I have been refused re-registration of my Robin Hood by the French. I wrote to my MEP asking for a simply answer. I was passed me onto someone else who sent me this;


Please find below the reply to your enquiry. Please note that the advice given by Your Europe Advice is an independent advice and cannot be considered to be the opinion of the European Commission, of any other EU institution or its staff nor will this advice be binding upon the European Commission, any other EU or national institution.
Dear Sir, I am writing you regarding your request about the car’s registration. By virtue of the “Commission interpretative communication on procedures for the registration of motor vehicles originating in another Member State”: “ national authorities may request the EC certificate of conformity for vehicles previously registered in another Member State when the non-harmonised registration certificate of the other Member State does not allow them to identify the motor vehicle with sufficient precision”. Therefore, the French authorities may require additional technical checks. I suggest you to consult the above mentioned Communication by clicking on the following link: DF" target="_blank">http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2007:068:0015:0024:enDF Moreover, I advise you to consult the European Commission’s website regarding the registration of motor vehicles at the following address: http://ec.europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/vehicles/registration/formalities/index_en.htm?profile=0 Regards Expert Your Europe Advice To submit another enquiry, please visit Your Europe Advice, but do not reply to this e-mail.
Yours sincerely,
Your Europe Advice

I have just replied with this:

Dear Sir/Madam You have sent me a non-answer. All you did was direct me somewhere to one of your paper wasting 'advice' documents. Which we, the laymen; do not understand.

Your documents are gobbledegook to the man in the street.

I have a certificate stating that my car is satisfactory, and safe enough, in all quarters, to be SVA'd, IVA'd, MOT'd, taxed and insured!

(For your information, the SVA/IVA is a super MOT which certifies all aspects of the vehicle (construction/safety/lighting/) have reached the required standard.)

I want a simple Yes, or No.

As I am English, I have, under EEC law, the right to live when I want within the EEC, surely I should also have the right to take my car with me, OR are the French non-conforming to the EEC by having their own regulations!

Maybe you should be sorting matters like this, that people need, rather than wasting time making directives on Cabbages, Brussels Sprouts and Bananas!

Yours Sincerely

I'm very interested in this topic because I'm still undecided between doing IVA in the UK and then re-registering in Portugal or trying to do it all in Portugal (which, amazingly, is more expensive then sending the car on a crate to the UK, doing IVA and bringing it back).

For what I understood from reading the EC law and speaking with a person in the Portuguese-equivalent-to-DVLA, the EC law allows two types of approval. One is EC approval where the vehicle is approved in one country and the EC certificate is valid for all EC countries. The other type of approval, only valid for amateur builds and small series, is a National approval, where rules may differ slightly between countries. This is the type of approval where the IVA probably falls into. Just look at your Certificate of Approval and see if it states on the upper right (?) corner that it is "EC Approval" or omits that.

For National Approvals, other EC countries aren't forced to accept the certificate per se and can demand further documentation proving compliance or request a new IVA-equivalent. And it's known that at least in France and Germany that national amateur build approval is almost impossible. I know in Portugal at least one person got a car registered (a Fury) but had to go through many hurdles.

Another person that is known in Portugal for recovering classic cars (mostly British) and preparing classics for racing has told me that DVLA-equivalent has even been causing problems re-registering classic cars, that were built/sold prior to EC certifications and, thus, don't have such paperworks. He told me of a customer of his that had to put a fight to re-register an Escort RS (MKI?) that had UK plate and he wanted to race in the national classics.

By the way, if you will only be staying some months or years in France and plan to go back to the UK, try to find out if you are allowed to keep the UK plate and just carry with you an approval to circulate with it. I believe foreigners working here are allowed to go around with their foreign plates.

I'll keep following this thread with interest...
Good luck!
HappyFather

The IVA is a bit of a joke in terms of technical requirements compared to EC type approval. Other member states are only obliged to accept foreign approvals if the standards assessed are equivalent to their own. It's not that the French are not adhering to EU law, it's that the UK have developed a scheme to allow self-build to continue but that comes nowhere near the European standards.

