Keeping a car in another country?

[MikeMelga 7,257]

We are considering sending one of our cars to Portugal, as we will not need 2 in Germany any more. Our plan is to make a TuV before time, ship it to Portugal, and keep it in German plates, with German insurance, for one year or two, and use it there for our holidays, as for example in 2022 we will have spent 3 months there. Later we would either sell it there or legalize it to Portuguese license plates.

 

Is there anything illegal about this? Or issues with insurance? It seems OK from my perspective, but of course, Germany is Germany!

[LukeSkywalker 7,605]

If I understand it correctly, you don’t register the car in Portugal since then you would have to get local license plates within 6 months and get the local TüV as well. Probably a grey area.

[MikeMelga 7,257]

My understanding is I don't need to register within 6 months because I'm not living there. Would be the same as taking it to Portugal for every vacation, with the difference I would keep it there in a garage in the meantime.

[krakp 182]

If you keep it inside a private property ("in a garage") - I would not expect any issues. AFAIK on your private property the car does not even need the plates / insurance.

If you should park it in a public place it might a different story, but I would rather expect it to be a problem for the PT police (would it be?) than for Germany. Germany does not really care would you do in Portugal, I guess...

[MikeMelga 7,257]

yeah, I have a private garage there, would not be visible at all. But I wonder if there is some German rule I would be breaking.

Also nobody else would be driving it.

[MadAxeMurderer 6,217]

My understand is that technically it cannot stay more than 6 months in Portugal. 

 

Now you could have driven it across the border to Spain and then back into Portugal. In other words there is no way of knowing how long the car has really been in Portugal. 

 

In my wild and wicked youth I had a German car in France for 1 year, and a different German car in Ireland for 2 years. That one died in Ireland and I scrapped it, and sent the plates back to Germany.

 

BUT Keep the TÜV valid, and of course insurance. 

[LeonG 14,797]

There is some info on the interweb saying that you can drive an EU car in Portugal if you are not moving there for up to 6 months but if you hide it in a garage, who's to know that you didn't leave with it again.  It's different if you are moving where you have a certain amount of time to import the car before you have to pay import fees on it.

 

[HH_Sailor 3,547]

Keep driving over to Spain every few months.

Have a coffee or shopping trip while parked where you'll get a ticket.

 

Pay the ticket promptly and drive back home.

Start a new folder for the tickets as proof.

 

Repeat...

[MikeMelga 7,257]

Thanks for all answers. I really don't think I would have any issue with the local police, because my area is an immigration area. As example, in summertime easily 50% of the cars on the road have foreign license plates, usually swiss, french and a few German.

There is no border check, so there is no way for the police to know I have been there for long. Actually the car will go by truck, I won't drive it there, it's too far and costly.

And I still feel there is no law being broken. I am not a Portuguese resident, so I am not obliged to register it within 6 months.

My plan is to register it within 2 years, when the TüV expires.

[MadAxeMurderer 6,217]

1 hour ago, MikeMelga said:

And I still feel there is no law being broken. I am not a Portuguese resident, so I am not obliged to register it within 6 months.

My plan is to register it within 2 years, when the TüV expires.

 

Technically you are breaking the law by keeping a foreign car in a country for more than 6 months. Just like if you have a 6 month visa you cannot stay longer than 6 months.

 

But as everybody says there is no way of knowing.

And the important point is that TÜV will always be current, and of course you will keep it insured.

[yesterday 1,984]

10 hours ago, MikeMelga said:

 

And I still feel there is no law being broken. I am not a Portuguese resident, so I am not obliged to register it within 6 months.

My plan is to register it within 2 years, when the TüV expires.

 

But you will have your car registered to a Munich address, if you get into a costly accident the insurance firm may not pay out ( if they find out and they will try if the costs are high), because the car is not based in Munich as stated in your insurance contract.  It should be said that some people can just live with the risk and some people cannot.

 

I would advise you to talk to your insurance company and the ADAC. The ADAC do have legal advisors, which is what you need and, you said you had this in other posts

 

The EU is just not really well connected in this respect.

 

please report back any answers here, as I am interested to do this as well, different countries of course.

[MadAxeMurderer 6,217]

How will they know he didn't drive the car down from Munich 1 week previously. 

 

Plus insurance means the car is insured for accidents. Anywhere. Germans drive their cars to Italy and have accidents all the time. Completely routine. They cannot deny insurance because you drive to a different country on holiday.

 

Oh they would if they could, but it's not in the government's interest to allow insurance companies to deny insurance on a whim. They want all German registered cars to be well insured.

[jeba 4,349]

17 hours ago, MadAxeMurderer said:

of course you will keep it insured.

I´d rather not. I´d deregister it and only re-register if needed (in Germany). Why pay insurance and tax for a car which is stored in a garage for most of the year?

 

On 26.11.2022, 03:02:53, LeonG said:

you have a certain amount of time to import the car before you have to pay import fees on it.

Are there still import fees between EU-countries?

[HH_Sailor 3,547]

3 hours ago, jeba said:

Why pay insurance and tax for a car which is stored in a garage for most of the year?

 

Sure, it depends on the value, but here are 3 reasons for insurance to start with:

Fire, flood, theft...

[MikeMelga 7,257]

4 hours ago, jeba said:

I´d rather not. I´d deregister it and only re-register if needed (in Germany). Why pay insurance and tax for a car which is stored in a garage for most of the year?

We go there 4-5x per year. We spent 3 months in total during 2022 in Portugal.

 

4 hours ago, jeba said:

 

Are there still import fees between EU-countries?

Yes, and that is one of the issues. We don't want to permanently register it in Portugal because:

 

a) we are not sure if we don't need it back in Germany

b ) import taxes would be close to 3000€, while if I only do it in 2 years it will be cheaper

c) if for some weird reason (unplanned) we need to return to Portugal in the next 2 years, it's tax free

 

Point is right now we don't need 2 cars in Germany and our car in Portugal is about to go to scrap. And the Mercedes is barely used here, just a risk for rust, we just spent 500€ in rusty brake cable replacement. We used to have a garage rented nearby, but the owner wanted it back for his daughter.

[LeonG 14,797]

On 11/27/2022, 10:34:13, MikeMelga said:

a) we are not sure if we don't need it back in Germany

b ) import taxes would be close to 3000€, while if I only do it in 2 years it will be cheaper

c) if for some weird reason (unplanned) we need to return to Portugal in the next 2 years, it's tax free

 

So it sounds like a good idea to bring it to Portugal with a new TÜV and when the 2 years are up, you have options like you could import it to Portugal then or bring it back to Germany for a new TÜV, then bring it back to Portugal or keep it in Germany.