Moving to Scotland some questions about cars

mp3ireland2

1. The most fun questions... .what car would people recommend for about £6K maybe a little more. I am told cars are expensive in abredeen so would dly down to newcastle or liverpool possibly. Looking for 08 or newer diesel. There are a kit if former company cars like this with high miles, but they would have all been serviced properly and I think that timing belts etc would be done already.
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201211214318550/sort/default/usedcars/fuel-type/diesel/model/insignia/make/vauxhall/onesearchad/used/onesearchad/nearlynew/onesearchad/new/radius/1500/page/1/postcode/ab101ab?logcode=p

I currently drive a mk2 modeo with 150K miles on it.

2. I plan to bring my car over intially, I am insured with FBD. From what I gather after reading my policy this will cover me as long as I want over there? Can somebody confirm?

3. Once I can prove I was living there 6 months, wage slips or whatever I can bring the car home but can't sell it for 12 months or I'd have to pay the VRT, thats what I can gather. Is there any limit to the amount of times you can do this?

4. My tax is up in Jan and I plan on coming home with my old car in march. Would I need to tax my car with Irish tax disc over there? IS there a limit to the amount of time I can drive my Irish car over there? Will two months be ok? or will I be considered a resident?? I'll drive home put the car through NCT and if it passes maybe give to brother and fly back.

Thanks in advance for any help!

CiniO

mp3ireland2 wrote: »

2. I plan to bring my car over intially, I am insured with FBD. From what I gather after reading my policy this will cover me as long as I want over there? Can somebody confirm?

Your policy will cover your over there (third party cover definitely and any extra cover possibly - check your policy for details).
The only problem is that if you become resident in UK, your policy might become void.

3. Once I can prove I was living there 6 months, wage slips or whatever I can bring the car home but can't sell it for 12 months or I'd have to pay the VRT, thats what I can gather. Is there any limit to the amount of times you can do this?

You have to live there for 6 months (be resident) and own and use the car over there during this period. Then you can bring it to Ireland, but only provided you are moving your residency to Ireland.

I'm not sure if there is any limits how many cars you can bring, or how many times you can do it?

I suppose you could buy 5 cars, have them all taxed and insured in UK and be using all of them (one for each day of the week) and then when moving residency to Ireland bring them all down.
But I'm actually just guessing.

4. My tax is up in Jan and I plan on coming home with my old car in march. Would I need to tax my car with Irish tax disc over there?

There is no requirement for Irish tax anywhere outside Ireland.
However UK police might ask you for it, and while Law actually doesn't require you to have valid Irish tax when over there, they might not be aware of it and seize the car.
You would need quite a lot of money and time (and good solicitor) to be able to conquer it in court and win. I'd say not worth the hassle.

IS there a limit to the amount of time I can drive my Irish car over there?
[/QUOET]
AFAIR 6 months as a tourist, but once you become resident you should register it then.

Will two months be ok? or will I be considered a resident?? I'll drive home put the car through NCT and if it passes maybe give to brother and fly back.

I'm sure 2 months will be OK.
There's barely any way anyone can prove you are resident in UK after spending there 2 months.

mp3ireland2

Thanks you've been a great help. (didn't quote the whole thing!)

You seem to know ur stuff! I should probably tax it for another three months so just in case. Although a 99 ford mondeo with 150k on it is probably not worth much more than three months tax if they did seize it

I'll tax till end of april and have it home by march, won't have a permanent address for a month or so I imagine so should be safe enough, but having in date Irish tax could avoid a lot of hassle.

One more question, should I change over my licence? I heard you have to surrender your irish one, but you can just order a copy of your Irish one first? I assume if you become resident you should have a uk one....

Thanks again for all your help, I know I was lazy asking instead of researching it all myself.

CiniO

mp3ireland2 wrote: »

Thanks you've been a great help. (didn't quote the whole thing!)

You seem to know ur stuff! I should probably tax it for another three months so just in case. Although a 99 ford mondeo with 150k on it is probably not worth much more than three months tax if they did seize it

I'll tax till end of april and have it home by march, won't have a permanent address for a month or so I imagine so should be safe enough, but having in date Irish tax could avoid a lot of hassle.

Thing with taxing a vehicle is not really straight.
Irish regulations require Irish registered cars to be taxed only when used on public roads in Ireland.
Some people mentioned here that for foreign vehicle to be road legal in UK it must be road legal in home country, so therefore Irish tax is needed.
However no one was ever able to provide any proof that such regulations exist.
I spend few hours once browsing the internet, without any joy. I strongly thing they don't exist.
Anyway - UK police asking for Irish tax and seizing cars for lack of it (or at least issuing penalties) is a fact.
So unless you want to fight with them in court, it's much easier to tax your car.

I know many people who have Irish registered car on the Continent never bother with paying Irish tax, as regulations on most (if not all) continental countries wouldn't require Irish registered vehicle to be taxed.
But for some reason UK might be different.
I drove few times though EU through several countries without tax. I've done in total over 20k kilometres on the Continent in Irish registered vehicle without tax. I encountered many police checks and never had a bother.
But actually while going through UK i believe I was just taking my chance. I never got pulled over there.

One more question, should I change over my licence? I heard you have to surrender your irish one, but you can just order a copy of your Irish one first? I assume if you become resident you should have a uk one....

AFAIR there is no requirement to change licences when moving to different EU state (including UK). Your Irish licence will be valid there.

