Foreign car - stopped by the guards

mrbungle

SWORDS is riddled with eastern european cars right now. There are literally hundreds of them, mercs, bmws, audis. Not a sign of a lada. SWORDS needs to be targetted by Revenue and Customs and Excise and the Gardai.

These people are evading tax. We are paying for their right to drive on our roads.

lomb

this is europe. we were happy taking their money when things were bad here, now the government thru the cops is sticking up 2 fingers to europeans.
i disagree with allowing the new former comm states in the eu simply because the economies arent meshed , but what did they expect would happen?
if you do something u do it wholeheartedly, if they are in europe then let them be. this is all one country now...

mrbungle

lomb wrote:

if you do something u do it wholeheartedly, if they are in europe then let them be. this is all one country now...

So why should I pay motor tax on an imported car and an eastern european drives into our country and doesn't pay motor tax ?

My aunty recently imported her car from South Africa and the excise people wouldn't release it until the vrt was fully paid, registered and plates changed.

Those eastern europeans live here with there cars and have never changed plates or paid tax. Pay up Ivan.

eth0_

lomb wrote:

this country is bonkers, some one needs to tell customs this is the EU...there living in the past!

These people are driving UNINSURED. Some countries (Latvia being one, I think) don't even require you to have insurance. What if these people crash into you? Should they still be allowed drive around with their foreign plates with no irish tax or insurance?

I fully agree with customs going after these people. A lot of their cars are unroadworthy, and once they're here x amount of months their insurance isn't going to cover them if they have a crash in Ireland.

And I object to paying road tax while skinflint foreigners refuse to obey the law of the country they came to of their own free will..

DublinWriter

lomb wrote:

this is europe. we were happy taking their money when things were bad here, now the government thru the cops is sticking up 2 fingers to europeans.

I've lost count of the times I've seen various LT regged cars drive recklessly up and down the N2.

I've lost count of the times I've seen NI boy racers tear up the M50 hitting speeds of 100+ MPH.

The clampdown is long overdue and perhaps is a result of vast numbers of foreign regged cars treating our roads and road users with disrespect.

As far as I know, you are given a fairly generous window of time in which to register a foreign car in this country if you are a resident here.

You live and work in Ireland? You pay Irish taxes. End of story.

mackerski

eth0_ wrote:

These people are driving UNINSURED.

Down with this sort of thing. I'm sick of these ludicrous segways. There are no doubt people evading motor insurance here. Some of them drive foreign registered cars and some of them don't. But in the context of this discussion "These People" have been people driving foreign registered cars, something I did myself for a time after moving home, with full comprehensive insurance.

If you want to accuse, be specific about whom you are accusing. We have enough problems in this country with intolerance.

Dermot

lomb

DublinWriter wrote:

I've lost count of the times I've seen various LT regged cars drive recklessly up and down the N2.

I've lost count of the times I've seen NI boy racers tear up the M50 hitting speeds of 100+ MPH.

The clampdown is long overdue and perhaps is a result of vast numbers of foreign regged cars treating our roads and road users with disrespect.

As far as I know, you are given a fairly generous window of time in which to register a foreign car in this country if you are a resident here.

You live and work in Ireland? You pay Irish taxes. End of story.

Ive seen enough IE plated cars driving crazily in the UK, mine being one of them so what?

DublinWriter

lomb wrote:

Ive seen enough IE plated cars driving crazily in the UK, mine being one of them so what?

Hmmmm...*considers social Darwinism*....nothing really, prey continue.

dermot_sheehan

eth0_ wrote:

These people are driving UNINSURED. Some countries (Latvia being one, I think) don't even require you to have insurance. What if these people crash into you? Should they still be allowed drive around with their foreign plates with no irish tax or insurance?

I fully agree with customs going after these people. A lot of their cars are unroadworthy, and once they're here x amount of months their insurance isn't going to cover them if they have a crash in Ireland.

And I object to paying road tax while skinflint foreigners refuse to obey the law of the country they came to of their own free will..

