Valencia Trader

Spanish ITV on UK cars is not valid

Spanish ITV on UK cars is not valid!  Article by Steve Keeping

Your car's Illegal and I'm afraid the answer is that it’s Spanish Law.

I'll tell you the thinking behind it:

When you move to Spain with a British registered car and you begin to drive it here, it firstly has to be legal in the country of it’s registration. So if and when your road tax or mot runs out the car is no longer legal on Spanish roads anyway. If you have British insurance it’s only good for short periods of time and then becomes null and void. You will not have had an IVA test (Spanish MOT) and if you have with English plates it’s not worth the paper it’s written on.  Again, your car would be illegal and in the event of an insurance claim the company would not pay out.

Net result, you have loads of Brits driving around Spain with no valid insurance and illegal cars. So the Spaniards have to do something about it, and they have tightened the laws to ensure that people who move here to live do things correctly. Had you registered the car within 30 days of registering as a resident there would be no import registration tax. This law has been in force for some time, as you may know the Spanish take their time in filtering down laws to the local level, with the number of foreign cars on Spanish roads the Spanish government have decided to clamp down on these tax dodgers. If you are a resident you must pay taxes on your home, and car, amongst other things, most expats don’t pay the car tax as they think they can get away with it, this is why the law is now being enforced.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that the Spanish don’t know what is required by British authorities i.e. road fund license, driving license, log book and MOT etc, they know what is required by the UK, DVLA, and are going to make sure that they don’t miss out on what is rightfully theirs.

If there for example there are 99% of expats driving their UK plated car in Spain and living here just think about all the Tax that Spain is missing out on by those expats breaking the law here. I think it is right that this law is being enforced, as I am sure that some of those expats who drive their cars around in Spain, are not legal here, i.e. not paying the Road fund License, nor MOT, so they wont have valid Insurance, just think if they were to have an accident involving your car, How would you claim for the damage, or worse if you or your partner were killed (God Forbid) Would you be so against the law?
You are mistaken about the car being legal in Spain. The car is based in Spain all year. The car is on Spanish land with UK plates. You are the Tourist NOT the CAR. The car must now be registered and taxed, Insured, ITV'd and must carry Spanish Plates.

If anything goes wrong and you have an accident over here, and the Police are involved, and your car is not compliant with the Spanish law, you could find yourself with a very heavy fine and the car would be impounded and you could be arrested and imprisoned for anything up to three months.
Example,

Mr. Brit brings his car over from Blighty and keeps it on UK plates for 2 years. He insures it with a Spanish company and they are more than happy to take his money for him. Mr. Brits MOT and tax runs out eventually after the first year in the Spain                  but he merrily motors on rather than pay someone 500 euros or so to make him legal.
Some months later he broadsides you and writes both cars off and lands you up in hospital. He gives you his insurance details and everyone's as happy as they can be under the circumstances.
But Sr Spanish insurer suddenly says "uno momento porfavor!" It appears your English MOT safety certificate and road tax have expired old boy .....!
Net result .... you’re stuffed, he's stuffed, everyone is stuffed.  So be warned!!!

The only way you can get around this is to drive back to the UK every year to get your mot and tax. If the car isn't legal in the UK then it isn’t legal here, and many of those English motorists could really cause you a problem if you happen to run into them! If the Guardia civil here do check, the onus is on the owner to prove that the car has been in Spain for only the six months, and if they can't then they must accept the consequences
There has been a change in the law concerning UK registered cars, unless you can prove that you are a tourist, and not intending to stay in Spain for longer than three months you may drive on UK plates.
The law 38/1992 of the "impuestos especiales" (SPECIAL TAXES) related to the obligatory change of the foreign vehicle registration to Spanish plates,they have given us one month with residencia and six months one day without.

Recently Fred Knight from Thaxted in Essex was touring in his Chrysler Voyager in Valencia. He was stopped by the police at a roadside checkpoint specially set up to check foreign cars. Although he had his driving license and insurance certificate with him, he had omitted to bring the registration document, which was at DVLC as he had just acquired the vehicle.
The Spanish Police did not speak English and Fred not a lot of Spanish, so the conversation was confusing and Fred was unsurprisingly misunderstood.

The Spanish Police were not interested in whether he lived in Spain or whether he was a tourist. The new law states that, if you are in Spain for longer than 6 months with your car, you are considered by law to be a Resident for the purposes of the Spanish Police & Departmento de Trafico Or should you actually move to live in Spain then you are now, due to a change in the law, liable to exchange your UK number plates with a Spanish MOT within 30 days of entry.
Fred’s car was placed in a police compound and it took him 5 days of form filling and retrieving statements from the UK before a translator helped him to remove it and clear up the misunderstanding. There was also a fine for not carrying the registration document.
This is intended to be a warning as If you do not carry the correct information and Driving documents your car could be in-pounded by the Guardia & may cost you any
thing up to 5,000 euros.

NB:  Valencia Trader accepts no responsibility for inaccuracies in this article.