A few years ago, a couple of HUBBers contacted me to help them buy bikes in Estonia with a view of riding into Russia and down to the Silk Road. It worked well back then - they made it safely and had a great trip.

Last week, I helped one of them do it again, this time with a car. (They bought a crappy old minivan for a thousand euros to go camping in Norway.) So we've seen the bureaucracy again, and it turns out to be even simpler than I thought before. I figured it's a worthwhile report to have here on the HUBB.

Here's the way it worked:

0. Ahead of arriving in Estonia, the buyer (who is on a non-EU passport) looked on the websites where all vehicles are advertised. That's auto24.ee for cars, mototehnika.ee for bikes. He chose a few that seemed like good options, I called the owners and talked to them in Estonian, arranged a viewing on the buyer's day of arrival.

1. On that day's evening, we go to see the car. The buyer negotiates with the seller, they reach an agreement. We sign the paper sales document, the buyer writes his passport number instead of the Estonian ID code, and his home address outside the EU. One copy stays with the seller. We get the other copy, and the registration certificate (little green strip of paper).

When the transaction is between two Estonian residents, it's done entirely online (paper-free), but this requires the new owner to have an Estonian ID code. To put the seller's mind at ease, I put my name and ID code on the papers in addition to the buyer. The seller can go online and inform the registration office that they are no longer the owner of the vehicle (võõrandamisteade in Estonian), and leave my details as the person who is now in possession of the vehicle. At that point the seller has no more liability for the vehicle - even if it hasn't been re-registered in the new owner's name.

2. The next morning, me and the buyer go to the vehicle registration office in Tallinn. We give the sales contract and the registration certificate to the official. At this point, there needs to be an Estonian citizen/resident to act as the representative for the buyer. I fill out a basic form saying "yes I am the representative for this person".

Crucially, unlike what we did before when buying bikes, it turns out that I do not need to become the Authorized User of the vehicle. My name does not go on the vehicle's registration certificate. It means I am not liable for the insurance premiums or parking fines or anything else on that vehicle.

3. The new owner shows his non-EU passport that matches what's on the sales document, and pays a 61 euro fee (by card, right there). He gets a new registration certificate, this time with him as the owner. (It is also possible to put your travel companions on the registration as simple users - basically you're allowing them to drive the vehicle, but not sell or export it.)

4. We go around the corner to an insurance broker, and the new owner gets mandatory traffic insurance (including a green card) in his name. In this case, a month's insurance on a generic old minivan was around 22 euros.

....done.

5. When their trip is done, they can bring the car back to Estonia and sell it, or they can scrap it - then send the plates, registration certificate, and certificate of scrapping to the Estonian registration office, and the vehicle will be deleted from registration. But crucially, unlike the previous way we did it, this is no longer my headache, as I am not in any way responsible for the vehicle.

The upshot is that I now feel much more willing to support other non-EU HUBBers who might want to do the same thing. I won't make a business out of it, as the transaction did take half a day of my time, but I might be willing to entertain the occasional help request, and so might other Estonians.