Actually there is compulsory 3rd party insurance in eu member states. If you're hit by one of them and they're evading Latvia and Irish Law by not having 3rd party insurance, you sue the Latvia bureau for uninsured motorists (like the irish equivalent)

MrPudding

DublinWriter wrote:

I've lost count of the times I've seen various LT regged cars drive recklessly up and down the N2.

I've lost count of the times I've seen NI boy racers tear up the M50 hitting speeds of 100+ MPH.

The clampdown is long overdue and perhaps is a result of vast numbers of foreign regged cars treating our roads and road users with disrespect.

As far as I know, you are given a fairly generous window of time in which to register a foreign car in this country if you are a resident here.

You live and work in Ireland? You pay Irish taxes. End of story.

I've lost count of the times I've seen Irish drivers drive recklessly up and down the N2 and other roads.

I've also lost count of the times I've seen Irish drivers tear uo the M50 hitting speeds of 100+ MPH.

I've also lost count of the number of times I've seen Irish drivers ignoring red lights and generally driving like they have never had a driving lesson or done a test, oh wait, they probably haven't.

So, what is your point?

MrP

DublinWriter

MrPudding wrote:

I've lost count of the times I've seen Irish drivers drive recklessly up and down the N2 and other roads.

I've also lost count of the times I've seen Irish drivers tear uo the M50 hitting speeds of 100+ MPH.

I've also lost count of the number of times I've seen Irish drivers ignoring red lights and generally driving like they have never had a driving lesson or done a test, oh wait, they probably haven't.

So, what is your point?

MrP

My point is at least the Irish cars can be tracked down and the owners brought to book.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

FX Meister

Latvia isn't in the EU though. I'm sure it would be quite a serious headache trying to get money out of the Latvia bureau for uninsured motorists. I have claimed off the Irish one though because of a Roma wanker with no insurance and I found them great to deal with.

gabhain7 wrote:

Actually there is compulsory 3rd party insurance in eu member states. If you're hit by one of them and they're evading Latvia and Irish Law by not having 3rd party insurance, you sue the Latvia bureau for uninsured motorists (like the irish equivalent)

CrowdedHouse

FX Meister wrote:

Latvia isn't in the EU though.

It is actually

ballooba

ondafly wrote:

Just to clear this up - it is not possible for anyone to insure a car, they don't own, as they don't have an "insurable" interest.

Did you make that up?

Of course you have an insurable interest to have third party insurance. It's for damage you do to other people. Not yourself.

MrPudding

DublinWriter wrote:

My point is at least the Irish cars can be tracked down and the owners brought to book.

What are the numbers for uninsured drivers in Ireland? I seem to remember it being fairly high, not much sing of them being tracked down and brought to book.

How many threads do we have on this board where people have had their cars damaged but the police will not do anything even when the victim has a reg number?

People with LT or LV plated or whatever plates are just normal drivers. You are acting like they diplomatic imunity or something. If the cops could be arsed doing something there is plenty they could do. Do not confuse lazyness on the part of the police with inability to do something because the legal structure is not in place.

Are you seriously trying to suggest that simply because someone does not come from this country they are not accountable before the law? Catch yourselves on.

MrP

maidhc

ballooba wrote:

Did you make that up?

Of course you have an insurable interest to have third party insurance. It's for damage you do to other people. Not yourself.

My understanding would be the same as that of ondafly. Third party insurance is not insurance for other people, but insurance for you against other peoples claims against you for damage done by you. It happens to be mandatory to people who suffer damage have a decent mark (big insurance co) against whom to sue. So there is an insurable interest in the case of third party insurance.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

mackerski

daveirl wrote:

This post has been deleted.

Nobody mentioned speeding fines, except just now, when you did it. Are you guys frantically trying to find new reasons to demonise drivers of foreign-registered cars when the old reasons evaporate? That's what it feels like.

FWIW, a speeding ticket can be issued to anybody a guard chooses to stop on the road. If that person cannot be tied to an address (as in the case of a foreign reg), they may end up in the slammer until they can discharge the fine. In this regard, foreigners are more vulnerable than we are. That said, with our quota culture for speeding tickets, I'd say the guards prefer the simpler cases - let's see if we can blame that on the foreigners.

