Hey guys,
Does anyone have any experecnce of letting their rego laps while they are in south America? I have spoken to the Rego people here and they say I must keep it up while I am over seas (not put the rego on pause/hold). I have a vehicle ownership document. Will anyone be looking for it while I am in South America? I have asked a mate overthere now and he tells me they are pretty lax about paperwork?
Im, tempted to just declare it 'off the road' until I bring it back in a year or two. Its a lot of money, something like $500+ per year. so over a year or three... $1500 is a lot of cash just for a stamp in a country where there bike is not even there.

Any experiences would be great!

Most British vehicles overseas are SORNed - indicating they are out of the country and so not liable for road tax - so the debate becomes whether they are legally registered back in the home country which seems to be a universal requirement for being permitted to drive it in another country under the terms of various international treaties. That in turn provides a legal basis for the issue of mandatory third party personal liability coverage that applies in many countries.

Trouble is, whether the local systems are slack or not regarding checking current rego (and that seems to apply to more than S American countries), it is only likely to hit the fan if you have an accident and a local is injured. Then officialdom would probably start checking a lot deeper while they lock you up pending a result.

In practice, I'd say a large number of vehicles in central and south America are getting around with totally fake papers, or invalid PODER (power of attorney) due to an actual sale having taken place (illegally) which of course renders the PODER invalid. Occasionally this results in a vehicle getting confiscated at a border.

Do they check registration papers? US vehicles have a fancy-looking Certificate of Title which border officials are very familiar with so they often are satisfied with just that and don't always want to see the registration paper unless the license plate number isn't shown on the title. Also familiar with European vehicles.
Britain and Australia and maybe NZ don't have a direct equivalent to the title certificate so they get to see the registration certificate instead since that normally has license plate number, VIN and Vehicle details, all of which need to be entered on the Temporary Vehicle Import Permit.
Would they notice if it was out of rego? Probably not, but ....
Would it matter if it was out of rego back home? Your rego people have answered that from an official point of view and I'd say they are aware of the international treaty requirements..

Drive carefully.

You might also need to check if there would be any consequences of bringing back an unregistered vehicle into NZ

__________________
Tony
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Hello
I had a American bike in South America for a few years with a removed out of date rego sticker.
Nobody ever asked for it.
I'm currently in Iran and my NZ bike rego ran out last month. Nobody in this trip has ever asked for it.
If you put your rego on hold before it runs out you won't have to pay for it to be back dated.
You can do it online for free so long as it is still currently registered.

Then there's the question of a accident and bike WOF of course if they dig around..
And if they are charging for it been back dated whether it still getting rego by default.
Without a WOF.