hi, i've just been looking on the DVLA's website and it says that to (permanently) import a vehicle to the UK it cannot be used (besides riding it to an MOT) until the registration process is completed. This rather thwarts my plans. Has anyone else come across this or gotten around it?
My wife and i are UK citizens, will have been out of the country, and owned the canadian registered bikes for 15 months, have UK drivers licenses and permanent address. according to customs and excise this makes us exempt from paying duty and vat.
We were planning on buying 6 months green card insurance, shipping them to the uk and then permanently importing them once the insurance expired, enabling us to have transport on arrival in the uk and allowing plenty of time to change over speedo, adjust headlights etc to comply with uk law.
does anyone know if this is realistic or has managed to do something similar? my main desire is to be able to ride away from customs and deal with the re-registration later.
would the bikes need to then leave the uk and return for us to import them? or is it just a case of doing paperwork?
Has anyone gone through this and found that the costs (excluding the shipping of course) and hassle weren't worth the effort? - if so does anyone want to buy 2 bandits in eastern US/Canada in July?!???
any advice/info is gratefully accepted
all the best
Adam

As long as the bike is insured I think you should be OK riding it as a foreign vehicle, then re-insuring it when you get the V5 through.

You should be OK for the MOT with a speedo that shows in kms, I have a few Italian imports and have never had any trouble

Now, I'm not certain about this, so don't take it as gospel but I would have thought that you could ride away from customs just fine, and then go through the import process later. After all, what's to say you didn't intend to leave the UK with your bikes, but changed your mind once you'd been there a while?

The only thing might be what you need to do to tell the Canadian authorities that the bikes are no longer in the country. If you have to hand in your registration, and get an export certificate from the Canadians before leaving then I can see the problem as you're riding an unregistered bike. If however you can just ship them still registered in Canada, then, it's going to be as I said above.

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Have you had to deal with this MSVA scheme from the DVLA? Or is that only for non European vehichles? Hmmm

Did it cost much to get them registered?

Cheers
Adam

Exactly what I hope will happen! I don't see why we couldn't do that.
Cheers
Adam

dont know about costs for registering fully, th elast few registrations I have done have cost 25 quid, but those had UK frame no.s.....

I thought you were supposed to have a converting sticker over the clocks? Easy done though...

AGree that as long as the bike's legal in the country its registered, and that you have insurance that covers TP in the UK, then you should be fine ridin g it here till you can re-register here and get a V5

Simply ride here as you suggest and re-register later.You'll need to verify the age of the bikes(whatever make the bikes are,go along to the nearest main dealer with the frame/engine numbers and they'll issue you with a letter in exchange for a small fee) mainly to avoid getting a "Q" plate.Then contact your local vehicle registration office and ask them what you need to get it registered nowdays...a couple of years ago you needed to get insurance and MOT on it(using the chassis number temporarily) then nip along to the VRO where you'll be issued with a reg number and tax disc.
As far as the MOT goes it does'nt matter these days whether the speedo is in MPH or KMH as long as one is FITTED.My own preferance is to fit one of those bicycle type digital speedos(around a tenner) as they have a waterproof clock and other info included.

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Just going for a short ride on my bike....

thanks very much, i didn't know you could get verification of a non eu bike from a main dealer, it would certainly reduce the hassle factor!

Actually a bike doesn't even need a speedo for an MOT - thats not an issue at all. As to importing, there are lots of (admittedly EU) bikes in the London area ridden by ex-pats and they clearly don't have a problem. I would have thought the 'decide its a permanent import later' approach should work.... Assuming of course that the Canadian insurance does comply with UK law.

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Honda CBR 1100 XX, Yamaha XTZ 660, Harris Special

The Canadian insurance is no good in the UK as understand it, but apparently you can get green card insurance for 22 euros a month from a swiss company so that should do the trick. It's liability only but at least we'll be legal.

For several vehicles I have brought back from USA.

Simply insure your ride on the vin / chassis number.

Remove any non UK number plates..

No need for tax disc or MOT from port to home.

I have done this 3 times now, and have not had a problem.
Also I was able to drive it to a SVA or MOT station.

Graham

Its really not a big hassle look at the dvla site they have a guide to importing a vehicle there is a 14 day limit to import it IF you declare that to be your intention when you arrive but who is to say as said above that you have not decided to keep it here yet. it costs about £65 registration fee and road tax and takes only a few days to go through the whole process. Insurance and MOT plus a certificate of compliance all very easy. DVLA will send you out a complete information pack and there operators/help line are very good so just relax get here settle in and Dont Panic !

Good news like that is very welcome, I wonder if importing it temporarily and changing my mind at a later date will affect our avoiding paying duties under the "returning our normal home to the UK" clause?