Dermot

lolli

Just to clarify something, my boyfriend has insurance and he is insured to drive in Ireland. He made sure of that. He's not the type of person who would drive without insurance. He was planning to buy an Irish car he just needs time. We were in Rosslare Harbour a couple of months ago, customs stopped us, asked us where he was workint etc, they never mentioned anything about the car they said everything was in order so I think they have a cheek now stopping him and giving him seven days to sort everything out. 3 days left now.... He wasnt planning on conning anyone, he just needed time to save up for a decent car and the crazy cost of Irish insurance.

The_Conductor

Whats the problem?
The law is there in black and white. Its perfectly clear- and umambigious.

Certainly- its annoying that you have to re-register your car and pay any VRT due within a certain time-frame. Thats life though- it is equally applicable to everyone, be they foreign nationals or Irish people. It is not discriminatory in any manner whatsoever. There is another thread here on Boards about Irish people buying cars at Japanese auctions and bringing them in here and moaning about paying the VRT. Whats the problem?

In an ideal world- VRT would not exist, car prices would be much lower here in Ireland and the government would probably hit us with tax in some other manner......

I have to pay extra to drive on certain roads in Portugal, because I am a non-national. If I choose to drive on those roads, I pony up. If I don't pay, I can be arrested. Its the law in Portugal. It costs me a couple of hundred per year. Why would non-nationals in Ireland expect to be able to ignore Irish laws?

Re: foreign reg vehicles in Lucan (Unkel's post)- I was curious and did a count on main street Lucan one evening. 12 BMWs (11 foreign registered- curiously 9 of the 11 from Latvia), 14 Audis (10 foreign registered- 7 from Latvia, 3 from Poland), 9 Mercedes (5 foreign registered- 2 Latvia, 2 Poland, 1 UK), 4 Jaguars (1 foreign registered (UK)), 4 Lexus (all Polish), 18 Volkswagen (12 foreign registered, 6 Latvian, 6 Polish)........etc

Quite aside from the manner that it was actually difficult to find Irish registered vehicles parked on main street- the preponderance of status "marques" was bewildering........ Whats the story? I can never ever hope to own the vast majority of the foreign registered cars I saw- where are they all coming from? I'm confused......

Back on topic though- I paid VRT bringing a secondhand car back to Ireland, and had to have it registered within 7 days of landing it. Why should there be one set of rules for Irish people and another for other nationalities. We should all be equal under the law.....

mackerski

smccarrick wrote:

Back on topic though- I paid VRT bringing a secondhand car back to Ireland, and had to have it registered within 7 days of landing it. Why should there be one set of rules for Irish people and another for other nationalities. We should all be equal under the law.....

We are all equal - but circumstances differ. If you had to register your car within a certain timeframe of landing it, it was presumably because you didn't qualify for any of the other procedures that allow you to drive the car on a foreign plate. Perhaps you simply bought it abroad, without having lived there or had it registered there in your name - you didn't say, so it's hard to know.

But as an Irish person, I was able to drive for a period of time on my German-registered car on my return from abroad. In doing so, I was exercising my right, as a person on the move within the EU, to use a car registered elsewhere for a while, until it became clear that I was going to be staying in one place for long enough to register it there. That procedure is open to all EU national (and others?) in this circumstance, so you can stop that nonsense about one-law-for-us-and-another-for-them.

There's a funny discontinuity in our attitude to foreigners here:

Germans by the Cliffs of Moher: "Great to see them enriching the economy".

German parked in the Ebay car park: anything from "you know, Ireland is the call-centre capital of Europe" to "Is he planning to re-register that thing?".

Latvian in front of you at the lights: "I'm paying his road tax. And his insurance claims. And his dole, probably..."

Dermot

lolli

Anyway we have decided what we are doing. We arent going to re-reg the car here because its not worth it. Car is going back to CZ at xmas prob abnd he is going to drive my car, (cant get him insured while the car is in my name so have to transfer ownership)

MrPudding

daveirl wrote:

This post has been deleted.

