clunegapyears Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 Hello all About to pop over to Europe for 12 months. During this time our motorhome will need an MOT. Are MOTs across the Eurozone standard? Will our 'van insurer recognise an European MOT? Thoughts gratefully received? Katherine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PJay Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 Think you will have to have the MOT done in Uk on a UK registered vehicle. Have to get it done just before you go, and then come back before it is due. a vehicle has to be legal in the country of registration If I am wrong some one will come along and tell you the correct legislation PJay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 PJay - 2015-03-17 9:41 PM Think you will have to have the MOT done in Uk on a UK registered vehicle. Have to get it done just before you go, and then come back before it is due. a vehicle has to be legal in the country of registration If I am wrong some one will come along and tell you the correct legislation PJay Pauline, you are quite right. A UK registered vehicle must be taxed, insured, and tested in the UK. If the test is not carried out the insurance will be invalidated (read the conditions, which will state somewhere the the vehicle must be maintained in good working order, or words to that effect), and without test or insurance the vehicle cannot be taxed, and if any of these is absent the vehicle will be as illegal in any country outside the UK as it would be in the UK. You may find that test stations outside the UK will carry out a test, but it will be invalid, and completely worthless legally, on a UK registered vehicle. Sorry, but you will have to have the UK MoT in the UK. You can have the test carried out before its due date, but I can't tell you what the limits are on this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 There is conflicting on-line advice about how ‘early’ an MOT-test can be performed, what the expiration date is if an ‘early' test is taken, and whether the then-current test certificate needs to be presented to the tester when a vehicle is tested ‘early’. However, I believe the information here is correct where the above points are concerned. http://www.ashfordmotcentre.com/faq.html "Can I take the test before its due date? Yes, If the vehicle is tested within the calendar month prior to when the MOT is due, the test certificate will run from the date of the test to one year after the expiry date of the current certificate.” "Do I need to bring my old test certificate with me? No. The test is now fully computerised so it is not necessary to bring your old certificate.” (The present MOT Test Certificate format includes advice on when an ‘early’ test can be taken without this impacting adversely on the certificate’s anniversary date. My car’s MOT Test Certificate’s expiry date is August 3rd 2015. In the Additional Information section of the Certificate is the advice “To preserve the anniversary of the expiry date the earliest you can present your vehicle for test is 04/07/2015.”) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robinhood Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 Brian Kirby - 2015-03-17 11:43 PM You can have the test carried out before its due date, but I can't tell you what the limits are on this. ...it is usually most -cost effective to have an MOT carried out within a month of its (then) "due date", as the next due date will then be set as the anniversary of that "due" date, not the date on which it was tested. You can, however, arrange an MOT on any date (there is no limitation as long as you don't exceed 12 months from the last test - you could event test on consecutive days!). If that date is greater than a month before the "due" date, however, then the MOT will expire 12 months from when it was done, not on the anniversary of the "due" date. The vehicle should be tested just before you depart (leaving, of course, a margin for any remediation if such is a possible requirement). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 Thank you both for adding the missing details. I thought it was something along those lines, but it was late and I was too tired to check! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyboyprowler Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 I think it also worth noting that, certainly in Spain and maybe elsewhere in Europe, you are only allowed to keep the vehicle in the country for a maximum of 6 months. This could theoretically become a problem if you are based on one site for a long time. However, how that problem is policed, who knows! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PJay Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 flyboyprowler - 2015-03-24 6:05 PM I think it also worth noting that, certainly in Spain and maybe elsewhere in Europe, you are only allowed to keep the vehicle in the country for a maximum of 6 months. This could theoretically become a problem if you are based on one site for a long time. However, how that problem is policed, who knows! Think this only applies to permanent residents . Certainly a friend of ours kept a Uk plated car in Spain. When stopped by the Police, he argued that he was not a permanent resident! As they had a place in UK as well as the house in Spain. PJay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 The ‘6 months rule’ was discussed in the following thread relating to a plan to spend a year abroad http://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Hints-and-Tips/Going-into-France-and-Spain-for-a-year/36893/ As far as I’m aware the rule applies to every EU country. (I vaguely recall a forum-member resident in Spain warning that Spanish police were taking more of an interest than previously regarding UK motorists who were staying long-term in Spain and not bothering to get their UK-registered vehicles re-registered there as the law demands.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartO Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 Brian Kirby - 2015-03-17 11:43 PM Pauline, you are quite right. A UK registered vehicle must be taxed, insured, and tested in the UK. If the test is not carried out the insurance will be invalidated (read the conditions, which will state somewhere the the vehicle must be maintained in good working order, or words to that effect), and without test or insurance the vehicle cannot be taxed, and if any of these is absent the vehicle will be as illegal in any country outside the UK as it would be in the UK..... I know that insurers like to give thmselves every opportunity to repudiate a claim, and I've noticed that having a valid licence to drive the vehicles is necessary for cover, but do they really exclude cover if the vehicle is not taxed, even third party cover? Paying road tax for example has nothing to do with safety, it's just a taxation obligation. I don't have a policy to hand to check the wording but it doesn't seem likely that they could impose contract conditions of that sort in the hope of ducking out of theor obligations, even if they can reasonably require that the vehicle is kept roadworthy. And as I understand it the third party cover required by the Road Traffic Act cannot be ducked anyway, even if the vehicle is unroadworthy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 To be honest, Stuart, I don't know whether absence of VED would have any impact on one's insurance contract. As you say, it is a civil offence not criminal, and is not related to vehicle safety. I believe an untaxed vehicle is regarded as being