Trailering a car from UK to France

[MerciEnFrance]

Moved to France end of last year but had to leave one car stored at a friend's place. Planned to fetch it over Xmas but when they shut the borders, the trip had to be postponed...

I need to pick it up soon as travel is allowed so question is whether there are any issues with taking a car, registered to me in the uk, on a trailer to France? One hand it is taking a sizeable possession in transit, but on the other hand isn't it the same as driving it over?

[rdjohn]

I would be inclined to drive it over, looking like a tourist and pay the VAT as you register it here. Declare the export once its here.

Documenting the value of the car is where i would focus my effort. Obviously a RHD has even less value than a LHD over here so is it actually worth paying an extra 20% to bring it here?

Boncoin price less 20% for RHD + 20% TVA does not make a lot of sense unless it has huge emotional value to you, for some reason.

[cayman-black]

rdjohn said:

I would be inclined to drive it over, looking like a tourist and pay the VAT as you register it here. Declare the export once its here.

Documenting the value of the car is where i would focus my effort. Obviously a RHD has even less value than a LHD over here so is it actually worth paying an extra 20% to bring it here?

Boncoin price less 20% for RHD + 20% TVA does not make a lot of sense unless it has huge emotional value to you, for some reason.

OP is taking the car to France.

[Magooagain]

cayman-black said:

rdjohn said:

I would be inclined to drive it over, looking like a tourist and pay the VAT as you register it here. Declare the export once its here.

Documenting the value of the car is where i would focus my effort. Obviously a RHD has even less value than a LHD over here so is it actually worth paying an extra 20% to bring it here?

Boncoin price less 20% for RHD + 20% TVA does not make a lot of sense unless it has huge emotional value to you, for some reason.

OP is taking the car to France.

?. He knows it's going to France,hence the reply.

Drive the car OP.

[cayman-black]

Magooagain said:

?. He knows it's going to France,hence the reply.

Drive the car OP.

Sorry, i see rd is in France so a miss understanding.

[CAPP0]

Isn't there something now about if you take a vehicle out of the UK by transport (ie not driving it) you have to have some sort of bond in place to guarantee that you are returning it? I've been told this is a requirement for anything transported for sport (cars, bikes etc).

[MerciEnFrance]

Thanks for the replies. If I'm going to register it in France anyway, I could start the process at the border anyway... I just dont want to be turned away to go and get forms signed and approved...

[Paul-427]

Do NOT send your V5 back to the DVLA registering your car as exported. The French authorities will notify them once it is registered in France.

A friend did send it off and have a certificate saying its been exported but the French need the original V5 which the DVLA will not send !!

[Rushjob]

Paul-427 said:

Do NOT send your V5 back to the DVLA registering your car as exported. The French authorities will notify them once it is registered in France.

A friend did send it off and have a certificate saying its been exported but the French need the original V5 which the DVLA will not send !!

Actually, you as the keeper are required to inform DVLA. You just send the tear out permanent export slip of the V5 to DVLA and keep the rest to register in France - that's the way that the form is designed to be used!

[Magooagain]

Rushjob said:

Paul-427 said:

Do NOT send your V5 back to the DVLA registering your car as exported. The French authorities will notify them once it is registered in France.

A friend did send it off and have a certificate saying its been exported but the French need the original V5 which the DVLA will not send !!

Actually, you as the keeper are required to inform DVLA. You just send the tear out permanent export slip of the V5 to DVLA and keep the rest to register in France - that's the way that the form is designed to be used!

There have been a few cases of people sending the tear off slip to the dvla before the French registration process had been started and by doing so totally confused the whole process.

I've registered a fair few Brit cars here in France and never sent a slip to the dvla. Before ANTS,we just took the info off the logbook and filled the form in then took it all down to our local sous prefectur to be checked and sent onto the main prefectur.

I always had the old uk logbook after the new French logbook was issued.

With ANTS I'm not sure what happens to the uk logbook,maybe it's scanned to complete the change over.

[Rushjob]

Magooagain said:

There have been a few cases of people sending the tear off slip to the dvla before the French registration process had been started and by doing so totally confused the whole process.

I've registered a fair few Brit cars here in France and never sent a slip to the dvla. Before ANTS,we just took the info off the logbook and filled the form in then took it all down to our local sous prefectur to be checked and sent onto the main prefectur.

I always had the old uk logbook after the new French logbook was issued.

With ANTS I'm not sure what happens to the uk logbook, maybe it's scanned to complete the change over.

Sending anything back to the UK first is, I'll agree, a schoolboy error.
In my view, until you submit the immatriculation request in France, the vehicle hasn't been permanently exported, it's just a UK vehicle on holiday....