Each week Sharon Scott of local estate agency 2 Valleys Properties shares a really useful, interesting and helpful guide to ex-pat life in the mountains. You’ll find the full back collection of Sharon’s blogs on our website, and on Sharon’s Facebook page.
This Week – Car Registration
Quick Friday freebie today as I am busy, busy, busy as you all are. This week, its car registration. If you are importing a car from the UK or another European country, then you will need to re-register it in France and obtain a carte grise, which is actually green.
To do this there are a few stages you need to complete. First of all, you will need to obtain a certificate de conformité for the vehicle depending on it’s make. The easiest way of doing this is by going online to a site like http://www.certificatconformite.eu
Yes its COC I know, I know…..
You have to pay for this and it will be posted to you. You can expect to wait around a week to 2 weeks. After this, you will need to take the car for it’s contrôle technique or CT which is the equivalent of an MOT. This has to be done every 2 years. If the car passes, then great, if not then you have a couple of weeks to do the necessary repairs and pass it again in order not to have to pay a second time.
With the certificate de conformité, the CT, a copy of your passport or identity card, a recent utility bill, a filled out Cerfa N. 13750*03 form that you can download from the internet (but which can also be filled in at the prefecture), a signed and dated bill of sale with the previous owners name and address, the old carte grise or registration documents and a quitus fiscal you can go to the prefecture in Thonon and register the car. The cost of this is different for every car. The prefecture will be able to tell you before hand if you give them a ring. Tel: 0 4 50 71 00 20
http://lannuaire.service-public.fr/services_locaux/rhone-alpes/haute-savoie/sous_pref-74281-01.html
The prefecture in Thonon is, near the town hall. View the Google map.
They will issue you with a temporary carte grise straight away and will then send you the original by recorded delivery.
The Quitus fiscal: what is this?
This is a certificate that indicates that the vehicle is in the right TVA (VAT) situation. You get this certificate from the tax office opposite the prefecture in Thonon, before getting the carte grise. You will need the original bill of sale, the old or new carte grise from the other country, a certificate proving that it has been radiated from the previous countries registration system (this only applies to certain countries, notably Germany), the certificate de conformité and a passport or identity card.
With the carte grise, you can then go on to insure the car. I would recommend AXA in Morzine as they are very open and friendly, but everyone has their own preference and I am not an expert on insurance price comparison.
