PeteKnight wrote:Trotter wrote:The car would not become illegal after day 183.....but if you are still driving the car in Spain, after day 183, then you are considered to be a Spanish resident and you are required to have the car matriculated onto Spanish plates and pay the appropriate taxes. If you stay less than 183 days per year and remain a UK resident then there's no requirement to matriculate your UK car
It has nothing to do with whether YOU remain in Spain for 183 days, it whether the vehicle remains in Spain for that period.
Consider this scenario:
You MOT your car in the UK in January then drive it over here the next day. After a couple of weeks you fly back home to the UK, leaving the car over here. You then spend fairly short stays in Spain through the year, driving the car while you're here.
You won't be classed as a resident, because you spend less than 183 days of the year here, but the car will be illegal to drive after it's been here for 183 days.
Pete.
Any chance of a link to an official site that states that? The EU regulations site (Europa.ec) and others only talk about the non-resident driver and not the car. It states that, as long as you don't drive the UK registered car for more than 6 months in any one year and the car remains legal with vehicle inspections, road tax and insurance then it can remain. It cannot be used or rented by anyone who is a resident in Spain during that time.
Of course, the car would have to be returned to UK for the MOT before the year is up.
Citizens from countries that have a longer period for the vehicle technical inspection (eg Spain) may keep their vehicle in another country provided you do not remain in the country for more than 6 months in any one year and would have to be returned to its own country for the test before it expires (for Spain, 2 years, France 2 years etc).
Pensioners, second home owners, cross-border commuters, self-employed cross-border commuters (company cars)
As an EU nationals with a second home in Spain (that you use for no more than 6 months a year), you do not need to register your vehicles here if it is used for less than the 6 months a year period.If you change your country of residence to Spain you have 6 months to re-register a vehicle previously registered in another EU country.And, from a myth buster site which has been asked this question loads of times:
Not true. For tourists or non-residents, so long as the vehicle is road legal in the UK, i.e. taxed, valid MOT and insurance, it can be used in Spain for up to 12 months provided it is not used for more than 6 months in that period.
Bear in mind most UK insurers will only provide European cover for 90 days, so you’d need to make sure your insurer will cover you for longer, or get a new policy. Some Spanish insurers will cover vehicles on UK plates.
The Spanish authorities apply the rules of residency when policing UK registered cars. This is where the 6 months comes from. The measure for determining your country of residence 183 days. Their assumption is that if a UK car has been in Spain 6 months, so must its owner, and therefore they are now Spanish resident. Once you become a resident in Spain you can no longer drive your car as a tourist, and so you’ll either need to switch the car to Spanish plates or sell it and buy a Spanish vehicle.
Regardless of whether you live in Spain or not, after 12 months out of the country, the DVLA deems a vehicle to be permanently exported, and they need to be notified. The vehicle then needs to be registered onto Spanish number plates.
This link provides more info: https://www.gov.uk/taking-vehicles-out-of-uk/for-12-months-or-more.Edited: Sorry, hadn't realised that last bit was going to come out so big so changed the font.But just to put this to bed, the DGT (that's like the DVLA in UK) has this which has been posted in Murcia today and other sites. It's about the new rules that came into force under traffic regulations in April 2014 so, as it's official, it must take precedence over what the bloke up the pub said (or really old sites that are now out of date).(Murcia Today doesn't allow cut and paste so this same article was posted in Sotogrande if you wish to look it up.Traffic and Safety Law 2014/04 from April 2014The need to register a vehicle with Spanish plates depends, for EU nationals, on the concept of “normal residence””, i.e. whether the owner/driver spends more or less than 185 days a year in Spain.If a national of an EU Member State does not have “normal residence”, i.e. spends fewer than 185 days in this country in a calendar year, there is no legal obligation to register a vehicle in Spain. In other words, a vehicle with British, French or any other EU number-plates can be used on the roads of Spain unless the owner/driver spends more than 185 days a year in this country, even if the vehicle is left in Spain all year. However, the owners are still obliged to ensure the vehicle is fully taxed, insured and passes through its MOT inspection every year in order to comply with safety laws.