Registering a UK car post Brexit

Quick query for a friend …I have an idea that post 31 dec, additional charges are involved. I know I have seen a thread somewhere but I can’t find it. Anyone have any info please? Thanks!

excuse the long answer…

  1. Start the Re-registration process within one month of arriving. When
    you move to France as resident you are subject to the requirement to
    re-register your UK car in France. You may know longstanding
    residents who have not done so. Equally, if you are non-resident in
    France you may not register a car in France. In both cases, you should
    not be dissuaded from following the rules yourself
  2. If you are a new arrival in France you will not be able to complete the
    re-registration process yourself, as it requires an ANTS account. (link available on sisters of merci fb but not allowed here) Obtaining the required
    information to open a new ANTS account is not possible for new
    residents within the one month deadline, so you will at some point
    require the services of a “re-registration professional. A list of professionals is available on the
    FB Group Registering Vehicles in France (RVIF).
  3. The requirement is that your MOT must be not more than 6 months old
    when you re-register your car. If your MOT is older than this you might
    consider having a UK MOT done just before you leave the UK BUT once
    the car is re-registered in France you will immediately become subject
    to the requirement to have a French Contrôle Technique (though this is
    vigorously debated in RVIF). You may prefer to have a CT done as
    soon as you arrive in France. If you have it done in France there are two things to be
    aware of:
    a. If you have a single rear foglight you will probably need to have
    it moved / rewired to the other (passenger) side of the car.
    b. Beam deflectors ARE allowed. You do not need to replace the
    headlights unless you really want to. You are advised to find a
    local English speakers FB group and seek recommendations for
    CT stations that have passed cars under these rules. If your CT
    inspector fails your car for this reason, then this is the section of
    the CT handbook referencing that cars with beam deflectors are
    acceptable
    Before you leave the UK
    Make sure you have your V5C (log book) for your car. You will need it for
    the reregistration process and for your CT if you choose to have one done
    prior to reregistration.
    DVLA will issue replacements (£25). The link below invites you to apply online, but you may
    also call 0300 790 6802
    Request the Certificate of Conformity for your car. If it is a newer car the
    relevant information may already be on the V5 but feedback indicates it’s
    easier to just get one anyway. Request direct from the
    manufacturer.
    Obtain Car Insurance. It is extremely likely that however generous the
    terms for driving in Europe as a tourist, your insurer will cancel your
    cover immediately you are resident. Not all insurers allow this but its possible to engage an English speaking independent broker. You must make sure they are happy to insure your UK
    plated car and what conditions apply to the reregistration - for example
    have a “provisional” insurance which lasts for 80 days, after which time you
    will have to provide evidence that my re-registration application is in
    process for insurance to continue).
    Create car insurance quote – Fab French Insurance
    On arrival in France
    Make an appointment for your Contrôle Technique if you need one. Find a UK resident living locally who can
    recommend a testing station that understands the beam deflector rules –

Arrange the Quitus Fiscal. This is simply the document that assesses the
VAT status of the car you are importing. If your car is less than 6 months
old different rules apply – see RVIF for information. No money should be
payable at this stage unless the form calculates a TVA is due.
There is an online form to complete

It is considerably easier to complete the form online:
Section 1 : Surname, first name. UK mobile number without
the 0 and is accepted. Email and address, as per the evidence of
address you are submitting.
Section 2 : The “identification of the seller” Complete your own name
and address, on the grounds that it is you transferring the vehicle to
France, rather than it being a sale of a vehicle.
Section 3 : details of the car, taken from the V5c, including current
kilometre reading. Date of first registration as per V5c and date of
“livraison” is the date you have “delivered” the car to France. The age of
the vehicle is then automatically calculated in days.
NB There is a difference of opinion over the meaning of “date de la
livraison” and whether this means when the car was delivered to you (ie
when it was first sold to you) or when the car was delivered (ie imported)
to France. Given that the word livraison is also used in the box where we
are talking about current odometer reading then that “date de la
livraison” must also mean delivery to France. if you have purchased a new car and livraison means “when
you got the car” you would input the date of “1re mise en circulation”
and “date de la livraison” as the same, making the car appear brand new,
however old it is and regardless of how many kilometres you declare from
the current odometer reading. This in the online form renders you liable
to VAT, which is incorrect
Section 4 : show the price of the car, and convert to euros. If your car is
over 6 months old the form should calculated the TVA à payer” as 0. If
you are simply saving the form to PDF and emailing it there is no
requirement to sign the form, or print sign and resave.
When the form is completed you save it as a PDF file and then send that
file with the other requested attachments to your local tax office by email.
The additional attachments are:
Evidence of address (recent utility bill, attestation
d’hebergement, rental contract etc – if you are using an
attestation d’hebergement you will need to submit, as part of
that document, the evidence of identity for your host/landlord
and a recent utility bill linking their name to the property address
– unless their evidence of identity is one with that property
address on it)
Evidence of your identity (copy passport – the picture AND facing
page)
V5C (copy of front page with name & address and details page)
Purchase invoice – if it was a private sale RVIF provides
information on preparing a suitable document to evidence the
price paid for the vehicle

  1. Vous êtes [particulier]
  2. Votre demande concerne [votre dossier fiscal(domicile en France)]
  3. Au sujet de [Autres (dont quitus etc)]
  4. Plus precisément [Quitus fiscal (vehicule acheté à l’étranger)]
    Then choose your Department from the dropdown box and complete your
    full address, and you will receive the location of the office, opening hours
    and the email to which you should send the form and attachments.
    Most comments indicate that the document (cerfa 1993) is returned by
    email.
3 Likes

Has that been amended post Brexit? There is now customs duty, and stricter TVA criteria

2 Likes

Thank you Amanda!

