# Help. Uk registered car insured taken away.



## Sophieaborad56 (Apr 7, 2021)

Hello can anyone help me out I'm a woman from the uk and am not a resident and not applying for residency just visiting daughter. Car is insured. Was told to change number plates but I don't want to live here. Any suggestions ot any good lawyer s


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Sophieaborad56 said:


> Hello can anyone help me out I'm a woman from the uk and am not a resident and not applying for residency just visiting daughter. Car is insured. Was told to change number plates but I don't want to live here. Any suggestions ot any good lawyer s


If you're a visitor / tourist then there's no need to change the plates, unless you're leaving the car long term.


If you're not leaving it here long term, presumably you'll be taking it back to the UK when you leave after your maximum 90 day visit.


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## MataMata (Nov 30, 2008)

Your message does not match the title, has your car actually been "taken away", that's not something the guardia would do without cause.

What's precipitated the problem, a roadside stop or the car lifted from the road outside wherever you're staying?

More details needed, is it UK or Spanish insured, how long have you/the car been in Spain.

And BTW you do not need to be resident to register a car, only proof of address.


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## Megsmum (Sep 9, 2012)

How long have you been "visiting" your daughter, how did you get here during the pandemic as only residents have been allowed to enter Spain and the UK have had a ban on international travel for a while now?


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Megsmum said:


> How long have you been "visiting" your daughter, how did you get here during the pandemic as only residents have been allowed to enter Spain and the UK have had a ban on international travel for a while now?


Yes, I suspect that might be the issue. 

If the car has been here a long time already, then it should have been changed to Spanish plates.


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

xabiaxica said:


> Yes, I suspect that might be the issue.
> 
> If the car has been here a long time already, then it should have been changed to Spanish plates.


The car can actually be here for 12 months (provided it is legal in its country of registration) PROVIDED the owner/driver is a true non-resident.

It is the status if the owner that matters not the car - this has come from DGT themselves.


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## Overandout (Nov 10, 2012)

I agree with Snikpoh, and to add they can only immobilise the vehicle if the owner is a resident and hasn't complied with the requirement to register it within 6 months.

If the consider the OP was resident, then they should have given a 5 day notice to pay the registration tax before immobilising the car.

If the OP comes back it woud be good to know f this notice was issued?


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## MataMata (Nov 30, 2008)

EU rules say say 6 months in any 12.


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## Megsmum (Sep 9, 2012)

hopefully op will let us know as it's important information. When they arrived. How long they've been here and what exactly is the notice given.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

snikpoh said:


> The car can actually be here for 12 months (provided it is legal in its country of registration) PROVIDED the owner/driver is a true non-resident.
> 
> It is the status if the owner that matters not the car - this has come from DGT themselves.


Yes. 

Although as Overandout says, all bets are off if the Guardia decides that the owner is actually resident. Then it's up to the owner to prove that they truly aren't

Hopefully @Sophieaborad56 will come back & let us know more.


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## xicoalc (Apr 20, 2010)

xabiaxica said:


> Yes.
> 
> Although as Overandout says, all bets are off if the Guardia decides that the owner is actually resident. Then it's up to the owner to prove that they truly aren't
> 
> Hopefully @Sophieaborad56 will come back & let us know more.


If the OP has been here since (for example) last year, then the car will be the least of the problems... the "overstay" stamp in the passport would be the more pressing issue!


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## Overandout (Nov 10, 2012)

The applicable law by the way is not a traffic law, but a tax law (the remedy to the OP's problem, if we have understood it correctly, and to get the car back would be to pay the registration tax) and is Law 38/1992 of 28th December, additional provision 1.


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

MataMata said:


> EU rules say say 6 months in any 12.


Do you have a link to that as my research suggests otherwise.


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## Barriej (Jul 23, 2012)

snikpoh said:


> Do you have a link to that as my research suggests otherwise.



There is this.









Car registration in another EU country - Your Europe


How long can you stay in an EU country before you have to register your car there? Where should your car be registered if your stay is only temporary? Can you be exempt from registering your car? Are there penalties if you don't register your car?




europa.eu





Now this is for EU countries. Now the Uk is a 3rd country the rules may have changed.


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## MataMata (Nov 30, 2008)

It's in the EU directives but more or less what I would have posted, where is your contrary info sinkpoh?


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## alpinist (Feb 8, 2009)

I think you two actually agree: EU rules are that a resident of country A can use their country A-registered car in country B for up to 6 months of any and every year. The 6 months do not have to be consecutive. Students are an obvious exception because they can keep driving around for the duration of their studies.

It was probably written to allow Germans to leave a Benz down on the costa for each winter. Maybe it's for the caravan and motorhome crowd. Either way, they should keep it taxed and insured at home and clearly this is much less of an issue in countries were cars don't need an annual MOT (e.g. Spain, where a new car only needs an ITV in its fourth year then every two etc). 

It also applied to Brits but the obvious distance to the UK and an annual MOT system were clearly problematic. People commonly say not having an MOT makes your insurance invalid, but that's British rule and so doesn't apply abroad. A specialist UK broker told me that if the car was abroad then they didn't need it to have an MOT to keep the cover running, but the car might have issues re-entering the UK if it was flagged at the ports. A host country will of course have its own rules, and it all gets very messy when the police start applying those to a foreign car. 

I imagine many foreigners with holiday homes in Spain struggle to prove they aren't resident because they have incorrectly been advised to sign on as residents.


