A friend of ours has moved back to the UK from Austria recently, taking his 2005 Focus 1.6TDi with him. When he got there, he decided there were too many obstacles in re-registering it and getting it MOT'd - LHD lights, kilometer speedo were the items he mentioned. He decided to replace it and was given £800 for it by Motorpoint. From there it went to auction and was sold. Now, the rub is, the Austrian plates had to stay with the vehicle under UK regs when he sold it, but under Austria regs the plates have to physically go back to Austria before he can cancel the insurance and relinquish legal liability for the vehicle. Motorpoint are trying to track/contact the eventual buyer to arrange for him to get the plates back, but things don't seem to be moving very quickly. So just on the offchance, knowing what a well-travelled lot you are here.......has anyone seen it? I have suggested that DVLA may be able to help him trace it it via the chassis number, but I'm not sure if they'd give out the new keepers information.
Obviously there must be a process here for dealing with missing plates, e.g. when they are irreparably damaged in a fire or accident, or just plain stolen, but the authorities are not making it easy for him.
I haven't told him that I thought his decision to sell was bad - he could quite easily have picked up the bits he needed from a breakers (lights & speedo anyway), keeping it as LHD but UK road legal, much as I did when I took my Saab over to Austria, when all I had to do was replace the lights. The Focus was low mileage and in good condition, and has been replaced by a Fiesta. However, he's 70 years old, and I guess he never thought of it, or just couldn't be bothered - he's not a car enthusiast, it's an A to B tool for him.
Thanks for any leads!
Last edited by: Mike H on Tue 24 Dec 13 at 15:49
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it will be back in Poland.
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Not a terribly helpful thought I'm afraid but, you'd think anyway, that a probable buyer might be likely to be looking to ship it back across the channel and may already have done so.
Thinking possibly Poland/Rumania/Lithuania for example. Goodness knows how he'll track it down if it has left these shores.
Does he know anyone in the UK police who might have a quiet look for it on their database for example? Again, I'm not sure if even that would work.
What are the implications to your friend if he simply does nothing?
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On the other hand, I expect BBD will know some Polish police women. Or at least some Polish women who have a police uniform if nothing else.
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>> What are the implications to your friend if he simply does nothing?
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Well, as I said, it's still legally his responsibilty, so I guess any offences committed on those plates will be traced back to his registration number in Austria, and potentially cause further problems. Clearly he has a receipt for the sale in the UK, and I'm sure it will all get resolved eventually, as I'm sure that there must be a procedure that allows for this type of occurence. It's another added bit of stress associated with the move, which he doesn't need. We told him he should have stayed here ;-)
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Some is probably driving the car with the Austrian plates and no insurance. And since it's unlikely to be in Austria, nobody will know. It's probably no longer in the UK either.
Sounds like it's difficult to sell a car in Austria then... I take it the plate belongs to the owner like it does in the USA?
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Get another set of plates made up and cash those in - or is that too difficult in Austria...?
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>> Sounds like it's difficult to sell a car in Austria then... I take it the
>> plate belongs to the owner like it does in the USA?
>>
He wasn't planning to sell it when he left Austria, he only sold it when he arrived because in his eyes it was too difficult to re-register it, with all the associated roadworthiness legal issues (lights & speedo etc).
And yes, plates are both regionalised and personal - that is, even if I retain ownership when I move to another registration district, I would have to return the plates from the old area and get new ones from the new area. And if I sell it, it has to be replated. But if I buy another, I keep the old plates!
And even more confusingly, I can have two cars with the same registration number, only pay road tax on the more expensive of the two, and swap the plates round depending on which one I'm driving that day :-s
Last edited by: Mike H on Tue 24 Dec 13 at 18:15
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>> And even more confusingly, I can have two cars with the same registration number, only
>> pay road tax on the more expensive of the two, and swap the plates round
>> depending on which one I'm driving that day :-s
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I like the sound of that bit!
But the rest of their process sounds inordinately unwieldy. Can you imagine DVLA coping with a complicated system like that?
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>> But the rest of their process sounds inordinately unwieldy. Can you imagine DVLA coping with
>> a complicated system like that?
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It's just a different way of looking at things. With fewer people, most organisations are much easier to deal with, and things happen quicker! Vehicle registration is delegated to insurance companies, so you walk into an office with the necessary papers and walk out 10 minutes with the physical registration plates. There may be several insurance company offices in larger towns that deal with vehicle registration, so each one is dealing with comparatively few people. Ownership/display of the plates is proof of insurance, which is why in this case, not being able to return the plates is a problem.
I applied for my Austrian driving licence on a Monday, it arrived in the post on the Thursday 3 days later........
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>> With fewer people
That is the key! With a crowded place like England, the Austrian system won't simply scale up.
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I hope he never has to go to Austria again because if he has not returned the plates a massive fine is waiting in his name which will rise the longer he leaves it
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Quite a lot of police have been disciplined recently for accessing the national computer for personal reasons, every time they access it they are logged and it can come back to bite them. So asking a copper to check this kind of stuff shouldn’t work.
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The UK police are not interested - yet. Last time they were approached they saw it as purely a DVLA matter, but read on.
Strange that this thread should resurface today as I have just been speaking to the friend involved. It seems that the DVLA have not received a registration request for the chassis number, despite the dealer who bought the car from auction assuring my friend that it was "in progress". The vehicle is not in Morocco, but somewhere less exotic - Bradford.
The Austrian insurance has been cancelled by the insurance company, and therefore the vehicle is being driven illegally - it has no insurance, no Austrian or UK road tax, and no valid UK MOT (it's likely that the Austrian one is still in force until expiry). I have suggested to my friend that, if he can locate the car, he should report it again to the police.
So, if anyone sees a black 5-door LHD Focus with Austrian registration GM529CV being driven round Bradford, please let me know. Austrian plates are white front and rear, and an "A" for the nationality section on the LH side.
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Just as a follow-up to this, it seems that Motorpoint, all credit to them, have tracked the plates to Morocco, and they should be back in my friend's posession in the next couple of weeks. We shall see!
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Anyone bought an LHD Focus recently? - Zero
