Bringing a car from the UK

Abdul


Joined: 17/04/2009
Posts: 153

Message Posted:
31/10/2011 12:26

I want to bring my car from the UK and was wondering how long customs gives permission to drive the car with a UK number plate?



Any ideas would be much appreciated!

clews



Joined: 16/03/2009
Posts: 70

Message Posted:
31/10/2011 13:03

My husband and I brought our car over in May 2011.



If you have a temporary residency stamp in your passport you have to pay the Import Duty immediately at customs or your car will not be cleared to leave the port and will stay impounded until you have paid the duty. If you use the 90 days at a time system you can have the car in the country until your British Tax Disk renewal date and then the duty must be paid although this is at the discretion of the customs people. You should try to have a year on the tax disk if possible but you must go to the customs and they will supply you with the appropriate paperwork and rules.



From our experience we had a lot of hassle and my husband and I would not do it again. My advice is to go to the customs people as I said and speak to them about all the current rules and find out exactly how much the import duty is going to cost as you may be shocked . . .



We did enjoy the drive over though . . .

pg2464


Joined: 18/07/2010
Posts: 42

Message Posted:
02/11/2011 09:34

Imported vehicle a while back, customs duty, inspections and registration were a big problem, finally the powers in charge wanted twice what car was worth to import finally shipped back to UK, much to much to bother with.

Cyprusquest


Joined: 09/12/2008
Posts: 428

Message Posted:
02/11/2011 12:18

Lots of old posts on this but beware rules change by the hour, so surely best to ask customs by email directly? Important Q's are how old is your car and are you over for good or just a short visit?

Abdul


Joined: 17/04/2009
Posts: 153

Message Posted:
02/11/2011 12:28

The thing is getting hold of a customs officer who knows what he's talking about is almost impossible, and trying to e-mail them and getting a helpful response would be like having heavy snow here in July!!

clews



Joined: 16/03/2009
Posts: 70

Message Posted:
02/11/2011 14:22

You have to go to them directly at their offices in Lekosia, even then you might get the run around . . .

dvdjohn


Joined: 27/10/2011
Posts: 128

Message Posted:
02/11/2011 14:26

I was at customs yesterday, I want to import a large vehicle cost £30.000. They informed me it must be right hand drive, if it over three years old I must have owned it for the last 5 years.



The cost to import £ 24.000 that works out at about 80% duty. Needless to say that idea has been binned.



I would recommend a visit to the Gumuk ( Customs ) in Lefcosia if you are planning to import a vehicle, they were very helpful and even told me it was to much to pay for this vehicle, a personal visit will give you a correct answer to importing a vehicle.