vrt: If someone lends me their UK registered car, what are the implications?

makeorbrake

Hypothetical situation..


If a relative in the UK lent me their UK registered car, how long can I drive it in IRL? If this is a non runner over an extended period, does anyone have a link to the regs that govern this?

jhegarty

makeorbrake wrote: »

Hypothetical situation..


If a relative in the UK lent me their UK registered car, how long can I drive it in IRL? If this is a non runner over an extended period, does anyone have a link to the regs that govern this?

You can't even drive it for 1 second.

CJhaughey

makeorbrake wrote: »

Hypothetical situation..


If a relative in the UK lent me their UK registered car, how long can I drive it in IRL? If this is a non runner over an extended period, does anyone have a link to the regs that govern this?

Its illegal for an Irish citizen to drive a foreign reg car here.

keithclancy

makeorbrake wrote: »

Hypothetical situation..


If a relative in the UK lent me their UK registered car, how long can I drive it in IRL? If this is a non runner over an extended period, does anyone have a link to the regs that govern this?

You can't drive a foreign registered car at all in the Republic if you are resident there.

mickdw

makeorbrake wrote: »

Hypothetical situation..


If a relative in the UK lent me their UK registered car, how long can I drive it in IRL? If this is a non runner over an extended period, does anyone have a link to the regs that govern this?

The customs will take the car away leading to a hypothetically sticky situation where your relative will get rather angry.

ThreeLineWhip

CJhaughey wrote: »

Its illegal for an Irish citizen to drive a foreign reg car here.

Very wrong.

It is illegal for an Irish resident to drive a foreign car in Ireland.

I being an Irish citizen but not resident have driven UK cars here many times legally.

readytosnap

keithclancy wrote: »

You can't drive a foreign registered car at all in the Republic if you are resident there.

so what happens if a relative is visiting you from another country and you drive their car when they are here? surely they couldn't take the car off you for that?

ThreeLineWhip

readytosnap wrote: »

so what happens if a relative is visiting you from another country and you drive their car when they are here? surely they couldn't take the car off you for that?

They can and will seize the car.

martomcg

I know people who do it regularly.

If stopped just give the address of the relative you've borrowed the car off and say your just home 'visiting' family in Ireland for an unknown amount of time.

If they start talking bout you having to register it just say the car will be going back to the UK.

I think as a resident of the UK you can drive a UK reg in Ireland for up to a month without worrying about registering.

Not exactly easy for them to prove your not a UK resident.

bmwguy

Call me cynical but it sounds like you're asking whether it would be a plausible excuse if you were caught not paying VRT on a car, dont worry I'm not on my high horse about it if you can get away with it do it!

It leads me to a non hypothetical situation, I work for a smallish company and we also have a company in Northern Ireland, the NI sales manager regularly comes to Dublin for a few days, meets customers, goes on the piss with MD etc so doesnt need his car, during this time I can (and do) use his beautiful Audi A5 registered to the company. I know I am insured etc as I set this up myself but could anything happen to me or this car if I was caught driving it by the Garda/customs people in the republic?

I do it quite often, every few weeks and to be honest it was in the back of my mind but never really cared, didnt really see this as doing anything wrong and still don't. Always thought I would have been within my rights, as its not mine, I'm not cheating tax, I'm insured etc.....just using a company car

ThreeLineWhip

Not exactly easy for them to prove your not a UK resident.

It is not up to them to prove anything. The burden of proof is on you.

readytosnap

ThreeLineWhip wrote: »

They can and will seize the car.

really? i find that hard to believe, ok if you were stopped a few times, but if you were insured i don't see how they could do that.

mickdw

martomcg wrote: »

I know people who do it regularly.

If stopped just give the address of the relative you'e borrowed the car off and say your just home 'visiting' family in Ireland for an unknown amount of time.

If they start talking bout you having to register it just say the car will be going back to the UK.

I think as a resident of the UK you can drive a UK reg in Ireland for up to a month without worrying about registering.

Not exactly easy for them to prove your not a UK resident.

And if you are on an irish licence, they will dig much deeper Looking for boat return tickets and proof of address in uk. If you have irish insurance, they will take the car.

ThreeLineWhip

Irish citizen on an Irish licence and you are already walking unless you can pull boat tickets, electric bills, payslips out of a hat instantly at the side of the road.

djimi

Would there not be insurance implications also? Ie can an Irish resident obtain insurance on a UK registered vehicle? Or would their third party extension cover it?

keithclancy

ThreeLineWhip wrote: »

Irish citizen on an Irish licence and you are already walking unless you can pull boat tickets, electric bills, payslips out of a hat instantly at the side of the road.

Just showing my cards in my Wallet and the car registration papers was enough.
I don't get paper gas/electric bills/bank statements on paper anyway, all come comes in PDF Invoice straight to my online banking.

Edit:
Here in NL they came up with the 2 week temporary use thing.

i.e. You can declare up front that you're going to drive a foreign vehicle for maximum 2 weeks and you can only drive one numberplate per year.

https://mijn.belastingdienst.nl/bpmlease/welkom.do

As a result of some court case I believe to do with free movement (i.e. it was stupid you couldn't rent a car in Germany and drive in NL)

whomitconcerns

http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/vrt/leaflets/temporary-exemption-foreign-registered.html

very few legitimate exceptions...all info above

Joe 90

djimi wrote: »

Would there not be insurance implications also? Ie can an Irish resident obtain insurance on a UK registered vehicle? Or would their third party extension cover it?

Well, several years back I took the Exige to Ireland. I didn't realize that customs wise it was absolutely forbidden for an Irish resident to drive it.

I tried to get my insurance extended for a couple of people in Ireland to drive it but no go from my insurance. No problem if they wanted to drive it in the UK but they would not extend the cover for Ireland. Fair enough. However, both brother in law and nephew had no problem arranging their own insurance to drive it. God know what it cost them, mind you. I didn't ask.

The end result was that from the insurance position both were legal. What none of us realised was that from the customs position the position was illegal.