Personal imports: insurance and registration.

[Brian Kirby]

Many of those who have been down the above route recently will have found their attempts to obtain comprehensive insurance for the European leg of their journeys unrewarded.  I know I did, and after speaking to a few of my co-importers, it seems they shared my experience.

Simply stated, whereas comprehensive insurance for an unregistered vehicle is obtainable from UK insurers; cover does not commence until the vehicle actually reaches UK soil.  Insurance for the European leg of the journey must be obtained, therefore, in the country of purchase and, to obtain this, it seems the vehicle must first be registered in that country.  Commonly, this will be achieved by temporary, export, registration with time-limited validity.  German dealers particularly then seem able to provide concomitant insurance as part of, or allied to, this temporary registration.  However, such insurance appears very basic, covering only the minimum requirement for third party cover under German law.  For French dealers, similar insurance appears, to all intents and purposes, unobtainable.  I cannot comment on other countries.  Comprehensive cover seems unobtainable at any price.

Thus, we are left with a right to import, exercisable only if we accept considerable, and I think unreasonable, financial risks.

Simply stating again, the problem has two causes.  One is an EC directive that alerted insurers generally to various bonding requirements.  The effect has been that providing insurance for unregistered or foreign registered vehicles, on foreign soil, has become economically unattractive.  The other cause is that when registering an imported vehicle in the UK, it must be available for inspection by DVLA.

The first problem would be resolved if the vehicle were UK registered when insured.

The second seems to stem from two desires on the part of Government.  They wish a) to protect their revenues (registration fee, VED and VAT), and use registration as the lever to achieve this, and b) to ensure that imported vehicles have UK lighting and speedometers reading in MPH.

It seemed to me, however, that some quite minor procedural tinkering would allow both these objectives to be met, even were the vehicle registered before importation.

On the question of securing revenues, the registration fee and VED are payable when applying to register.  Therefore, the timing of the application has no real bearing on receipt of the revenue.  Verification of the modifications to lighting and speedometer relies largely upon a declaration from the importer, and not upon inspection.  The best that can be said for DVLA’s right to inspect, is that it is exercised sporadically.

VAT is currently calculated against a receipted invoice from the supplier, logically only obtainable after completing the purchase.  It is therefore paid after importation but, presumably, could equally well be paid beforehand if the sum due were known.

I have therefore written to my MP, outlining the shortcomings of the present procedure and asking him to take the matter up with the responsible Minister/s.

I have suggested the following procedural changes in respect of new, Single Type, or Type, Approved, 3,500kg max weight, vehicles imported from EC countries only.

1.    The application to register the vehicle should be made in the same form as at present, based upon the same information, fee, and VED, but before, rather than after, importation.

2.    In respect of VAT, this should be calculated and paid at the time of applying to register, against an unreceipted invoice, or bill, from the vendor, giving the same information as presently required.  It would therefore be obtainable in advance.

3.    That the date of first registration be set as the date of application.

4.    That the application be processed up to, and including, the point at which a registration number is allocated, the vehicle details entered on the DVLA database, and authorisation to obtain numberplates is issued.  This would enable the importer to obtain numberplates and fully comprehensive UK insurance.  The procedure should then pause until after importation.

5.    That the V5C Registration document and Tax Disc be withheld until after one, new, procedure has been completed.

The importer could then visit his dealer to collect his new motorhome, with his UK numberplates and his certificate of UK insurance, and drive home fully insured.  Because the full registration procedure had not been completed, technically, he would be restricted to driving from port to home/garage for the necessary modifications, as at present.  He would then have to complete the new procedure before his Tax Disc and V5C would be released, and his vehicle could legally enter circulation.

This new procedure would be to take the modified vehicle to an MoT Testing Station.  The modifications would then be inspected, the vehicle record on the DVLA database checked, and a Certificate of Conformity (or whatever) issued.  This certification would be confirmed on line, as are MoT tests, so that the vehicle would depart the Testing Station fully insured, taxed, registered, and legal, with a certificate to prove it.  The Tax Disc and V5C would then follow in the post.

Finally, I had a little “pop” about the price differential between motorhomes in Europe generally and UK, pointing to this as a significant driver for importers in accepting this unreasonably risky path to ownership.

Now, whether any of this will make the slightest difference, I have absolutely no idea!  Stillborn, I suspect, will prove its fate.

However, if you find yourself in agreement with any of it, and think something of the sort could prove beneficial, why not write to your own MP, making your own suggestion?  They’re all on e-mail now!  A number of similar approaches, with a common theme (even if they differ in detail), just might get this issue onto someone’s agenda for attention.  A lone voice in the Whitehall wilderness probably won’t.

So, how about it, Boys and Girls?

[Don Madge]

Brian, I'll contact David Davis our MP and I'll use your letter as a guide. There is a site that monitors MP's response to E mails do you happen to have it please. I'll start a search to see If I can find it again. Don

[Brian Kirby]

Don

Thanks.  Blimey, that was quick!  No, I don't know of that site.  I just typed in his name as an internet search.

Good luck.

[Don Madge]

I found it at http://www.writetothem.com/ Don

[Don Madge]

Brian, I've mailed my MP I'll keep you posted, if and when I get a reply. Don

[Derek Uzzell]

Brian: I've put a Private Message about this in your In-Box