
To transport this lot, in batches from UK to DK, he bought a Renault Master L3/H3 and an Ivor Williams 2-horse trailer. Five big Beemers per trip …
I have a Vauxhall Vivaro [aka Reno Trafic] L2/H1. One bike would easliy fit in there, two if cunningly arranged. Or one plus lots of other stuff.
Small vans like the Vivaro/Trafic, Transit et al are cheap in UK. You could by one, transport the bike, park it up at your FR property* and use the van for small removal trips, then return it to UK and stick it on EBay, it having very largely paid its way. I did this with a Movano/Master 3.5 tonne - UK > ES and ES > FR.
- As @ChrisMann mentions, if it’s old enough it will be free of charges. Whatever, you should contact Douanes shortly after its arrival in FR.
I’ve imported two vans. The first, I went straight off the ferry to the Douanes office at St. Malo with the V5 and the Bill of Sale. I was out in 45 mins having paid 1120€ for a £3k van.
The other I did on line to the head office of the Douanes for the Dept. V5/Bill of sale and the on-line form, about a month after arrival. Douanes didn’t jib at the ‘delay’. Processed in 3 days, paid 2760€ on a £7k van. Easy and slick.
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No, I won’t be bringing my Mum to France.
I already have a Vauxhall Vivaro van. My query is how much hassle is it at customs?
It’s from 1963 so definitely important charge free I think
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Just 5.5% VAT on its current value then. Not too bad, unless it’s an MV Agusta once ridden by Mike Hailwood.
If you intend to import the van and reg it to FR plates, in my experience - very little/none.
The rules may be different for importing a vehicle at the time of your permanent move to FR, as is the case with your houshold belongings - others on SF know about that.
If there’s no difference for a vehicle, it’s surprisingly straightforward and hassle-free. You simply need to provide the V5 and Bill of Sale or other proof of what you paid for it. Otherwise they will put a finger to the breeze and guess …
As I mentioned before, the first van I imported I went straight to the Douanes office at St. Malo. From the moment I handing in the docs to paying for and receiving the cert of importation - about half an hour of merely sitting in the waiting room. They did it all.
The second import I did on line. I filled in the PDF form, attached my docs, emailed it to the address I’d been given. About a week later the import cert arrived by snail mail. This cert is one-off. No official copies or dupes available.
It may be just the same for the m/c. I don’t see why not. The exemption from charges would be calculated/established from the info about the m/c on the import form, the date of first reg being the key.
In both cases Douanes did not inspect the vehicle. It was all paperwork. With a vintage machine they may want to see it … perhaps including some photos would help, esp of I.D.s stamped on the structure.
Two things to note.
1] Douanes did not make an issue of the 4-5 weeks between arriving in FR and applying for the import cert.
‘Officially’, there’s a month to get the registration to FR plates going but in my case with van #2 the application went in on the penultimate day of the 90 days allowed by the insurance co because I had trouble getting it thru’ the C.T. due to emissions. Many a bottle of useless ‘snake oil’ and touring Normandy in one or even two gears lower than normal.
2] The reason I held off for 4-5 weeks on the 2nd van was that, having imported the 1st the very day it arrived in FR, when I returned it to the UK dealer as a dud some weeks later, still on GB plates, I couldn’t get the duty refunded because I had not applied via a re-export form.
So make sure the vehicle - whichever - is going to stay in FR before ‘importing’ it.
When you have got your import cert you then apply to re-reg it. This, unlike the import procedure, can be a head-banger. When the service to register vehicles was removed from local Prefectures and a central, all-digital service created, the result was so bad that the dept and its service was declared ‘unfit for purpose’ in The National Assembly.
It has improved, tho’ the process still can take 3-4 months - except in my case/van #2 when Mark received the Carte Grise on the morning after submitting my dossier after hrs the night before!
I put this in the hands of Mark Rimmer, who has in a service registering GB vehicles to FR plates. I have used Mark’s service twice now. Others on SF have also done so. The results have always been max satisfaction with his service. I recommend you contact him and discuss your needs.
dukwman@gmail.com +33 05 45 78 47 62.
It takes longer to explain than to do! Bon courage.
Sorry for the very late reply, my head has been in a whirl for months now. Very interesting and informative. Thank you.