illegally on the road, but I have never tried to find out whether the insurance contract is concerned with this aspect of its legality. However, I don't think my post makes or implies any linkage between tax and insurance, only between MoT and insurance. My point was that under the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic a vehicle must meet the legal requirements of its country of registration (which for UK registered vehicles includes tax, insurance and, as necessary, MoT) for it to be legal on roads elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 The potential impact on a motor insurance policy of a UK-registered vehicle not being ‘taxed’ was mentioned some time ago. In the “Long Term Touring and Full Timing” section of the 2013 Comfort Insurance motorhome insurance policy was the caveat that "The motor caravan must at all times have a valid MOT certimcate (unless not required due to age of the vehicle) and current UK road fund licence & tax disc.” (Obviously the requirement for a ‘tax disc’ will no longer apply, but the principle of the motorhome needing to be taxed still will.) As the caveat appeared only in the Long Term/Full Timing part of the policy (and, like Stuart, I did not see why vehicle-tax should necessarily be relevant to vehicle insurance) I phoned Comfort about this. I was advised that, irrespective of where a UK-registered vehicle was, if there was a UK legal requirement for it to be ‘taxed’, then failure to comply with that requirement would (potentially) invalidate the vehicle’s insurance policy. I recall questioning that view and being told that, if I wanted a more definitive answer, I could contact Comfort in writing. As the issue would not affect me personally I never followed it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartO Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 Insurers have developed the tendency to put as many exclusions as possible into policies, presumably as a way of limiting claim costs by giving themselves the option to repudiate on those grounds - and including a "must be taxed" clause looks like it falls into that category because it's difficult to see how the road tax status affects the insurance risk. I suppose the statistics might show that untaxed vehicles are more accident prone, so they might have an arguement but that strikes me as a bit like exluding all sorts of groups of people on dubious grounds. I'm not in favour of manipulating the law to exploit the fact that you are out of UK (or at least not safety-related law) but nor am I in favour of insurances companies contriving unnecessary reasons to duck their responsibilities, or tax-related legislation being used the limit freedom and duration of movement in a motorhome. There is nothing sacred about having a periodic vehicle safety check at annual intervals and there has been talk of reducing the frequency of MOTs, so why can't someone take a motorhome abroad and tour continuously for over a year if they want to? Why should what is essentially only an administrative process impose an arbitrary limit on touring when freedom of movement within the EU is supposed to be one of its cornerstones? Why shouldn't DVLA accept a German HU Certificate in lieu of an MOT for purposes of re-taxing a vehicle which is abroad at the time? Why should it be necessary to pay road tax at all while the vehicle remains abroad when it's a tax to which only UK residents are liable? Anyway, as far as insurers are concerned there is legislation about unfair conditions of contracts which might kick in if push came to shove about an unnecessary exclusion, so maybe the insurers wouldn't be able to have it all their own way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muswell Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 StuartO - 2015-03-25 8:42 AM Why shouldn't DVLA accept a German HU Certificate in lieu of an MOT for purposes of re-taxing a vehicle which is abroad at the time? Why should it be necessary to pay road tax at all while the vehicle remains abroad when it's a tax to which only UK residents are liable? If you establish the principle of an MOT in one country being valid for a vehicle being registered in another then it follows that there would have to be common standards. The German test is much more stringent than ours. I should imagine there are international agreements in place to ensure that all vehicles pay road tax somewhere. Otherwise there would be complaints about foreigners using roads and not paying for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billggski Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 Like most debates if you turn it round it makes itself clearer. Would we be happy if foreign motorhomes were travelling around the UK without a valid check on their road worthiness, or without paying appropriate vehicle excise duty? Also, as I understand the yougov information, if a vehicle is out of the country for a year it is deemed to have been permanently exported. It's just not set up for long term touring. I wonder if motorhomrs from other countries have the same problem? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randonneur Posted March 26, 2015 Share Posted March 26, 2015 Muswell - 2015-03-25 9:20 AM StuartO - 2015-03-25 8:42 AM Why shouldn't DVLA accept a German HU Certificate in lieu of an MOT for purposes of re-taxing a vehicle which is abroad at the time? Why should it be necessary to pay road tax at all while the vehicle remains abroad when it's a tax to which only UK residents are liable? If you establish the principle of an MOT in one country being valid for a vehicle being registered in another then it follows that there would have to be common standards. The German test is much more stringent than ours. I should imagine there are international agreements in place to ensure that all vehicles pay road tax somewhere. Otherwise there would be complaints about foreigners using roads and not paying for it. Just a bit of information. There is no road tax in France anymore, I think it finished in 2000 for cars and motorhomes. The MOT equivalent in France is the Controle Technique and lasts for 2 years and covers 133 items checked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted March 26, 2015 Share Posted March 26, 2015 A summary of the French Controle Technique can be found here http://riviera.angloinfo.com/information/transport/vehicle-ownership/vehicle-roadworthiness/ Over the last few years there have been standardisation proposals http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/content/20140307IPR38424/html/MEPs-back-new-common-standards-for-vehicle-checks one of which (I believe) is to alter the present EU minimum intervals for testing of up-to-3500kg vehicles from a 4-2-2 regimen (1st test 4 years after first registration - 2nd test 2 years later - subsequent tests every 2 years) as practised in France, to a 4-2-1 sequence, as statistics suggest that vehicles over 6-years-old would benefit safety-wise from annual testing. This would not impact on the UK that already tests on a more frequent 3-1-1 basis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clunegapyears Posted March 31, 2015 Author Share Posted March 31, 2015 Thank you all for information. I have booked an MOT for 4 days before we go. Last was only November, but ho hum. The staying in one place for 6 months and being abroad over 12 monthsbeing seen as exported by the DVLA was all news to me - very useful. Only 20 days till we are off... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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