howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Does anyone know how long one can be driven here before they re-register in this country? I know of at least 4 locally that have been here 5 years or so.
Reginald Barrington
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 17 Dec 2014
- Posts: 3,259
I believe it's 6 months unless you are back and forth to country of registration, quite how they would check and enforce it I don't know, probably would mean someone having to do some work.
Arte et Marte
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
The only way I can see of getting people to register is to go through ferry companies records to see the comings and goings of the vehicles, I assume that registration numbers are taken. Firstly though it would be up to parking wardens/police officers and the like to report a vehicle they think has been around for a long while and go from there.
Andy B
- Location: dover
- Registered: 10 Nov 2012
- Posts: 1,818
I think that those in charge couldnt care less anymore,well thats how it seems.
Reginald Barrington- Location: Dover
- Registered: 17 Dec 2014
- Posts: 3,259
The same problem with chasing the foreign lorries for fines, its easier to let them get away with it.
As always it's the people who try to follow the rules but make a mistake are easy pickings, tax dodgers, benefits cheats get away with it. But slip up and miss a deadline or job centre appointment look out.
My step daughter had her job centre appointment times changed every week for 4 wks then in the middle of exam week at college she turned up an hour late for an appointment that was changed and received 6 wks sanctions, tried to appeal to no avail.
Arte et Marte
Reginald Barrington- Location: Dover
- Registered: 17 Dec 2014
- Posts: 3,259
As an aside to that I don't get how she was getting job seekers while at college the system is seriously flawed!
Arte et Marte
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
The current system is very unfair as in countries where they don't have road tax there are more toll roads so Brits for example pay the same as the locals. Reg mentions truck drivers fines not being paid but in most of Europe fines have to be paid on the spot so why don't we have the same system here. No EU rules broken either. As for benefit sanctions I have heard a lot worse stories and the staff at Job Centres are put under a lot of pressure to punish the "Clients" as they are called.
Andy B- Location: dover
- Registered: 10 Nov 2012
- Posts: 1,818
Not all but some of the foriegn registered trucks standard of driving is just dangerous.I spend quite alot of time on the roads and i sometimes wonder if some have even taken a proper and valid HGV test.
Guest 667- Registered: 6 Apr 2008
- Posts: 919
Apparently the time limit for using a foreign registered car in the UK is 6 months.
Picked this up
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29553091 so may be worth reporting them cars Howard.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Interesting article dated a year ago promising a crackdown which clearly isn't working locally. It also says that the border force log details of when they enter and leave the country. Not worth reporting most of what I see as they are ancient noisy Skoda models not worth the £.360 to release.
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
Technically, if you are a UK resident, you can not drive a foreign-registered vehicle in the UK at all, even if you own it and it is taxed and insured in its country of registration. If you are a bona-fide visitor you can drive it for up to 6 months. Nationality is irrelevant. Visitor means 1. you are permanently resident outside the UK AND 2. you have only come temporarily to the UK.
If you come as a visitor but then start looking for a job, getting an NI number and renting accommodation, then you are immediately a resident and your car must be MOT'd, insured, registered and taxed in the UK.
Foreigners (even EU nationals) who travel to the UK to settle are committing an offence if they use an imported vehicle on foreign plates. If the driver of a foreign-registered vehicle is stopped by police and gives a UK address he is deemed to be resident and the vehicle is subject to seizure. Over the years I have imported three vehicles into the UK on foreign plates so I am familiar with the law. On two occasions I was a bona-fide non-resident with a foreign address but on the first occasion, when I was UK resident, customs asked me why I was driving a vehicle on French diplomatic plates with a British passport and my 17-year-old niece (a French resident) who was with me in the car had to drive the car back from Dover on her brand new L plates. Scary. It was the first time she had ever been behind the wheel of a car.
These rules are uniform across the EU so people who move to France or Spain permanently but keep a UK-registered car, popping back once a year for MOT, are also breaking the law.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson