There is a new Italian law

12/10/2018 - 06:11

There is a new Italian law effective from 4 December 2018 regarding driving a foreign registered car. I would like to understand it fully, so I am asking for help from anyone who is aware of it and its consequences. It seems to be saying that after being in Italy for 60 days, one is no longer entitled to drive a foreign registered car. This would therefore forbid the use of UK registered cars for holidays in Italy longer than 60 days. There are lots of questions that follow on from this, such as what is the meaning of 60 days - continuous? (so go to France for a day and then come back), in any year? (calendar, or 365 day time span), ....... etc. This situation is very difficult to manage for owners of second homes who would like to be able to occupy those homes in Italy flexibly. And how would one be proven guilty, or prove one's innocence? I would willing to pay for a permit to be able to drive in Italy, but I haven't seen that this possibility exists.

Topic

Travel

Comment

Where did you see that this would be effective and did it say under what regulation (act number)? I ask because there was a lot on this subject on other forums and the general opinion was this would never become law or certainly not at 60 days as it imacts freedom of movement.

https://www.forlitoday.it/cronaca/targhe-straniere-nuova-norma-codice-strada.html https://www.termometropolitico.it/1351656_2018-12-10-multa-auto-targa-estera-sanzioni.html

Thanks for the links. From what I can gather this is to stop rich Italians up north avoiding road tax on their very expensive cars and will NOT apply to you if you are not resident in Italy.

So if you have dual residency in UK and in Italy, and drive your UK car to Italy and back to the UK every year to MOT it and insure it what do you do. It is very difficult to get UK RHD car registered with italian plates and also not good when you need to sell it as better to return to UK to sell on UK Plates.Madness!Maybe if you show your UK/EU Driving licence and UK passport you will be excempt?

Hello, did you get any further with this? i’ve been informed that the police are not targeting U.K.dual residents, although this is of limited comfort. However, the cost of compliance and the practicalities almost defeats the objective of doing it.it seems the requirement comes down to residency, but i’m not clear what the definition is. I don’t work in Italy, my main home is the UK and I am a UK resident under uk rules. So what makes you a resident in the Italy? Do you have to be in the country for more than 90 days in a row? Is it a set amount of days a Year? Or is it something else altogether? Very confused...

I think you have a problem if resident in Italy regardless of your UK status. It has always been madness for people who in effect have residence in both whereby they are effectively classed as "not normal"

The problem is residence, not nationality. The law is the same in the UK as it is in Italy. If you are resident you may not drive a foreign registered car. Thus a UK resident may not enter the UK in an Italian-registered car. And someone who is registered as resident in the UK and also in Italy cannot travel back and forth by private car! Apparently none of this applies to leased cars.

To be registered as resident in Italy you have to apply to your Comune. If you haven't done that then you are not a resident. Becoming resident enables you to buy a car in Italy and will mean that you pay less IMU and may apply to pay less for electricity if you assert that your dwelling is your primary home (prima casa).

Thank you

You pay no IMU as I understand but you have to show that you are paying more than 6000 Euro pa into an Italian bank account, hold private medical insurance and pass a language test - this is post salvini December 2018...also residence is not citizenship - that used to take two years from applying to be resident then became ( post Brexit) four and is now threatened to become 10 years... shas ps your current EHic card only ever gave 90 days health cover too ...

You are supposed to allpy for residency in Italy if there for more than 90 days.

Thank you

I noted in one of the articles above, that you maybe asked to return your vehicle to the UK if not registered in Italy, if you are deemed resident. Does this mean you can just drive the vehicle out and that’s it? Maybe with a fine otherwise the issues you would have is setting up a residency, insurance (only 3p and really expensive), translation of all docs, plates, taxation (I understand expensive) and lessons and a test if a hard brexit (in Italian). So if you don’t speak Italian,this could become a big problem. All this is very expensive and for non speakers very difficult to implement.

Yep that’s what I’ve seen but in the past most have ignored it but post Brexit when some Italia friends told me they were ‘offended ‘by us brits wanting to leave the eu ( not myself btw) that may well change ...

I have been told today that if you do have a right hand drive vehicle, even if you change plates, get a residency and insure yourself in Italy, you also have to convert your car from righthand drive to left hand drive. That can’t be true surely?

You have to change everything except the steering wheel. For example, the speedometer (km), the rear light panels (so the parking light is on the correct side), the headlight units, etc. Ugh!

My car has kmh and apparently as I checked before coming over the lights adjust to the location, so I don’t need to put those light stickers on it. I’m most sure about the parking light. thanks for letting me know. This is quite a new law they have introduced! if you are caught, can you agree just to take the car out of Italy?

If you are resident then that fact will be discovered at a roasdside check and you are potentially going to get the car confiscated on the spot and a large fine as well. You could, however, get a non-resident friend to drive you and the car over the border, at which point you take over and bring it back to the UK! For a non-resident the issue is whether the car has been in the country for more than 60 days. This is not at all easy to prove either way, especially on the spot, so it is difficult to imagine that anything nasty could happen to you on a first stop check.