Dear all,

I am thinking of moving to Switzerland after summer (Basel) from the UK and I am not sure what to do with my current vehicle. It is a Mercedes Viano Marco Polo (converted by Westfalia and used as both car and campervan) and it's a left hand drive.

Do you know:

1) If I drive down to Switzerland with the British plate, how long am I allowed to drive around wihtout registering in Switzerland?
2) If I want to import the vehicle, do I have to pay import duties? Is the insurance in Switzerland more expensive than in UK?

3) Anybody knows if it is possible to sleep in these kind of vehicles on the road (out of campsites) or it is forbidden?

Thanks a lot,
MAx

Hi
you can drive in Switzerland for 1 year with your british plate as long as you have tax insurance and MOT and it is registered in your name in the UK.
2. if the vehicle is part of your normal household goods you will not have to pay taxes on importing it.
3. you can park these vehicles in your normal paid parking spot at your residence.

If you import it however you will have to comply with swiss MOT regulations, and this will certainly involve changing you headlights to a lhd at least.

Hi Max,

I found with my car that my UK insurance company would only insure it our here for 90 days. I had to transfer to Swiss insurance while still on UK plates (still am, actually). I wound up going with Zurich Connect, they were a lot more expensive than the others, but the only company who clearly said they'd insure a UK registered car.

As for the importing, a goold iste is the Swiss Customs one - http://www.ezv.admin.ch/zollinfo_pri...x.html?lang=en.

There's a form on there you need to fill in (http://www.ezv.admin.ch/zollinfo_pri...gpKfo&typ=.pdf), and you have stop at customs at the border and pay a fee (think it was about 30CHF) to formally be allowed to import the car into Switzerland. Then there's another 40CHF if you want to use the motorways. One tip I can deffinately give is not to try and do the importing at half 2 in the morning, when the customs guy on duty speaks less English than you do German and is half asleep!

One last gotcha that I got hit with - if you've owned the car for less than 6 months, you're probably best to wait till after u have owned it for more 6 months, as they could change you VAT on car otherwise.

Hope this helps

Thanks Butters - advice appreciated!
I heard similar thing on the 6 months ownership... I was thinking of changing my vehicle before summer and I might move to Switzerland end of summer - so 3 months away.

Do you think that I could just wait 3 more months and import it then? Or they will state that I was already in Switzelrnad and I have to pay the import duty? What a dilemma - now I'm worried to change my car!

Thanks in advance for your advice.
MAx

You can actually do the customs stuff later. I formally imported my car a few months after getting here, and processed the forms at the customs office in Zurich.

You can wait till you've owned it 6 months then bring it in, even if you've already moved to Switzerland.
My move here was somewhat unexpected (got approched about a job out of the blue), so I'd had my new car for only a couple of months when I moved here. I left it with my Mum, then bought it here at Christmas after the 6 months had passed. Customs didn't seem to have a problem with that

Hello,

I insured fully comp through Liverpool Victoria - They do 180 days Euro/Swiss cover and were as cheap as chips ! Hope that helps