In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
[quote=Antinello;92584]
Top of our list of queries is the process for buying a car in Italy as we want to avoid renting for the first couple of months. My understanding is that you need to be resident in order to buy a car and they basically won't let you drive it away until you produce your Italian ID card - is this correct? [/quote]
Yes you will need residency to transfer the ownership of a vehicle.
When I moved across here in 2005 I had exactly the same problem as you.
The way I got around it was importing a car from Belgium to the UK, and then initially registering it there. The registration with the UK authorities was not straightforward and quite expensive. I then drove it to Italy where I had UK plates for a year before registering it in Italy.
If I had imported directly from Belgium to Italy, I would have had the same problem as it would have needed immediate registration here and I was not then resident.
Have sent you a pm (private message)
Graham
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
The rules have I believe changed since we bought our car in 2006 before we had residency. If you do a search on the site you should be able to find up to date information.
A
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
I was under the impression that an EU national can drive a non-Italian EU-registered car in Italy for 12 months, regardless of residency status. Is this not the case?
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
Thank you all for the info.
When I suggested to my lawyer that one of us needed to go for prima casa because if we didn't we couldn't buy a car in Italy he laughed down the phone and said this was the most absurd thing he'd ever heard. According to him we are both EU citizens and even if neither of us became residents, buying and registering a car in Italy would not be a problem....:veryconfused:
Everything I have read on the internet states this is not the case. Is it possible this is another law that was 'updated' in 2007???
I guess the plan will be to see if we can find a flexible dealer and if not we'll look at the buying from another country and importing option.
Thanks again
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
I guess what really puzzles me about all this is that surely there must be thousands of holiday home owners in Italy who haven't become resident for some reason or another. Are they all renting cars??????
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
[quote=Antinello;92735]I guess what really puzzles me about all this is that surely there must be thousands of holiday home owners in Italy who haven't become resident for some reason or another. Are they all renting cars??????[/quote]
I know lots of people (including Italians), who drive their cars with foreign number plates and insurance (often cheaper than the Italian insurance) for at least 12 months.
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
[quote=Antinello;92735]I guess what really puzzles me about all this is that surely there must be thousands of holiday home owners in Italy who haven't become resident for some reason or another. Are they all renting cars??????[/quote]
Holiday home implies residence some place else. The place your car would be registered. Think of it this way. Your car needs a home to. A place to have your speeding tickets sent :eeeek:
Going to depend on your dealer. The girl at my dealer threw up her hands and said if I got in trouble it was on me :bigergrin:
How hard it will be to get away without having proof of residence will depend on how good you are at sweet talking or how much they are sticklers on the rules.
OTOH you'll need your insurance info which you can't get until you get your plate info :eeeek: