We are UK residents with a holiday home and are considering driving our (Legal) Spanish car to the UK to transport some items to UK and vice versa to Spain; I like conformation that as a UK citizen I CAN drive a Spanish registered/insurered vehicle in the UK albeit on a temporary basis of no more than one month in one year.

Please check as I am sure that UK residents with a UK DL are not allowed to drive any foreign registered car on UK roads

I think the opposite is also true in spain i.e. a Spanish resident with a Spanish DL cannot drive a foreign registerd car on Spanish roads

Ask you insurance and DVLA

Good luck

Tadd1966 you are technicially correct I believe.

This is a link from the DVLA website

https://www.gov.uk/importing-vehicles-into-the-uk/temporary-imports

That being said we have friends with a french registered car who bring it back to the  though they are UK resident.

Saludos

You can usually use a vehicle with non-UK number plates without needing to tax or register it in the UK if all of the following apply:

• you’re visiting and don’t plan to live here
• you only use the vehicle up to 6 months in a 12-month period (one single visit, or several shorter visits adding up to a 6-month period)
• the vehicle is registered and taxed in its home country

You can usually use a vehicle with non-UK number plates without needing to tax or register it in the UK if all of the following apply:

• you’re visiting and don’t plan to live here
• you only use the vehicle up to 6 months in a 12-month period (one single visit, or several shorter visits adding up to a 6-month period)
• the vehicle is registered and taxed in its home country

you’re visiting and don’t plan to live here

Tadd is correct

Because you do live 'here' - you are a resident of the uk

TeamGBs quote can be seen here:- https://www.gov.uk/importing-vehicles-into-the-uk/temporary-imports

Badger,  as you say you are Resident in UK it would appear you cannot legally drive your car in UK.

Still a little confused as we live 6 months UK & 6 months Spain; can drive our registered/ins UK car to Spain within the 6 months so surely it would be that we could drive our Spanish car (purchased & registered in Spain) to UK within 6 month period?

Badger,    firstly you need to decide, in accordance with the rules on residencia (not what you prefer)  exactly where you are resident. That can be Spain or UK but not both.

As DVLC says, if you are resident in UK, as you posted, then you cannot drive the vehicle in UK.  If  you are resident in Spain then you can  drive the vehicle in the UK for the periods shown.

PS  You say, "Still a little confused as we live 6 months UK & 6 months Spain".  So where is you main home ?

Badger 123,

The important point is where you are Resident.

If you are a UK resident then you cannot legally drive a non UK registered vehicle in the UK.

The same applies in most countrys including Spain.

The DVLA website is quite clear on this but, I cannot find the page at the moment. I did check this out on their website and by phoning them and they confirmed this, about 2 years ago. This was the reason that I changed my licence as I drive back to the UK every year.

I will say that before I changed my UK licence to a Spanish one and drove to the UK I was never stopped or questioned at the UK border with my Spanish registered car.

You're not importing the car to the UK, it's fully legal in Spain so therefore as far as the car goes it's fully legal, perhaps it might be wise to inform your Spanish insurance company that you are going to the UK, say for a short visit, it's hardly likely that the UK cops will stop you,   no doubt they can check that you have all the necessary legal documents if they did, and you can show them, chances are they cant be bothered, they see thousands of strange number plates, from strange places on the UK roads every day.

If stopped you probably would be the only person they might ask you "Are you still a UK resident"

I have driven many French number plated cars here for weeks on end, even sat in the car while a traffic warden took a double look, he walked away, it's true that you're not supposed to drive a foreign registered car on the UK roads if you're a Brit, I am sure you're not the first and you definitely wont be the last.

Badger. I suggest you ignore advice to drive your car in UK (if you are indeed resident there as that would be illegal) and to lie, as he says he does,  if you are stopped.

I have been stopped leaving the UK driving a spanish registered car They asked a few questions about where I lived etc I have a spanish driving licence so there wasn't a problem Not sure if they would have taken it further but they seemed quite relaxed about the whole thing 

As it so happens I have just had a friend who is a UK cop come in and I put this question to him, his answer was..." Unless the car or person in question had committed a crime and it had been put out to look for them, or the car, then no I wouldn't stop them just because of the number plates...Plus I wouldn't want the bother"

We know you are not supposed to, but it happens.

johnzx

Badger. I suggest you ignore advice to drive your car in UK (if you are indeed resident there as that would be illegal) and to lie, as he says he does,  if you are stopped.

Who is "HE "  then?

Badger,

You need to work out the pros and cons.

As said you are very unlikely to be stopped but, if you were or you had an accident where the police were called, then they are not going to just ignore the fact that you are not legally allowed to drive that car in the UK.

You would most likely be charged with driving without a valid licence at the lest. (Johnzx would be able to say whether this is correct)

Also any claim you tried to make on your insurance re an accident could be invalid.

Is it worth the worry and possible cost?

I decided that it wasn't but you may think differently.

Jack:   You would most likely be charged with driving without a valid licence at the lest. (Johnzx would be able to say whether this is correct)

Yes, looks like, driving without a DL and as Spanish insurance says you must have a valid D/L, then you would probably be driving without insurance too..

As others have said, If you live 6 months in each country, you are either Spanish resident and liable to pay all your taxes in Spain with all the implications, asset declaration etc, or you are a UK resident, and therefore it would be illegal to drive you Spanish registered car in the UK.

APPROVED EUROPEAN (EU/EEA) LICENCES:

If your licence is from one of the countries listed below, then you can use it in the same way in the UK as you would do at home. The licence must be valid for the type of vehicle you drive.

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Republic of Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden.

You can usually use a vehicle with non-UK number plates without needing to tax or register it in the UK if all of the following apply:

• you’re visiting and don’t plan to live here (so that is visiting. If you are resident there then you live  in UK, you are not visiting)
• you only use the vehicle up to 6 months in a 12-month period (one single visit, or several shorter visits adding up to a 6-month period)
• the vehicle is registered and taxed in its home country

Well thats a lot of cafuffle, and red ink, to say what we all, well some of us know..

.....You not supposed to...But it happens.