Never regsistered VRT, can I sell the car?

Shipshape

We acquired a car from a family friend from Wales that needed work. It has sat in our driveway for 2 years and we did not register it for VRT. I now realise we should have done that when we first become owners of the car.

With penalties for not registering, the fines accrued would be about 80% of the cars worth, which would be 1-1.5k. (This is on the back of a phonecall I had with the VRT guy in Revenue).

Question: Does anyone know what we could do with the car, other than scrap it? It is a good car, it would be a pity to see it go to scrap. Could we sell/give it back to the family friend in the UK - would he be liable for penalities? Could it be sold to someone in Ireland - or would they be liable for penalities as well?

Please, no lectures for not registering it in the first place. Hands up, it was my fault for not doing it initially. I just need to know what we can do from here, so any informed advice and insight would be very welcome.

Thanks.

Kenny Logins

Import it again.

Tea 1000

What is it?

alias no.9

Did you pay them for the car either in cash or in kind? If not, there is no 'consideration' and hence no contract for the sale, so you are not the owners, you've merely been storing it for them. This would be further reinforced if you didn't return the permanent export slip from the V5 to the DVLA. You could perhaps now buy it from them for a nominal sum and process the paperwork.

corktina

it sounds like it doesnt drive so sending it back to the UK and re-importing it isn't an option I guess, but if it was the case that the ownership of the vehicle is still legally with your friend, I can't see an issue with you now taking ownership and VRTing it.

Kenny Logins

corktina wrote: »

it sounds like it doesnt drive so sending it back to the UK and re-importing it isn't an option I guess, but if it was the case that the ownership of the vehicle is still legally with your friend, I can't see an issue with you now taking ownership and VRTing it.

I didn't mean actually driving it back and re-importing, just presenting new documentation to say it has just been imported.

MarkR

Is there definitely a fine now? A few years back I bought a car in Limerick on UK plates, had been in the country for months. VRT'd it a few weeks later, and there wasn't a fine back then.

Ring your local vehicle registration office (is it the nct now?) and ask them. I'm sure this will be common enough query for them.

Kenny Logins

I can't prove the date I brought the car into the country. What happens next?
If you can't prove when you brought the car into the country, then the VRT will be charged from the date of the invoice, the date of change of ownership from the foreign certificate of registration, or the date of the certificate of permanent exportation, etc. as appropriate.

http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/vrt/faqs-vrt.html#section39

If you can't prove it, neither can they..

Matt Simis

Kenny Logins wrote: »

http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/vrt/faqs-vrt.html#section39

If you can't prove it, neither can they..

Not really, they look look at the last date for change of owner etc. OP, you do realise you are asked to produce a hand written receipt for the sale yes? If you goto the VRT office without one, even they will ask you to go produce one, its a required part of the process.

mitosis

I thought you couldn't VRT until the vehicle was road worthy. Is this incorrect?

Kenny Logins

Matt Simis wrote: »

Not really, they look look at the last date for change of owner etc. OP, you do realise you are asked to produce a hand written receipt for the sale yes? If you goto the VRT office without one, even they will ask you to go produce one, its a required part of the process.

I assumed from the OP that it is still registered with the family friend in Wales.

Bohrio

Matt Simis wrote: »

Not really, they look look at the last date for change of owner etc. OP, you do realise you are asked to produce a hand written receipt for the sale yes? If you goto the VRT office without one, even they will ask you to go produce one, its a required part of the process.

I bought a motorbike with UK plates a few years ago, due to circumstances out of my control I couldnt register it until a few years later. I didnt have the original receipt (I bought the bike not from the original owner but some guy in kildare), so as I couldnt locate the original owner in the UK, the woman in the NCT asked me to write down on a piece of paper some sort of receipt stating the date of purchase and the amount. And that was it. I even put the original year (2007) and was never penalized. Maybe I was lucky