Importing and re-registering a car in Cyprus

[BabsM]

We often have questions on the costs of bringing cars to and re-registering them in Cyprus. We have just completed the whole process so I thought I would tell people how we did it and what we paid.

Our car is a Land Rover Freelander TD4 Automatic. It was originally registered the UK in Aug 2003. It had done over 140,000 miles. It would have had little value in England had we sold it and would have cost well over 10,000 Euros to buy here. As the container was coming anyway and had space in it, we brought the car. We wanted to register the car without paying the excise duty as we are both retired.

The container arrived in early May. The clearance documents were all completed by Burke Bros and MK Worldwide so I don't know what they involved, however the representative handed over quite a few documents when we went to customs to collect the car, whilst all we did was hand over the log book, our passports and our driving licences and sign a few documents. We were told that, until registration was complete, it must not be driven by anyone other than the owner & his spouse, we couldn't take it into Northern Cyprus and we couldn't sell or dispose of it. We paid 172 Euros to clear the car and the container.

We were given a yellow C104 form that had to be kept in the car. It gave us a month before we had to go to Nicosia to renew the form. To complete this document customs calculated how much time we had already spent in Cyprus over the last year and deducted that from a 6 month's allowance. This told us how long we had before the car could be re-registered.

We went to Nicosia Customs Office a month later (June) with copies of all the documents we thought we needed to re-register the car. Maria, who does the re-registration, looked at the documents and identified what was missing. She gave us a document (in English) to complete when we came back. Then the registration department renewed the C104 and told us to return in early October, with all the documents, to complete registration.

We then went back to Nicosia Customs Office in October with a large file of documents and the form. we sat with Maria for an hour or more as she went through and checked every document. She was looking for proof that we have lived, worked, paid utility bills and tax in the UK for over a year. She also looked for proof that we had moved our home and finances to Cyprus, that we were receiving pensions here and that we had started paying utility bills here. She required copies of our Cyprus bank statements, certified by the bank, to prove we had an income. She wanted to see our Alien Registration and our passports and the health card, in effect proof that we were now permanent residents of Cyprus. She wanted proof that we had owned, taxed and insured the car in England for the time that the log book showed that we had owned the car. This was for every year on the logbook showed, not just six months! In our case, we no longer had the insurance certificates for all years so she accepted copies of the insurance schedules. She had a document with lots of tick boxes, when she was satisfied that every box was ticked she told us that she would put the car forward for registration and that we should receive the papers in the post within a month. Believe me, every box had to be ticked! We had one box missing at one point and she wasn't going to accept the car but then I found the missing document.

Within the month, as promised, we received a letter saying that we had been granted exemption from excise duty and we could register the car. The document could be taken to a Customs office of our choice for the next step. We went to Larnaca Customs but they sent us to a clearance agent as we had to obtain a form E72. The agent sent us to the Department of Transport in Aradippou to get a certificate showing the CO2 emissions for the car. We misunderstood and thought we needed to get a CO2 test done, fortunately we didn't! We then took the form back to the clearance agent and waited for two days whilst she got the E72. When she got the form she called us, we had to pay her 109 Euros for completing it.

We then took the car, the logbook & the emissions certificate to an MOT garage. It took about 3/4 hour to do the MOT and cost 34 Euros. As part of the MOT they check all the VIN numbers, and the engine number against the logbook and record the gearbox number. One problem we had here was that the garage couldn't find the engine number as the car is old and had years of salt over it... fortunately he managed to clean it enough to see it! We then had to take the car and the forms to the Department of Transport in Aradippou for a technical inspection, this was effectively a rubber stamp on the form as the MOT had only been done minutes earlier. Once the technical inspection was complete we went to the office to get the forms stamped and a registration number allocated.

We then went to the Department of Transport with all the forms, our passports, alien cards and proof of address. The lady, who spoke good English, completed all the paperwork, relieved us of 850 Euros for the registration fee based on the size of the car's engine and the tax disk plus six euros for official stamps. If we had delayed registering our car we would have had to pay all the back road tax too!

We then had to take all the papers to a car accessories shop who made up and attached our new Cypriot number plates. This cost 20 Euros.

If you have any questions please ask away !

BabsM

[Edge111]

Do you know the rate of taxation and customs fees to bring a US registered car to Cyprus? I know trhat there is a 6 month limitation but, I would take the car to eithere Turkey or Italy for a wekk or two, then return to Cyprus. Would that start the 6month clock again? The carf is a 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee with a 4.0 litre motor.

[BabsM]

I'm sorry I don't know the rates for a car from the US... I'll see if I can find them. The figures I have quoted are for bringing a car from one EU country to another.

I would say that the excise duty for a car over 2ltrs and over 5 years old used to be very high!

Sorry, but what 6 month limitation are you talking about?

[Edge111]

I can bring my car to Cyprus for 6 months with no problem, then it must leave the country. I don know if I can just ferry it to Turkey, drive for a few days, then ferry it back to Cyprus and start the Six month period all over.

]

[Pamie]

Babs,

I take my hat off to you for all that work, we have a year old Susuki Grand Vitara and seriously thought about bringing it over, but on our stay in December found out a few ways of doing it and quite frankly would be easier to sell it and buy one over there, could do with the money anyway. You are indeed a star for perseverence.

Pamie

[anski]

Hi Babs, Thanks for all the information. I have studied the websites you mentioned but failed to find an answer for my situation. I have emailed them too but so far no reply. If anyone could shed any light I would appreciate it.
We have a Peugeot 306 1.6 litre (Left Hand drive) 2000 model which we bought in Spain & then shipped it to New Zealand in 2001. We paid IVA in Spain & GST on arrival in New Zealand as we had only owned it 8 months.
When I was in Cyprus last year I noticed a few Left Hand Drive vehicles and I wondered if we could import ours when we move over to live permanantly? Does anyone know?

[Veronica]

Originally Posted by anski

Hi Babs, Thanks for all the information. I have studied the websites you mentioned but failed to find an answer for my situation. I have emailed them too but so far no reply. If anyone could shed any light I would appreciate it.
We have a Peugeot 306 1.6 litre (Left Hand drive) 2000 model which we bought in Spain & then shipped it to New Zealand in 2001. We paid IVA in Spain & GST on arrival in New Zealand as we had only owned it 8 months.
When I was in Cyprus last year I noticed a few Left Hand Drive vehicles and I wondered if we could import ours when we move over to live permanantly? Does anyone know?

I would not recommend a left hand drive over here. The standard of driving is horrendous and its bad enough having to second guess the other motorists when you have clear view ahead but with a left hand drive you would be taking your life in your hands every time you get in the car

[BabsM]

Hi Anski,
On one of the Cyprus government websites (sorry I can't remembere which) it says that you can't import a left hand drive into Cyprus, unless its a classic car or of historical value. There are probably other exceptions. I'll see if I can find the site.

[ali3112]

from all accounts Cyprus is breaking EU regulations by charging to import a car from within the EU. I brought mine in in January and am waiting for them to catch up on EU laws before I do anything, so am currently driving on UK plates, though fully insured

[theresoon]

Hi Anski,

I had asked the customs lady over the summer about that and you cann't. On the other hand a new Pegeot 306 1.6 isn't that expensive plus has a good warranty so even if it was right hand drive I would say the hassle isn't worth it.

Also I drove a left hand drive car in the Bahamas where they drive on the right and it was incredibly confusing even though 99% of the cars were left hand drives and it was a really tiny island- one major road going around the island which we drove in a couple of hours.