Getting the carnet bond back?
 

Hi, my bikes currently on the way back to Finland from Australia, should be home in less than a month.

The Automobile Association here refuses to return the carnet bond (5000 euros) before they will get the "certificate of location", on the last page of the carnet, stamped by customs authorities here in Finland. That, of course, will not happen until the bike actually gets here. I could use that money right now, cos I was travelling for half a year, and didnt earn much during that time...

The carnet has been stamped out of Australia (the same way it has been stamped out of all other carnet countries we visited).

I once had an idea to leave the bike to Thailand (ok, there may be other difficulties regarding that, but lets not go into that)... if I had done that, the situation would basically be exactly the same that it is now. Carnet stamped out, but no bond coming back, unless both bike and the carnet have returned home.

Does anyone know, if this is really so that the BIKE has to physically return home, before the bond can be returned? I understood that the carnet is ONLY for the countries that are in the system, and provided that I take my bike to a non-carnet country, I should be able to return this document, and get the bond back. According to the Finnish Automobile Association, this is not the case.

Luckily I am really taking it back home now, so I should eventually get the money back...

There is a "Certificate Of Location" on the last page of this carnet, but i dont know if this should actually be in the carnet, or if its something "extra" that the Finnish club has included in theirs. They said it will make it easier for them to prove that the vehicle has not been left into a carnet country, if any country will make such claims in the future (that might be true).

What difference does it make (regarding the carnet/bond), where the bike actually is, as long as it can be proven, that its not in a carnet-country anymore?

I can’t remember to have seen a “Certificate Of Location” and I don’t get any papers stamped when I return to Norway.
There are several options to get your money back:

• You have all exit stamps
• If you are missing an exit stamp that’s okay if you have an entry stamp with a later date (this proves that you have left the country where you miss the exit stamp)
• Bring the bike to their office

But it might differ from one country to the next.

I have all exit stamps.

So I guess it comes down to whether this "Certificate of Location" is, or should be, officially in the carnet. If not, and its only something they have made up locally, then I will tell them to return my bond NOW, or else...

But before I do that, I think I should be 100% sure, that it is really so.

Edit: Even when I think about it, it still makes no sense to me, that if a person has taken his/her bike into carnet-countries, and taken care to get all proper entry/exit stamps, then gone to the next country, which does NOT use the carnet system, the bond will still stay, until the bike is returned home. Like if I had left the bike in Thailand, they would not be returning the bond to me, thats crazy!

In France, I had to get an attestation letter from my Marie to say they had seen the bike before the automobile club of France would give me my money back... so it would seem normal.
I think my traveling partner had to produce his customs clearance docs in the UK to get his back.

It should be stated in the docs they gave you when the Carnet was issued.

Cheers,
John

That means that they do not actually trust the stamps on your carnet to prove, that the bike has really left the carnet country/countries...

And it also means that you cannot take your bike overland to another country to stay, and get the bond back, if there are carnet countries on your way - even if your destination country is not in the carnet system.

I dont see, how it is their business, where the bike is, as long as its not in a carnet country anymore. I understand, that they´re worried about possible contacts later on from the countries visited, stating that the vehicle has stayed.

But I do not understand, why the official customs stamps are, in reality, not enough to prove, that it has not. I thought this is the way it was supposed to work.

Lucky me, that I am actually bringing the bike back.