Two comments…if the car is less than four years old from new you need not get a CT until it reaches that age.
My friend got three insurance quotes which requires that the car meet and would pass a CT…which included meeting light standards. He tried four CT stations and each one said that beam deflects were not acceptable even when vigorously challenged so none would confirm that the car met CT light standards…and this was backed up by three separate insurance agents.
So expensive replacement of lights or no insurance.
(Luckily my car has factory fitted light adjusters from rhd to lhd here, but it took a second visit to get the ticket).

There is no customs duty payable on chattels/cars/trailers for residents moving to France that have been in your possession for longer than six months. As your document states. Your cars trailers etc should have a certificate of conformity and entered onto your Inventory. When you go through customs they will issue you with a form 846A which is for you to register your vehicles with a standard registration plate.

Just to update a bit - a UK MOT is no longer accepted for registration as the UK is no longer an EU member state & likewise a Quitus Fiscal will not be issued for UK vehicles that have arrived after Brexit so you have to notify Douanes, preferably on entry.

2 Likes

Post 1 Jan 2021, I think there are two changes:

  1. You need to supply a form 846A to determine how much VAT/duty (if any) needs to be paid. Whether or not it’s due friends on factors such as the age of the vehicle and its type/purpose. Obtaining said form involves filling in two forms and sending them to your local office. They then issue the form.

  2. It used to be that a UK MOT pass certificate less than 6 months old would be accepted in place of a new CT. This no longer applies.

There may be others, but these are the only changes I’ve discovered so far during my current immatriculation.

Hello Manda.
New on here but I wonder if you can help please. We have lived here in France for 20 years and have a French car and a UK car which I purchased 6 years ago and has been insured here with Axa and gone though the usual Controle Techniques still on Uk plates. No problem but due to one reason and another I didnt reregister it pre Decmber 31st. Obviously I can prove how long I have owned it here in France and have all the relevant documents but do you know if Im liable for the prohibitive customs duty in order to obtain a carte grise? The amount quoted to me is extortionate - The figure came from an online calculation with https://www.service-public.fr/

Thank you in advance
Tom

It depends on the car.
The calculator you refer to is probably the registration tax rather than the import duty & if so I would guess that you may have entered the actual horsepower rather than the fiscal horsepower.
A Ferrari Enzo, for example has an HP of 655 but a fiscal HP of 66.
A Citroen C4 Picasso 1.6 hdi has an HP of 116 but a fiscal HP of 6.

This should help you - one stop shop and all sorted for you with zero stress :slight_smile:

https://www.fabfrenchinsurance.com/vehicle-registration/

2 Likes

Hi folks - some really useful info on here, thank you. Does anyone know the typical cost services like ‘fabfrench’? Many thanks.

Hi Mum

I’ve just looked at the link and it offers a quote… why not have a go… if you don’t like the quote, you need go no further…

Did anyone actually manage to get a quote, as I’m just about to embark on the torrid process :-))) I tried to obtain a carte grise for a French vehicle I purchased - was told they couldn’t issue it as I had a UK driving licence - as soon as the post Brexit agreement for licence exchanges was complete, applied for a French licence exchange, and low and behold, they rejected the application as they said my UK licence was still valid for France and that they couldn’t change it unless it was lost, stolen or damaged. Chicken and egg :slight_smile: Crazy! So as a result, I hadn’t started the UK car re-registration yet…

Anyone with similar experience with the driving licence saga, and in particular getting a UK car re-registered in France with a UK licence???

Looks like the service you are using don’t have a clue what they are doing!
A UK licence (in date) is perfectly acceptable for registration.
Use a third party than knows the process.
Have you bought the car privately or through a trader?

1 Like

Wow that was quick - well, I made the application for the French vehicle carte grise (a quad which I purchased privately from a gendarme :-)) that the carte grise folks refused to complete with a UK driving licence as mentioned, and ANTS would not exchange my licence for the reasons given. Highly highly frustrating, as my UK car needs to get re-registered urgently as the insurers here in France have said no carte grise, no insurance! Time running out rather rapidly now!

Be interested to know what documents were supplied with the UK quad/vehicle…???

You must be using an agency who then send your application to ANTS for you. Often they are just admin people who work from a fixed list so do not fully understand the system.
A big problem with such agencies is that, when registering UK imports, they insist on a certificate of conformity regardless which, if it is not actually needed, can prompt ANTS to request a DREAL inspection too - another layer of admin & cost you may not need.
If your insurance agent will not even consider temporary cover while you go through the registration process then go to another - there is no legal reason why they cannot provide temporary cover.
You have one month to start the registration process for both vehicles so you need to get a wriggle on.
For the quad you should have been given the old carte grise, a certificate de cession, a CODE de cession & a certificat de situation administrative. With the code de cession changing the carte grise can be done in minutes, even over the phone.

Just to reclarify.

The quad is French and I purchased it privately. It came with a carte grise. I personally sent all the required docs to the carte grise government folks and they rejected the application as I have a UK licence. So now I’ve sent a copy of the French licence rejection to the carte grise folks (NOT an agent but the government site)

Re the car, I didn’t submit the carte grise application yet for my UK car re-registration after seeing the rejection for the far simpler French quad registration.

So I haven’t used an agent and done it all myself as changing the carte grise was a simple process, had it not been for the UK licence issue, which is why I was interested if there were any actual examples of someone with a UK licence that they had used to successfully obtain a carte grise. Clock now ticking for me!

Oh yes, and both quad and car are insured, but the insurance company is saying if I don’t provide carte grise docs for both, they will cancel the insurance / ouch!