Buying a bike in UK for overland trip - paperwork?
 

Hi all,

I am planning an overland trip from the UK back to Oz, and I plan to buy a new bike in the UK for the trip.

How do I sort out registration and insurance without a residential adress in the UK? What extra paperwork do I need to take the bike out of the UK, then the European Union and eastward?

Which is the appropriate government department to direct my questions to?

I hope someone with recent relevant experience can help me with this.

Cheers
Carlos

Hi Carlos - I'd say registering and insuring a bike in the UK without a UK address would be all but impossible (such is the way the UK government like to do things)...

If you are buying the bike for export (presumably) then there may be a way around it - you need to ask a dealer who supplies machines for export sales - I'm sure you could carry a letter/sales invoice showing you purchased/own the machine, but I don't know what you would do about a registration document or displaying a number plate, as it wouldn't be registered anywhere? This may not technically be a problem, but I imagine would cause a lot of confusion at borders etc.

Insurance is impossible to get in the UK without the machine being registered there, but you can insure 'foreign' machines using the chassis/frame number using ARISA in mainland Europe (and there policy is also valid for the UK), so they might be able to help you while you travel through Europe... however, I still think you'll have problems (if only hassle at each border) without the machine having an official registration document?

Could you not adopt a UK address temporarily for the paperwork initally? Then import/re-register the machine once you get back home? That would also save a lot of customs/duty issues, as the bike would be both technically and clearly secondhand (very secondhand I imagine, after riding it the way to Australia!) rather than a tatty, but essentially still 'new' import?

xxx

Carlos, I notice you're currently in Germany (well that's what the HUBB says). Is that a residential address?

Are you thinking of going straight from the UK to Oz, or are you buying in the UK because of the weak pound, taking the bike back to Germany, and then going from Germany to Oz?

I ask because it'd be much, much easier to import the bike to Germany, register it there and then ride off fully covered by German plates. And because it's all in Europe it shouldn't be too hard either.

Here's what I've found out from the DVLA (responsable for registering motor vehicles in the UK).

• You don't need to register a bike to buy it, despite what many bike shops say.
• If you can register in Germany, and it's new you'll no doubt have to pay German purchase tax. It is possible to buy in the UK ex-VAT (purchase tax) despite what many bike shops will tell you.
• You'll almost certainly need a European Certificate of Conformity to re-register in Germany. If you're buying from a dealer get them to get it for you from the importer (there's usually a small cost for individuals, but dealers sometimes get them for free).

Now if you're really lucky you'll find that the German registration is like the French, and you can do what I'm in the middle of doing right now.

I'm buying a bike from the UK, and have already paid a deposit and received a full sales invoice. I took that to the French Taxman, and paid the tax (I'm buying new), then I took the invoice, the form from the Taxman, and the European Certificate of Conformity to the Registration Office, and they have processed it, and issued me with a French registration document. I took this to the registration plate maker and he made me a plate. I then took everything to the insurer and insured the bike.

BUT, the bike is STILL in the shop in the UK, unregistered with a sold sticker on it. In about 7 hours I'll be rivetting my French plate to it, and sticking my insurance sticker on it, and then riding it legally back to the ferry. Because I had all the paperwork in advance in France, the bike didn't even need to be there. I can ride out of the bikeshop with a legally registered French bike.

If though, you can't do this, then here's possible solutions.

• You could ask the bike shop to register it for you, then get them to send off section 11 (permanent export) to the DVLA, and you would have all the rest of the V5 registration document.
• You could find a van and bring it over in that.
• You could find out of you can get temporary registration in Germany (sometimes possible while the registration process is going through) and ride it back to Germany on that (if that's legal and/or not too risky).

Of course if the plan is to go straight from the UK to Oz, then you'll probably find it a lot harder, and registering it at the bike shop's address is probably the only solution.