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## MataMata (Nov 30, 2008)

_Si_ said:


> People commonly say not having an MOT makes your insurance invalid, but that's British rule and so doesn't apply abroad.
> *
> It's a hoary old myth that the lack of an MOT invalidates insurance because it doesn't, where a vehicle happens to be at the time matters not.*
> 
> ...


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## Overandout (Nov 10, 2012)

Barriej said:


> There is this.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


As stated, this applies for EU owners and EU registered vehicles, which of course is no longer the case for the OP. In any case, I can't find any ratification of the EU Directive referred to in Spanish legislation.

The most reliable source of information (as always) are the laws of Spain, not what some other body says is the case in Spain.

I can find two (or three) conflicting sources of info from official Spanish sources:

In this link (to the Tax Authority page) it clearly states that a foreign vehicle (not just EU) can be used in Spain by its foreign owner for up to 6 months consecutively.




__





Agencia Tributaria: Nueva sede electrónica de la Agencia Tributaria






www.agenciatributaria.es





But, according to Order 30 June 1964, Article 8, 1 it says that all temporary imported vehicles must be re-exported when the owner's rights to remain in Spain expire, which of curse makes sense and could mean that many UK reg vehicles should have left by 1st April.

I have also seen references to newer laws, which regulate the requirements to import and pay tax on vehicles from abroad, but these newer laws don't regulate specifically the time allowed in Spain for use by a non-resident.

Curiously, on the Spanish consulate website in Morocco, it says that cars taken to Spain can be used for 6 months in any one year, but must not remain in Spain consecutively for more than 3 months at any time.... Would that rule now apply to the UK being a 3rd country? Or is that something specific to Morocco? Who knows!


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

Barriej said:


> There is this.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Which states - "
*Moving for less than 6 months*
If you move to another EU country and you are going to stay for less than 6 months, you *don't have to register your car*
"

So it's far from clear. But does demonstrate that it's the owner and not the car that matters


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## Megsmum (Sep 9, 2012)

I always find these threads amusing. A poster posts an ambiguous question, doesn't return to clarify questions that would make advice given relevant and everyone responding ends up arguing


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## blondebob (Aug 16, 2019)

Megsmum said:


> I always find these threads amusing. A poster posts an ambiguous question, doesn't return to clarify questions that would make advice given relevant and everyone responding ends up arguing


Totally agree with you, its hilarious the lengths some will go to just to try and prove a point, hours wasted googling and all that lovely vino and tapas just a step outside (not literally in everyones case)


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## xicoalc (Apr 20, 2010)

Megsmum said:


> I always find these threads amusing. A poster posts an ambiguous question, doesn't return to clarify questions that would make advice given relevant and everyone responding ends up arguing





MataMata said:


> Your message does not match the title, has your car actually been "taken away", that's not something the guardia would do without cause.
> 
> What's precipitated the problem, a roadside stop or the car lifted from the road outside wherever you're staying?
> 
> ...


Well, as MataMata said, the OP hasn´t clarified their question really. Has the car been taken away or the insurance? 

It would be unlikely for the police to take away a car and say "you can have it back when its on spanish plates", simply because the process to change it to Spanish plates will require it not to be with the police (ITV etc). Reading the original title of the thread, maybe its the insurance company who have said they are taking away the insurance. Now, this could be true. When I first came to Spain I changed a car tospanish plates but in the first few months it was on foreign plates. My insurer did advise me that the insurance was only valid for a period of time abroad in one trip (cant remember if it was 3 or 6 months). 

So really, for anyone to help the original question the following needs to be clarified:

1) What has been taken away, and on what grounds?
2) How long have you been in Spain (since your last date of arrival)
3) How long has the car been in Spain


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## Overandout (Nov 10, 2012)

Megsmum said:


> I always find these threads amusing. A poster posts an ambiguous question, doesn't return to clarify questions that would make advice given relevant and everyone responding ends up arguing


Far from arguing, most of us agree that aftera max 6 months of the vehicle (and owner) being here, the OP is in trouble! And that is the best case scenario, it coud be that after 1st April they were in trouble.
All of this might be useful to another person even if the OP doesn't return.

But yes, for all we know the car was towed away because it was pared illegally and have nothing to do with how long it / they have been here.... we may never know!


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## NickZ (Jun 26, 2009)

The six month out of a year use rule is for EU nationals (or residents) who leave a car in a different country. 

If the OP is from the UK that's not the rule. Memory tells me the general rule is 12 months. If you exceed that you need to import the car or get it out of the country.


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## xicoalc (Apr 20, 2010)

Overandout said:


> But yes, for all we know the car was towed away because it was pared illegally and have nothing to do with how long it / they have been here.... we may never know!


Another likely possibility to be honest, you are right.

The local police in Spain are like the postman/postwoman, they know everything, everyone and whats going on. They may well have towed it for another reason and simply passed comment that it should be on Spanish plates because they have seen it here for a long time OR because the person who went to collect it was british and has lived here longer than permitted as a 3rd national which means that the car cannot stay on plates. Who knows!


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## Megsmum (Sep 9, 2012)

Overandout said:


> Far from arguing, most of us agree that aftera max 6 months of the vehicle (and owner) being here, the OP is in trouble! And that is the best case scenario, it coud be that after 1st April they were in trouble.
> All of this might be useful to another person even if the OP doesn't return.
> 
> But yes, for all we know the car was towed away because it was pared illegally and have nothing to do with how long it / they have been here.... we may never know!


Apologies my post was a bit tongue in cheek!


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