Cars...buy or take with you?

[Toto]

Originally Posted by little duck

Hi Toto,

I have noticed that you tried to import a car to Greece February last year. How did this work out for you? Did you come across any issues along the way? I am asking because I am trying to do the same thing in about 6 months time. I am in the process of purchasing a left hand drive car in the UK to drive it for the minimum period of 6 months. I am hoping that I can have the car registered as a greek vehicle and not have to pay the excessive registration fee I hear so much about. If you or anyone else has had any experience with this, I would appreciate the help on this matter.

Hi all,

I successfully managed to complete the process a few months ago. It is rather long and complicated but if you follow the steps correctly you should have no issues.

Here is a brief description of the process:

1) Get in touch with the Greek Embassy in London and ask them to give you a list of the documentation you need to submit. They'll say 'go to our website' but don't listen to them - the list on the site is out of date and incomplete. Ask to speak to the person dealing specifically with this matter and doubke and triple check that it's correct.

I had to provide the following original documentation:
- Transfer of permanent residence to Greece - fill out the form provided by the Embassy.
- Passport
- P45 from employer (more about this later)
- P60s for the last 3 years
- V5 car registration document (you need to have the car in your possesion 6 months minimum in the UK)
- Council tax statement for the last 2 years showing you don't owe to the council
- Utility bills for the last 3 years (one for each year)
- Bank statements of your current account for the last 3 years. These must show real transactions such as payment of your mortgage or rent.

All of the above must show name + home address.

Actually visiting the Embassy in London requires lots of patience and time. To put it bluntly it's a cr*p set up. I've been there 3 times in total and there's always a minimum 3 hour wait and people fighting and arguing with staff about various issues. Half the people that work there shouldn't even have a job! Arrive early (like 7:30am) to ensure youy are one of the first to be seen but there's no guarantee.

If you're lucky and your 'permanent move of residence to Greece' application to Greece is successful they'll post the certificate within a few days.

2) The next step is to ship the car to Greece or personally drive it here. Keep the documentation that proves when the car came into Greece as this will be needed later.

3) Make sure that your car has an 'Emissions certificate of conformity'. If it's a fairly recent model the manufacturer will include this as part of the documentation that came with the car. If you don't have it talk to the DVLA/Ministry of transport in the UK as getting here in Greece will be a bit of a nightmare as I found out.

4) Once in Greece take all of the above documents, and the car to a customs specialist who will prepare all appropriate paperwork to take it through customs. If you're settling down on an island you will have to put the car on a ferry and take it to one of the main customs offices as your local one does not have the authority to clear it. I am in Kefalonia and had to travel to Patras.

5) You will sign various papers at the customs office who will keep some important original documentation such as the UK V5 document as this is no longer needed in Greece.

6) Once back in your hometown/island you will need to take the car through MoT (KTEO) and then go to the Ministry of transport to get your Greek plates. Remove your British plates before you go to the MoT station. I stronlgy advise that you find a professional (there are lots specialising in this) who, for a fee, will take your car for MoT and deal with Ministry of Transport on your behalf. My friend did the whole thing in 2 days - it would have taken meseveral days. Just make sure you go to a local KEP office to give him/her authorisation to act on your behalf.

Once your plates and registration document are issued you are ready to insure the car before legally driving it.

Notes:
- If you are self employed or own your LTD company do not mention this when you go to the Greek Embassy. Just issue yourself a P45. Otherwise the process of proving you no longer have any outstanding issues/debts with the UK tax authorities gets rather complicated.

- Be aware that if your car is over 10 years old you will not be able to insure it full comp in Greece - just 3rd party.

- Ensure your car is still insured in the UK until the above process is completed. Your insurance company should still cover you for a period of up to 6 months if you are driving it in Greece. Check your UK insurance policy.

- Before you go ahead with the above make sure that it's worth the headache. In my case my car cost £6,000 in the UK whereas in Greece it was more than double that. The total cost of importing the car into Greece and taking advantage of the tax free benefit did not exceed £1,500.

- I strongly advise you do not import a right hand drive car purely on safety grounds.

- Duties and taxes change all the time and are based on your engine's capacity although this will soon be changed to reflect CO2 emissions and age.

Hope this helps
Toto

[Cairokid]

Well done for getting through all that and thank you for posting it.

I should say that what you experienced is likely to be fairly typical of any dealings you will have with bureacracy once you are here, so it will have been good practice!!

[Jane&Jack]

Hi All

Whilst all the above is correct (and thanks for posting it!) I would like to add.......

For a newish car ie Toto's was £6000 and cost to him was approx £1500 then it is worth doing...however if you have an old car as we do then you are out of luck, our estimate for our 12yr old Vectra (in very good condition with fsh) was 20,000 euros for the classification tax (no longer called import registration)

So the older the car the more expensive it is, what you can do and this is what I also learned....2 things

1) drive your old car over to greece run it until you get stopped...if you do get told it has overstayed its welcome you are given two choices ...pay a huge fine and take the car back to UK....or you can give the car up to the police and waive the fine (this bit they dont tell you but it is true and apparantly legal)

2) drive your car over, if you have not been stopped in the 6 months of being in Greece then drive out of Greece and make sure you get a stamp or ticket to prove when you entered the country so you then have another 6 months from that date...and so on

Jane