re-registering uk car in italy

01/06/2011 - 06:22

The agency for re-registering my car has requested an Italian translation of the UK registration document - is this available ?

Location

Ancona Province

Marche

Comment

How much do you need to re-register? If you are likely to return annually to the UK, keep the car registered there. Several reasons for this: Pragmatically, you'll attract minimal attention from bored local constabulary if you wear foreign plates - the hassle involved makes it not worth the candle to stop you and pass the time of your day. Re-registration is a drawn-out business, ongoing bollo is expensive and de-registering the thing in order to sell it anwhere but in Italy is a serious pain in the neck. If your car is RHD you'll find it hard to sell on in Italy. You can insure the car for Italian use via Italsure or similar, regardless of what nation's plates are on it.

Thanks for responding the car is LHD so would not be a problem to sell in Italy in fact would be easier to part ex if I wanted to buy another car. Being lazy I don't want to drive back to UK every year for the MOT. Italian MOT is every 2 years so much easier. I understand that Italian insurance is more expensive and the cost of re-registering equates to a trip back to the UK so not really worried about this. Just need to know if I can get a certified translation of the UK registration certificate without having to pay for independent translation.

Unless you have a very compelling reason as coseperlacasa says, then leave it UK registered and do the annual trip for MOT. Every aspect of motoring is likely to work out more expensive in Italy let alone the hassle. I've been driving our UK reg vehicle in Italy for 3 years now (I know I'm bad) and have had no problems, also we have a Policeman 4 doors away who know this and has never said a dicky, in fact I regularly give him a lift.

You actually do not need an MOT in Italy if your car is UK registered. Some UK insurance firms do not insist on an MOT, but they do suggest the car is maintained regularly. AXA will insure a UK car in Italy without an MOT. The trouble may start however if you want to take the car back to the UK.

This (and UK road tax) have no meaning outside UK whatever DVLA websites say. Not having an MOT is only an offence in UK and you are allowed to drive from the ferry to a pre-arranged MOT test if you intend to come back. Liability insurance in all countries is valid as long as you have paid the premium. Companies are not allowed to squirm out of their obligations or refuse cover on petty matters such as no MOT. Fully comp. cover aspects are a different matter and companies will always try to squirm out of paying. The one day out of MOT or adding spotlights or putting in a (smaller) engine tales are well known.

Any car brought into Italy from outside has to be re-registered within 6 months. A car registered in Italy has to have a valid 'Revisione' entered into the libretto every two years. If you are unlucky enough to have an accident, the police will investigate the accident and file a report which is sent to the insurance company. If the police find that the car has not been registered... If the accident was due to a failure that would have been picked up during a revisione... If the insurance company find that the car was not correctly maintained... If someone was killed as a result of that accident... You take the risk if you want to

funny how this debate keeps coming back to haunt us.. not changing registration the debate about keeping a vehicle in Italy and avoiding paying for its use here http://www.comuni.it/servizi/forumbb/viewtopic.php?t=68685&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0 heres an italian debate on the subject which shows its confusing to all not just UK questioners...so just so i make it clear i support the effort of the person making the choice to re-register and providing the car is modern and common .. no changes made to it then going to the driving school and getting the papers including the italian tech specs for the specific vehicle is easy but costly... for those that suggest that keeping a vehicle here is legal it seems to me that they are offering firm advice on an area where none was available.. up until quite recently.. it was illegal to keep a vehicle here longer than a year without changing its registration to an italian vehicle if it was eu.. and if non eu 6 months now because of the amount of non italian vehicles being kept here by eastern europeans and indeed italians that import german vehicles the law has been significantly tightened so that should you be stopped and not able to prove that you are a tourist... then you can be fined and or have the vehicle confiscated.. for usual traffic violations a foreign vehicle is now subject to on the spot fines which if not paid allows the police to confiscate the vehicle as well... further because of the general unhappiness that Italian motorists have towards non Italian vehicles being here because its used by many to avoid paying road tax and insurance these vehicles are getting reported more and more often... its pretty obvious that it will upset your italian neighbor when he sees you have no tax payment on your vehicle when he is paying a fortune to drive his on the road... anyway new laws were introduced summer 2010 for the mass exodus during august to tighten it all up.. and i wrote about it i think on the Fabruzzo forum or on a my FB page... more to talk about the laws regarding levels of alcohol and other laws relative to driving here for younger people... but it def included eu non italian vehicles.. so feel free to find it.. for example anyone towing a caravan or a proffesional driver now has no allowable alcohol limit and in certain autostradas the speed limit has been raised ..anyway there were about 15 pages of new road traffic laws.... i cannot be bothered much.. its an old debate and its obvious that its not legal to keep a non italian car here.. no matter what might be said and that in an accident if god forbids it ever happens you will be risking not only loosing pretty much all italian property you own , but prison as well if a bad injury or death is involved.. and all for what... am not sure.. a few thousand euro or even just a few hundred.. traffic accidents here have two processes civil and penal and an accident with injury gets dealt with by both courts with families having their own legal representatives that will do all the searching they can to either cancel a claim or make one... is this really worth the worry...

I agree with Michael and Adriatica. Why risk it? I have registered 3 cars here. It costs (but then cars are cheaper in the UK anyway so you probably saved there) but is straightforward enough. Car insurance needn't be extortionate. It is dearer than the UK for sure but I pay €550 for insurance cover for everything except accidents caused by myself. So if a tree fell on it, it got stolen or it got damaged by kids I'm covered. I don't think that's a terrible price. Contrary to what people think, Italian insurers will accept your UK no-claims bonus so long as it is less than 6 months old. Back to Cingoli10's original question, if your agency have done this before for UK vehicles they should already have a translation you can use. They will just reuse it and get the documents certified. The agency in Comunanza I always recommend to people certainly do this. I did the original translation for them. They gave me a copy of an Italian libretto to help with the terminology. Can't you translate it yourself and then just get it certified?

Hi Penny, Did you translate the complete registration document or the parts that only applied to you as the owner? Could I possibly purchase a copy of this translation ?

Hi Cingoli10, unfortunately I did the translation whilst working for the owner of the driving school whom I worked with at the time so don't have a copy (it was not done on a computer). I translated the whole document. I could happily do it again but I would have to charge you as if I was doing it from scratch I'm afraid. If you'd like me to, just drop me a PM.

Hi Penny, Pity it was not on computer - thanks for the offer but a friend has offered to translate the whole document. Thanks again.

I was interested to read especially Britaly and Cardi's comments here. I always thought UK insurance insisted that the car be kept at an address in the UK and could only be used to travel abroad, but not be kept there permanently. Have you actually had this insurance via Axa Britaly? I also thought that in order to be able to legally drive a car on any public road in the EU, the car had to have current road tax or equivalent from another EU country. If all I need do is simply insure the car third party and not tax or mot it, that would be great, but it seems too good to be true! I am not a resident in Italy by the way, but spend roughly 5 days there every 6-8 weeks and a bit longer in summer.

Hi guys

I have moved to piemonte north Italy and have my Japanese Toyota Alphard 3.0 V6 RHD with me. This car was imported into the UK and registered with uk number plate.

Now in Italy I'm being told I cant register a RHD (by a motoring agency) another said I need a coc certificate from Toyota in Japan.

Can someone give me an A B C of what I need to do here as I'm reading so many conflicting comments and the authorities are telling me a load of nonsense.

I am now an italian resident too.

Thank you.