Hi,

I am buying a swiss registered car from a garage in UK. I need the car for a holiday in Europe.

The car has been originally driven for a few months by a Swiss in London who then sold it to the garage.

The grey registration certificate has been stamped annulled and is with the garage. The swiss plates are also on as they were not sent back to Switzerland.

The salesman from the garage claims that I can drive the car in EU on those plates (having the annulled registration certificate and the sales invoice) if I have a valid insurance (green card).

Is this correct or the matter is much more evolved?

Thanks.

Swiss plates go/change with the owner of the car. If the grey card is annulled so is the insurance. The Swiss plates you still have will most likely be considered stolen! The green card goes on those Swiss plates? It's also no longer valid.

To be honest, this sounds like a seriously crazy idea to me!

Sounds complicated! One thing I would do to make sure the insurance company is 100% on-board with insuring the car. If something happens and they see some wiggle room they can exploit due to the licensing they will go for it.

Why not just rent and play it safe.

If you live in the EU, you cannot drive a Swiss registered car.

And, as the card is cancelled, it's not registered and the plates are illegal.

Tom

The plates should have been removed by the previous owner and sent back to the relevant cantonal vehicle registration office.

As st2lemans said you live in the EU so can't drive a Swiss registered car - which it isn't since the grey card has been annulled.

You can buy the car, but you'll need to re-register it in the UK and get UK plates for it plus it'll need to pass any UK required tests such as the MOT. You'll also have to pay vehicle road tax on it and get UK car insurance.

Frankly I'd look for another car at another dealership since this one has given you such bad advice.

How did they manage to do that without handing in the plates?

Something is quite fishy here.

Tom

yep, smell totally rancid!


name of the seller...Arthur Daly by any chance??

If you have 2 cars registered under 1 plate, you can cancel 1 gray card and still have the plates

But I agree it sounds very fishy.

And leave the plates in a foreign country on the de-registered vehicle?

Tom

Here they stamp your grey card invalid, then you go outside, take the plates off your car and drop them into a box at the entrance.

Still, I'm rather surprised they didn't notice after a while that the plates aren't there. To be honest I think they'd get in troubles too if it were reported.

I mail mine in, with the grey card, which they mail back.

Tom

Exactly...and that's where the stink comes from. Probably on hire purchase / lease and the owner done a bunk.

Yeah well, Ticino probably doesn't have a "Strassenverkehrsamt" of it's own. We got two - I'll sell you one (as Swiss number plates can be sold .... )

Many thanks for all replies.

Indeed, not a typical situation at all. Basically I want to register the car in my holiday home location, pay the duty/VAT and leave it there.

I have no idea how the stamping of the reg document was handled. I was told the previous owner (seems a serious person if a Google check is run) sent it to Switzerland and got it back stamped. The garage specializes in LHD sales in UK.

As I liked the car I left a deposit. Then I learned about the duty/VAT for an EU import and we had a follow-up heated discussion for a discount. I did not expect the registrations issues on top.

Will going to Switzerland and applying for export plates do the trick (provided the car is in UK)? I read that this is the standard procedure. The previous registration was in Valais (according to Google). Does anybody know what set of documents I will need?

I presume the other option remaining is to use an autotrailer.

Thanks.

Maybe export plates? Looks like this: http://matthias.jantsch.bn-paf.de/SwitzerlandCH.htm They have a red sticker with the month in which they are valid. But you would also need a accompining permit for that.
Export plates do not have to be returned.

If they are not export plates, there is no insurance on it if the grey card is stamped "annulled" then it can not be driven on the road. Additionaly the previous owner has a big problem as the plates must be returned within 14 days or to be used on a other car (with proper Swiss insurance, gray card and such).

__________________
What?

What is your holiday home location? Switzerland or an EU country?

An EU country.

Just mail the card in or bring it to the counter. You can keep the plates AFAIK (and without checking anything) for up to 14 days if you intend to use it on a other vehicle.

Together with a "Vorläufige Verkehrsberechtigung" http://www.pom.be.ch/pom/de/index/st...echtigung.html you can drive the very instant, plus a phone call to the insurance, you bought a new/other car.

Then what Medea said:

If you said you have a permanent holiday home in Switzerland you may be able to register it in Switzerland (They do it sometimes). With one small problem, an EU-resident can still not use a Swiss registered car in the EU, unless it is arental car and he intends to drive to his normal place of residence. Otherwise it is a tax and duty violation.

Of course it does.

Ticino is one of the largest cantons, both in terms of area and population.

(as I recall, #5 for area, and #8 for population, out of 26)

Tom