# UK car in Spain



## baffled (Sep 20, 2009)

HI My husband and I are busy building a house in Velez Rubio and in March this year I took my UK car out. I understand that I have to register this car in Spain if it is there for more than 6 months.? We have NEI numbers but are not resident and will spend maybe a couple of month in spain then couple in UK etc. Do I need to get car registered and have spanish plates and if so how do I go about this? Thanks


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

baffled said:


> HI My husband and I are busy building a house in Velez Rubio and in March this year I took my UK car out. I understand that I have to register this car in Spain if it is there for more than 6 months.? We have NEI numbers but are not resident and will spend maybe a couple of month in spain then couple in UK etc. Do I need to get car registered and have spanish plates and if so how do I go about this? Thanks


If you are an official resident in Spain ie, you live there, then you have to get your car matriculated within 30 days. However, if you are a tourist or visitor to Spain (which you are if you only spend a couple of months there and can prove that if asked) then you are allowed 90 days before you have to legally change the cars plates, so you should be fine as long as your insurance company are aware that the car spends time in Spain

Jo xxx


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## Tallulah (Feb 16, 2009)

baffled said:


> HI My husband and I are busy building a house in Velez Rubio and in March this year I took my UK car out. I understand that I have to register this car in Spain if it is there for more than 6 months.? We have NEI numbers but are not resident and will spend maybe a couple of month in spain then couple in UK etc. Do I need to get car registered and have spanish plates and if so how do I go about this? Thanks


Hi Baffled and welcome to the forum!

I assume though that your UK car will be here permanently - or are you planning on driving it to and from the UK/Spain on your visits back every couple of months?

If it is to be here permanently, then think carefully about that. We did that with a UK car some years ago now - back then, it was a case of "precintarlo" (by the Guardia Civil - which means it is sealed and off the road when you're not here and the same process in reverse when you're in Spain - "quitar precinto" - or remove the seal, if you like). Not sure if that system still exists, but in any case, the car was scrapped after a few of these exercises as several things ceased up due to zero use for months at a time. This is a major consideration for you leaving a car for 2 months of no use, several times a year, and it really should be stored properly, raised with the weight off the wheels, etc....pain in the rear, actually!

If the car is a model that is available here - a gestoria will not have any problems taking your documentation to have a "ficha tecnica" produced and get you your first ITV (MOT) appointment, as long as everything in the car is factory standard. We paid under 500 euros to have a Toyota 7-seater MPV put on Spanish plates, but I repeat, it is available here and second hand websites will display the model. This is a good source of information for availability of a car in the Spanish market. 

You'll require your UK papers, log book, MOT and the car's manual to help you with weights and measures. Hand this all over to the Gestoria and let them get on with it. To be honest, if you're looking for a car to have purely as a run around when here, you would be much better off buying a car already on Spanish plates, but I guess it's already here, so you'll just have to get on with it!! By the way, it doesn't cost anything to just pop in to a Gestoria and ask some questions regarding getting your car registered in Spain. I would seriously recommend that you don't do it yourself, even if you knew all the steps, you don't know the people involved and the Gestores do and in Spain, it makes all the difference. In fact, you'll find that you will supply them with all the papers that you could submit to ITV (MOT) yourself and wonder why you couldn't.....just take my word for it, you doing it does not produce the same results or requests as the Gestor doing it for you. Well, at least, it's faster and smoother anyway and does away with chasing around headaches!!

Good luck - and with the housebuild too. Another lot of paperwork - we've been there. Happy to say though fully settled now and loving it. Let us know how you get on!

Tallulah.x


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## baffled (Sep 20, 2009)

Tallulah said:


> Hi Baffled and welcome to the forum!
> 
> I assume though that your UK car will be here permanently - or are you planning on driving it to and from the UK/Spain on your visits back every couple of months?
> 
> ...



Thanks for that Tallulah - We are keeping in Spain full time....I think will have to discuss in ore detail with my husband. In UK at moment and back to spain on Thursday. Where abouts are you in Spain? did your build go trouble free? probably not! We are buildign ourselves so learning as we go I think. At present we are at the point of getting generators and batteries and solar power no electric in the mountains!


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## JBODEN (Jul 10, 2009)

baffled said:


> Thanks for that Tallulah - We are keeping in Spain full time....I think will have to discuss in ore detail with my husband. In UK at moment and back to spain on Thursday. Where abouts are you in Spain? did your build go trouble free? probably not! We are buildign ourselves so learning as we go I think. At present we are at the point of getting generators and batteries and solar power no electric in the mountains!


I'll probably be interested in solar heat & solar electricity in the near future. It will be interesting to hear what is involved and how much it costs (maybe a separate thread?)


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## Tallulah (Feb 16, 2009)

baffled said:


> Thanks for that Tallulah - We are keeping in Spain full time....I think will have to discuss in ore detail with my husband. In UK at moment and back to spain on Thursday. Where abouts are you in Spain? did your build go trouble free? probably not! We are buildign ourselves so learning as we go I think. At present we are at the point of getting generators and batteries and solar power no electric in the mountains!



Hi again Baffled! We're in a village in La Coruña province, Galicia. We came out here over four years ago now, but my husband is originally from here. The build...well, we'd always planned on building perhaps a holiday home here on some land that my OH had, and with our jobs taking us to France a lot, we looked at moving over there, but it just made sense with the children at their ages at the time to make a permanent move over here instead. The build literally was trouble free, but the designing of the property, waiting around for licences, approving design project with the School of Architects here in Galicia, etc was a ton a running around and red tape. In summary we made sure the land was fully registered with Catastro and land registry and the deeds (now our deeds) reflected reality with no questions of m2, boundaries or any other typical shenanigans that always seem to be sorted out "later" by Spanish owners - often translating to "never" !! Having done that, we virtually repeated the process having built the house and received the licence of first occupation. This leaving us with the house on the deeds, which until that point was just a field. This reflected in Catastro and land registry, thus closing the loop of all legal matters. That last line is a very small amount of text for a huge amount of redtape inbetween - including utility suppliers!

However, we completed the build and moved into the house in April last year and it's been fantastic really - all those headaches pretty much have melted away now, leaving a distant fog of bad memories at the time!! The gardens/land are still a work in progress - but it's all pretty much tidy and laid to lawn now. Still having fun (and hard labour!) working with stone, laying pavements around the house, building patios, etc....and the small matter of permanent land enclosure walls to build. Whoever said moving to Spain would be a leisurely lifestyle?? 

Perhaps you could start another thread and let us know how you're getting on with your housebuild - as JBoden has said in his post above, he's interested in the solar panels, etc that you might be using in your build. Quick question though, as you are going to live in the mountains, where one assumes wind is in no short supply, any reason why solar rather than wind turbine? 

All the best!

Tallulah.x


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