Valid Tax and insurance and a booked MoT, no problem. Drive straight there and as soon as the MoT is issued, you’re good to go.
I have done this before. I ask the MoT garage to send me an email confirmation of the booking, something which shows the garage name and address, to show if Plod wants to check. The garage I’m booked with did say they would tell the police if asked, over the phone but I like the idea of being able to show that I have a booking before it got to that stage.
I called DVLA when I brought my van back from Spain with no MoT. I asked if there was any mileage limit to the distance to the MoT booking. I was told not. So instead of a test in Dover - there’s an excellent MoT garage I have used in the past, 5 mins from the docks - I drove to Minehead, in Somerset to get tested there. This had the advantage of only a 5 mile trip home if I had to leave the van for repairs, rather than be stuck in Dover, 4 hrs from Somerset.
I am doing this on Monday with my van. I spoke to DVLA yesterday about my timetable.
I have French insurance which the compliance person at my broker tells me covers me for UK and has sent a certificate to that effect. Policy to be cancelled on sale of vehicle.
1a] Once back in UK, send C179C by email to HMRC to clear duty/VAT status. As My ferry crossing is 08:30 Monday morning I can send the docs to HMRC on Sunday. They’ll see them in their inbox Monday morning when I’m on the high seas. 13:15 arrive at Portsmouth
1b] From Portsmouth to booked MoT. Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.
2] Once MoT’d , drive to off-road parking. Send in V55/5 to DVLA by post. No need to SORN as vehicle not yet re-reg to GB.
I was most amused to see the traffic cops on Interstate 95 - all on the northbound side, taking the last few US$$$ from holiday makers leaving Florida .
Yes, that’s right, Mark. That’s why my sked is 1] C179B HMRC [tax/duty clearance] by email. 2] MoT > off-road park 3] When MoT done [and clearance ref comes from HMRC], submit V55/5 for V5/road tax
Well, it is, in fact! Both HMRC and DVLA tell me that processing the duty clearance and the new V5/taxation will go thru chop-chop because in their view it is still on their records as a GB vehicle with a GB reg and GB V5 which has had the ‘export’ slip used but was never registered to any other country.
I know this is how it works because I went thru’ exactly the same procedure when I ‘re-imported’ it from a failed attempt to register it in Spain. The HMRC clearance took inside a week and DVLA issued the V5 also within 5 working days.
The car can be driven to a pre-booked MoT. It has tax and insurance. SORN doesn’t come into it. It’s legal to drive to a test. Once tested, it’s entirely legal because it already has tax and ins.
You can MoT a car if it has tax but you can’t tax a car that has no MoT. That’s why I have to go off-road after the MoT until DVLA processes my V55/5 and banks the enclosed chq .
Yes mine is UK registered. I have decided not to tempt fate at all and have arranged to have it transported back to the UK on a car transporter straight to my local garage. More expensive to be true but a lot less stressful and I can live with that.
I’m not sure I’d be prepared to risk the gendarmes accepting this and agreeing it is legal in France. Especially when one is supposed to re-register within a month.
FR Plod may take a dim view, yes. If shown a ferry ticket and a booking for an MoT with the explanation that the journey is entirely down to making the vehicle UK legal, they may “take a [more lenient] view”.
I’ll proceed on that basis, m’self. I am fortunate in being +/- 1hr from Ouistreham.
The thing with the OP’s car is that it has not been exported on the DVLA system , just SORN’d so there is no requirement to declare it to HMRC. Therefore to make it road legal it just needs to be insured, MOT’d & taxed as if it never left the UK. This means that the first ANPR camera will ping a car on SORN with no tax, valid UK insurance or MOT.
Your situation is different because you declared it as exported but did not register it in another country. The export notification makes the difference.
My van sat in the road [UK] with leaves and chip wrappers accumulating round the wheels - evidence that it didn’t move. I got a Billy Doo from Plod saying “We can see that it’s not being driven but be a good lad and get it taxed and MoT or SORN’d”. So they do have the discretion to not throw the book - first time of asking, anyway.
If you have SORN your car in the uk, presumably your main residence is in France.
Why don’t you just resister the car in France? This is easy to do, I used Carte Grise Café in Caen. They do the leg work and it’s not expensive.
You will need to get a CE cert from the manufacturer. Just give them you VIN. Mine took 3 days to get.
Swapping the reversing light and rear fog may not be easy. I have a Duster and all I did was dismantle the rear light clusters, swapped the red and clear lens, cross wired from one side to the other, and reassembled, job done. It took me about 1 hour.
Once registered get the CT, if it fails on the rear lights you have 2 months to correct the problem, and in France you can drive the vehicle normally during that time. CT is valid 2 years here.
Hope this helps.
You will of coarse need insurance. I use CA Britline.
If by CE cert you are referring to an EU certificate of conformity, it is not a compulsory requirement & is only needed if the complete TVV codes are not already on the original registration document. In fact submitting one for RHD vehicles can result in ANTS demanding an RTI certificate from DREAL.
This can be galling if one has just paid up to 350€ for a COC!