There is an agreement on 'mutual recognition of standards' or similar under the 1992 Single Market act that should force any member state to recognise standards from another member which may cover this.

It's fairy simple. The type approval system within the EU is harmonized. Member states (i.e. the UK) can deviate from that if they wish (and the UK has done just that with the IVA). If you want to register a non type-approved vehicle (your IVA'd car) in a different member state (france), that member state can request you carry out additional tests, which might just be equal to the standard type approval tests, thus making registering your car in France impossible.

To be fair, the comment: "national authorities may request the EC certificate of conformity for vehicles previously registered in another Member State when the non-harmonised registration certificate of the other Member State does not allow them to identify the motor vehicle with sufficient precision”. Says exactly that.

As said above, the IVA is a bit of a joke compared to a full EU type approval. Our cars are basically dangerous and very polluting compared to a type approved vehicle, and as such some countries have chosen not to allow them on their roads. Harsh but true...

quote:

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Originally posted by matt_claydon
The IVA is a bit of a joke in terms of technical requirements compared to EC type approval. Other member states are only obliged to accept foreign approvals if the standards assessed are equivalent to their own. It's not that the French are not adhering to EU law, it's that the UK have developed a scheme to allow self-build to continue but that comes nowhere near the European standards.

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Sounds like you should tell them that you're trying to do this the legal way, but if they want you to go ahead and drive an untaxed and un-mot'd car with british plates then fine, their loss.

What are the rules about driving on plates from a member state? I was under the impression that you could indeffinatly drive in the EU in a car from any member state, If i'm right all you'd need to do is keep your car registered to a UK adress?

From what you've said I'm guessing their answer is no. Your problem isn't France doing something outside the rules but the UK exercising its own sovereign rights to allow low production cars.

In France you must re-register a car with foreign plates after six months.

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Originally posted by designer
In France you must re-register a car with foreign plates after six months.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Humbug

quote:

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Originally posted by designer
In France you must re-register a car with foreign plates after six months.

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and in the UK AFAIK

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quote:

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Originally posted by Humbug

quote:

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Originally posted by designer
In France you must re-register a car with foreign plates after six months.

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and in the UK AFAIK

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but if they wont let you register your car in their country what can you do other than drive around on foreign plates? the rules seem stupid. you can drive the car as a visitor on foreign plates and they are willing to accept that it is safe and road legal due to it being from an eu-member state. personally if i couldn't get it registered i would keep driving it until someone noticed then ask how should i register it?

its a mad system, when you look at some of the wrecks the Polish and Czechs are bring over with them.

You can get extended EU insurance, I've seen it as an option on internet brookers sites and I'd guess you could get full EU insurance for the whole year if you wanted.

Take it over for the summer, then put it in storage on sorn for the winter?

Have just got this reply:::

Dear Mr Fisher,

Thank you for your email. We cannot answer your question with a yes or no answer unfortunately as we are not in possession of the relevant information regarding this issue.

We would be happy to contact the European Commission regarding this question to seek clarification on your behalf should you so wish.

I hope this helps.

best wishes,

Chris Beverley
British National Party

And now have got this reply:

Dear Sir/Madam,

Please find below the reply to your enquiry. Please note that the advice given by Your Europe Advice is an independent advice and cannot be considered to be the opinion of the European Commission, of any other EU institution or its staff nor will this advice be binding upon the European Commission, any other EU or national institution.

Dear Sir, I am writing you regarding your request about the car’s registration. I confirm the previous answer, the French authorities may require additional technical checks. Therefore, the English certificate of conformity is not automatically recognised by the French authorities.

As you requested, the answer is No.

Regards Expert Your Europe Advice


To submit another enquiry, please visit Your Europe Advice, but do not reply to this e-mail.

Yours sincerely,

Your Europe Advice