Marcusm

You can only bring 1 car VRT free when changing residency and only once every 5 years. This annoys mr as I run 2 cars and have considered moving home to Ireland. Whether it would constitute an unreasonable restriction on treaty rights (freedom of establishment) is an open question. UK police are aware that Irish cars are required to display a tax disc and there have been frequent reports of untaxed Irish cars being seized (esp in North) although yor experience may be different. UK view is that it must be road legal in home country although I suspect they are familiar with few Of the various rules around the EU.

mp3ireland2

Marcusm wrote: »

You can only bring 1 car VRT free when changing residency and only once every 5 years. This annoys mr as I run 2 cars and have considered moving home to Ireland. Whether it would constitute an unreasonable restriction on treaty rights (freedom of establishment) is an open question. UK police are aware that Irish cars are required to display a tax disc and there have been frequent reports of untaxed Irish cars being seized (esp in North) although yor experience may be different. UK view is that it must be road legal in home country although I suspect they are familiar with few Of the various rules around the EU.

Yeah whilst it may not be strictely illegal it sounds like the lack of tax would give me unnecessary hassle, as it's up at end of jan and I'd have the car there till mid march with it.

one final question! If I but a uk car can I take out a seperate insurance policy on it? and have two insurance policys? prob just for 2 or 3 weeks till I bring my old car home and cancel my policy on it? Can't see any reason why not but know nothing about insurance....

A resident is defined as "Living somewhere on a long-term basis." I assume my FBD policy would still cover me for the 2 months or so I'm using it over there? While I'm settling down?

Marcusm

The FBD insurance policy should be valid at least for legal minimum insurance (third party) come what may although you should read your booklet to check that you need to notify them of a change of address. I doubt they can cancel the policy just because you are moving to the UK (although they can refuse to renew) and if you don't notify them of the change, I doubt (but don't know) that it would be a basis for them to void/chargeback and costs.

No restrictive on on the number of cars or policies (although generally only one per car!). UK insurance will be more complex as most online services/comparison sites have difficulty ticking boxes unless you've lived in the UK for 3 years. Should not be a problem provided you are living in UK but may need to use a broker/telephone insurers.

CiniO

Marcusm wrote: »

The FBD insurance policy should be valid at least for legal minimum insurance (third party) come what may although you should read your booklet to check that you need to notify them of a change of address. I doubt they can cancel the policy just because you are moving to the UK (although they can refuse to renew) and if you don't notify them of the change, I doubt (but don't know) that it would be a basis for them to void/chargeback and costs.

My insurer told me that while their third party cover is unlimited while driving abroad, but if I'm longer abroad than 3 months they would consider me non-resident in Ireland, and therefore my policy would not be valid anymore.
IMHO that's bullsh1t, but that's exactly what they told me.

mp3ireland2

CiniO wrote: »

My insurer told me that while their third party cover is unlimited while driving abroad, but if I'm longer abroad than 3 months they would consider me non-resident in Ireland, and therefore my policy would not be valid anymore.
IMHO that's bullsh1t, but that's exactly what they told me.

Thanks emailed my cousin who works for FBD, just wanted to do a bit of background on here first in case I told him something that would work against me. I only have 3rd party anyway so that won't be an issue and the car should be back in 2.5 months so if FBD told me this I'd still be happy enough.

CiniO

mp3ireland2 wrote: »

Thanks emailed my cousin who works for FBD, just wanted to do a bit of background on here first in case I told him something that would work against me. I only have 3rd party anyway so that won't be an issue and the car should be back in 2.5 months so if FBD told me this I'd still be happy enough.

Let us know what your cousin says.

mp3ireland2

CiniO wrote: »

Let us know what your cousin says.

Will do.

One thing I won't need to worry about for a while, but when I get a new car and If I bring it home for a week on holidays or whatever, how do I prove i'm a uk resident? once it's registered in my name I'm ok is it?

Also when buying a car will a bank statement be enough to prove my address I wonder? I may not have utility bills in my name etc. I'm sure I can find out this info easy enough when I get over there.

Thinking of going into a police station and asking them if I need Irish tax....I'll walk in so they won't see my car and be on the look out for it if they have issues with my motoring plans!

mp3ireland2

CiniO wrote: »

Let us know what your cousin says.

As I am moving over permanently I was told I would only be insured for a month, after that I'd have to post back my cert and disc and get a refund.
I probably could have got away with not checking into it but better to find out this way than if I had a claim against me.

Does anybody know how much it costs to register a car in the uk?
Not sure if I'll have the cash on me to buy a new car by feb and when I'm also trying to find a place to live time could be an issue!

Atlantic Dawn

Think it's around £50, more info here...

https://www.gov.uk/importing-vehicles-into-the-uk/registering-an-imported-vehicle

Judge Weiner

CiniO wrote: »

Thing with taxing a vehicle is not really straight.
Irish regulations require Irish registered cars to be taxed only when used on public roads in Ireland.
Some people mentioned here that for foreign vehicle to be road legal in UK it must be road legal in home country, so therefore Irish tax is needed.
However no one was ever able to provide any proof that such regulations exist.
I spend few hours once browsing the internet, without any joy. I strongly thing they don't exist.
Anyway - UK police asking for Irish tax and seizing cars for lack of it (or at least issuing penalties) is a fact.
So unless you want to fight with them in court, it's much easier to tax your car.

I know many people who have Irish registered car on the Continent never bother with paying Irish tax, as regulations on most (if not all) continental countries wouldn't require Irish registered vehicle to be taxed.
But for some reason UK might be different.
I drove few times though EU through several countries without tax. I've done in total over 20k kilometres on the Continent in Irish registered vehicle without tax. I encountered many police checks and never had a bother.
But actually while going through UK i believe I was just taking my chance. I never got pulled over there.




AFAIR there is no requirement to change licences when moving to different EU state (including UK). Your Irish licence will be valid there.

The problem is that many UK police forces have not a clue of the regulations. The problem is if you fall foul of some snotty nose PC fresh out of Hendon you will have to fight them in court. The only upside is if you win you can absolutely take them to the cleaners for costs and damages.