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Importing a bike... the process

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Lobo:
Hi all,

A year + down the track from importing my Cb400F (from EIRE) I'm just about there.... BrianJ suggested a long while ago I post 'the experience' as may be of use. So here goes, and first up, a big thanks to Brian who was always quick with invaluable pm responses.

First up, I am not going into details of forms, because one thing I learned in the space of 12 months is how quickly the process can / does change. Bottom line, you've gotta keep your eye on the ball, and not assume things stay the way they were 6 months ago....

Whatever your plans for the bike (SORN, Long resto etc) you MUST inform HMRC <14 days of it arriving on-shore so that import duty can be assessed. Beware.... take longer than this & they are able to fine you £5/day for late paperwork.. ouch. The HMRC forms can be found on the Government Gateway website. (no tax applicable to my EU import)

DVLA cannot do anything until the bike has cleared customs... (HMRC inform the DVLA directly)

In my case a nuts & bolts resto was done, and so I stopped the admin process here & concentrated on the rebuild, ie no SORN, or road tax sought, indeed the bike sat in the garage uninsured for a year... if you'd wanted to steal it you'd have needed a skip anyways.

At completion of rebuild, in order for the DVLA to put the bike on the UK register it needed an MOT. This can be done without any insurance, and in my case I rang my local motorbike garage who do a bloody great £10 pick-up / drop off service in their Transit van & took the bike away. They then issued a valid MOT using the frame number... which is obviously read from the headstock (versus alloy plate) Tip - if you get the frame powder coated etc ensure the # still legible!

Next up you have to insure the bike < the DVLA will issue a V5C. Ring your insurance co with the frame #; and they will issue a one-off 30 day insurance certificate for registration purposes. DO NOT arrange this until you are ready to send off all the guff to DVLA due this short time-window. Furthermore, my insurance co (Footman James) told me only 3 such one-offs could be issued... unsure why.

Then get the correct DVLA Registration application form (V55C currently) & fill it in. Fairly straightforward, a lot of stuff about 'Cert of conformity'... which you can ignore if the bike > 10 yrs old. Bung the required £s for road tax, + £55 processing fee + previous foreign reg document + completed V55C + insurance cert + whatever else in an envelope to DVLA... and wait. (extremely bloody unhelpfully all district DVLA offices are now closed, leaving only Swansea. You cannot drive down there for a chat... no face-face facilities. They do however operate phone lines... the guy was quite helpful)

Note that DVLA are perfectly entitled to want to inspect the bike themselves... in which case (I guess) you're talking trailering the bloody thing to S.Wales. Lovely...

About 10 days later the V5C form arrived, with a registration year applicable to the year of build... my '77 bike has been allocated an 'R' plate. (and a Birmingham 'SOU' prefix - no idea why, but who cares?). And for some reason the 12 months tax disc has not been included...they wrote:

"There are currently changes taking place regarding the registration of imported vehicles within the DVLA. As a result of these changes in some cases our customers are receiving the V5C Registration Certificates before the replacement tax discs, MOT Certificates and V948 authorisation letters.
 
The new tax disc/MOT should arrive within 10 working days. If you do not receive these documents within this time please contact us."

....and this is where I am today..

Anyways, with the registration in hand, the last things to do are to take the V5C into (eg) Halfords & get a plate made up (take your drivers licence as proof of address)... and ring your insurance company to amend the frame # to number plate reg.

Tips...

(1) buy a bloody UK registered bike!
(2) if you buy an import get the HMRC sorted out ASAP.
(3) take your time here & enjoy the restoration.
(4) MOT the bike and register it all within 30 days

To fair, the process not insurmountable, and would not put me off buying a nice machine. (wouldn't swap mine now; I reckon it spent the first 25 years of its life in a sunny part of the 'States and was consequently in generally great condition throughout.)

Deviations from the above, eg no original paperwork (ie previous owners 'V5'); or modified bike I cannot comment upon.

Cheers,
Simon

mick:
Cheers for sharing your experience Lobo I'm sure others will find it useful ,

I've been through the process of getting a old Honda 750 registered on an age related plate that I bought with no documents or reg number,

Bryanj was very helpful for me to  ;) cheers Mick.

Bryanj:
Thanks for your comments folks, I have done, shall we say "A Few", and the documentation can get awkward, There is another way but I am not willing to put it up on the site!!! anybody who wants to know can PM to get a telephone contact number.

All the best

Bryan

Bitsa (Ralph Wright - RIP):
Bryan,
In not so the near future can I expect all this nonsense when I bring my french k6 home?
Cheers
Bitsa

Bryanj:
Bitsa, as it is in your name and in use in theory it ought to be easier, check on the DVLA.gov website for the paperwork to import a personal vehicle from the EU

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