Hi Mat,
First thing to do is declare it to your regional Douanes office & obtain an 846a.
If the car is over 4 years old it will need a French CT made less than 6 months before the registration application. A UK MOT is no longer accepted as it is not one from another EU member.
You will need a bill of sale which should have both the seller’s & your name & address & must include the vehicle VIN.
A certificate of conformity is not always required if the D.2. part on the V5c has all 3 parts (type, variant, version). This was not always the case prior to 2010 & vans did not usually have a coc prior to 2011, when the EU coc became mandatory for commercial vehicles. Older vans & cars might qualify for a national attestation of conformity from the french representative of the manufacturer.
The full V5c is required, pages 1, 2 & 3 so don’t think that just the new keeper section will do - it won’t.
There is a cerfa form - cerfa 13750 - that needs to be correctly completed too. Often best to get advice on how to complete this correctly but if you are using a third party they will often complete this for you.
A good source of info on cars, thanks. Having sorted out CDS, sort of sorted CPAM, and sort of sorted Tax hopefully I’ve now done all the basics?
I’m turning my thoughts to cars and seek comments on a few Q’s?
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Is it better to buy a french car or use a UK one in France (not import).
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Is there a certain limit to using a UK car in France as resident if one is using it to go back and forth to UK every few months or so?
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Presume one can register the car we arrived in France on in December 2020 pre WA, but are there any tax advantages to do that (e.g. no import duties) or has that option gone? (more than a year?)
Many thanks
After hitting return, the webpage jumped straight to Mandas post at the beginning - I see residents must register a car within the month!
Well that didn’t happen, drove around (carefully) for a year… - UK insurance of course, third party would continue but any comprehensive element would drop away? Not fully clued up as its not my car, hence Q1 is it better to buy a car in the UK (to drive around europe - not just France) or in France?
Is there an emoji for 'thanks? hands together? Update - clicked on emoji symbol - blimey there’s millions of them - but no hands… maybe hands together is a prayer - could combine with a bird?
As a french resident you must have a french registered car. If you have brought a foreign car with you then you have one month from its arrival to at least start the registration process. This means that it should be one of the first processes you do on arrival, not the last.
If you are stopped for a traffic check & found to be a French resident in a foreign registered car you risk losing the car.
As you have had the car here for over a year you would be lucky to still be given a quitus fiscal from your tax office but you could try. If you have to go to your regional Douanes be prepared to pay about 32% of the car’s value in VAT & duty.
If you still have UK insurance check that it is actually valid. Most UK companies cannot give cover to foreign residents so you must make sure that you have informed them of your change of residential status as this is often a requirement of UK companies’ terms & conditions.
Thanks for your reply Mark. Have thankfully(?) passed several police controls, never stopped. Risk noted.
To confirm - Tax office - would that be the Impot?
Insurance - to assure everyone on the road, was renewed when in France and situation and times in France fully declared, I presume it was granted on basis of UK address (additional info - not my car, of course though I’m on the policy as a driver).
Trying to get a sense of what to do re value for money as a ‘first time buyer’ of a car - car we arrived in is Madame’s. She has stated she might wish that to remain in UK.
So if another car is indicated for ‘France’ is it best to buy a France car or buy one in UK and import? - I’m sensing buy in France?
Appreciate it’s not necessarily your area of expertise, though maybe you have an idea of the economics of import v France purchase?
PS my purchase thoughts would be (lesser expensive not clapped out) small merc diesel, fuel economy being important (to spend a few years travelling around the continent(s). Perhaps you can advise as a gauragist? Do you sell cars?
Many thanks!
I’m possibly wrong, but I believe it might be better to have a petrol rather than diesel car. Isn’t diesel taxed higher at CG time… and just wondering about Crit’Air classifications.
more places are putting in restrictions and the better the Crit’Air the easier it will be to travel where you like… it’s just a thought.
By a French car in France and save yourself a whole bunch of administrative pain.
Hi Mark
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