Hi,

DVLA wont issue a duplicate V5 to a Swiss address, and wont let me tax my car in the UK without a V5, and the could possibly impound it if I try to drive out of the UK on UK plates.

So, can anyone tell me if its possible to become a named driver on a friend's Swiss insurance policy and then just transfer his plates onto the car in the UK and make it a Swiss car (I'm sending the DVLA a declaration of permanent export V756 anyway)?

Thanks

You cannot transfer the plates to another car like that, it's completely illegal.

Tom

How long has the car been in Switzerland on UK plates?

The car isn't in Switzerland - its still in the UK, and declared SORN to DVLA

I thought that in Switzerland if you have multi-vehicle insurance and you don't ever drive more than one vehicle at a time, your insurance company would allow you to transfer plates between your vehicles.

And as its the car and not the driver which is insured, then I just need to get a Swiss friend to insure my car, and then he is allowed to let me attach the plates to it.

Is this not correct?

Unlucky tax avoidance then screwed
The car is not registered or tax paid in CH, so it won't be possible.

Yeah, that's the difficult bit. I'm trying to offshore the tax to CH, but 24hrs before I arrive at the Swiss border. I don't think the Swiss will let me declare it for import if its not here yet.

Ask the STVA of your canton about temp plates. On the application form, you only need to put in some information from the registration paper, and it works even for EU cars.

Problem is they are for a couple of days, so you need to get them, fly to UK and cannonball back

If it's roadworthy, you can also get export plates that are a much better solution.

Excellent!

I looked into export plates but most stuff I read requires you to buy them in the vehicles country of origin and UK doesn't do them. I found a German company that mentioned foreign cars, but I think that might have been for cars previously imported to Germany that need to be exported from Germany. Also they needed a copy of the vehicle registration document which I can't find.

If the Strassenverkehrsamt will issue a 2-day temporary plate with just a make model and VIN then that's all I need. Its only 8hrs from Calais to Zurich.

Yes, provided that they are both registered in Switzerland, and that the insurance is declared for both.

However, this won't work for foreign registered vehicles, first you bring it here, get it inspected, and then get dual plates. If it ain't here and registered, nothing to do.

Tom

A Polish car dealer bought a Swiss registered car from me with German export plates. Swiss car driven from ZH to Poland.

What fmf said.

There are very few countries that can cause an issue with German export plates, most EU will be just fine. (for GR for example is a no-go).

The STVA will need a couple of entries of a (any) registration paper, even a "cancelled one".

Same goes for export plates, they don't need the actual registration necessarily, they need the information from the last valid one, so that they can issue a new temp one.

The fun and games will start when he turns up with his UK car on DE export plates and tries to get it through as personal belongings when he has already been here 2 years!!

I am sure what he is trying to do is far easier than what he should have done in the first place.

What I always fail to understand is the efforts people will go to in their attempts to get round the letter of the law, looking for a loophole that nearly always relies on not being 100% honest. If you're going to tell a 'white lie' to tax, insurance or registration authorities, why not go the whole hog and just get some false plates made up, or steal someone else's plates (or car)?

It's almost as if people are just trying to convince themselves that being 90% legal is acceptable, but really it's no different from being 0% legal.

Actually I imported the car I have now as personal belongings just as my first year here was coming up. And before that I was here with another car, also with GR plates. The customs office at Zurich didn't mind (I had talked to them before going through the process obviously).

As long as you can prove the car is personal belongings (owned >6mo before 1st entry) then I don't know how long after the 1st entry they'll let you bring it in.

A friend is now bringing his motorcycle from IT, and he's already been here for 3 or 4 years.

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I just talked to customs about bringing my car here, and they say that I've been here too long to bring the 2nd vehicle in on a 15.30. So I should file an 18.44 at the border and I will be issued a 13.20A. Then I can keep the vehicle off road without doing anything for the STVA, and when I want to re export it for the start of the banger rally in December, I can file a 15.25 which gives me 48hrs to get it to the border.

Which German companies sell transit plates for non-German cars without requiring to see the vehicle registration document (its lost) ?
Got insurance, license and annual inspection (MOT) docs

http://www.zollkennzeichen.de/

(English site http://www.export-plate.com/ )

And here's a case in point. It may be legal to offer this service in Germany, but do we really believe that this would be acceptable to Swiss authorities? Pretty sure that if you explained it all to a Swiss customs or police official they wouldn't like it.

Quite likely they'd claim that the insurance is not valid, as it relies on a claimed address that your not actually resident at, and it might very well invalidate your ability to declare it as personal possessions for import, given that it's no longer registered in the country your claiming to be bringing it from, as explained on their the website.

Car registration has nothing to do with ownership. Sorry, I do not see the connection you try to make.

But I see once in a while a car with German export plates on Swiss roads. If insurance is o.k. it is perfectly legal. Specially when the car was declaerd as prescribed by law. And why lie with the address? Just truethfully state where you live.
You can even get Swiss export plates if you like. Non suprisingly, no need for a Swiss address either as most people exporting a car do not live in Switzerland:
http://www.stva.zh.ch/internet/siche.../KSexport.html
(Catch: The car needs a Swiss Stamm-Nr.)

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