I can assure you that this is not the case.

MrP

Our man in Havana

MrPudding wrote:

I can assure you that this is not the case.

MrP

Sadly it is. :mad:

pedro ferio-vti

@Mackerski, any thread i've viewed mentioning foreign vehicles flouting the laws you seem to be posting your bit maintaining that this is all a figment of people's imagination or something. Not agreeing with all of the points made thus far but some of them do ring true. Fair enough, you drive/drove your German registered vehicle on Irish roads for a period of time probably legitimately. But just because you went by the book, doesn't mean everybody driving a foreign registered car does?

This probably sounds made up or something and I could mention names, times and stuff but I won't for safety lol. One example I will give you was while I was at my friends garage today. Polish gentleman arrives with his PL registered car. Problem with his brakes. Happened to be quite a high performance vehicle (VR6 Golf). So while chatting with the customer trying to find more information about the brake problem, my friend enquired about how he managed to get insurance on the car since he looked quite young+high performance car which ussually means it's unaffordable to do so or it's mega money for insurance company.

The guy then replies and says "Insurance? What the f*** do I need that for, I am not paying your insurance companys or your government anything." I think he thought my friend was accusing him of something when he was just interested in how he got a High Performance car insured at his age since he was a similar age to himself. Although the reason he was actually there was because his car had failed the NCT with a brake issue? Didn't know you could do the NCT without insurance or on a foreign registered car?

I dunno, maybe they/we're all just racists eh?

mackerski

pedro ferio-vti wrote:

@Mackerski, any thread i've viewed mentioning foreign vehicles flouting the laws you seem to be posting your bit maintaining that this is all a figment of people's imagination or something.

Got a quote? Because I don't recall saying anything of the sort. What I have done is to object to the "these feckers are [driving uninsured|drinking our Guinness|managing to own nicer cars]" brigade and their hair-trigger response to any post that betrays even a whiff of garlic. This thread is a case in point - we've had assumptions layered upon assumptions about a specific case, the particulars of which, as they emerged, confirmed most of my own early conclusions.

Are there foreign drivers here chancing their arms? You betcha. Any that weren't inclined to do it before they arrived can pick up plenty of tips from their adopted countrymen. But I've never seen a thread here start along the lines of "I was pulled for a faulty brakelight in Mountmellick and read the riot act" and almost immediately earn a followup saying "of course, these culchies never bother with NCT/Seatbelts/Personal Grooming". Doesn't happen.

Turner

Going off topic slightly but with regard to insurance..

If any of these Cars are stopped by the Gards an insurance policy will be demanded just like if an irish person was stopped. Most have insurance as in their countries it costs anywhere from 150-300 euros.

If you have an accident with one of these cars it is up to your insurance company to contact their insurance company and sort out payment, if they cant or it turns out they are not covered by insurance in their own country your insurance company will claim off the Motor Insurance Bureau of Ireland.

As regard to being prosecuted for no insurance if you are involved in an accident with a foreign registered car call the Gardai to the scene. They will either view their policy there and then or demand them to produce their insurance cert within 10 days at a Garda Station. If they dont they will be prosecuted for no insurance.

Obviously they can head back to their own country just as any Irish person could do in any foreign country. If they return as if we did to a foreign country arrest warrants would be waiting in any case for not showing up to a court.

pedro ferio-vti

How can a Gard validate an insurance cert that's not written in English/Irish? Some are actually producing forged documents as well to the Gards as they can't tell the difference?

They may have insurance in their own countries but I would be skeptical if it covers them to drive in Ireland for anything longer than a short trip or a holiday. It's the same as if I went to Mainland Europe on a trip/holiday. The most my insurance company will cover me for outside of Ireland is 6 weeks and i'm sure it's no different for these guys too? If you are intending on permanently living here then you buy insurance here. Simple as really?

Chief--- wrote:

As regard to being prosecuted for no insurance if you are involved in an accident with a foreign registered car call the Gardai to the scene. They will either view their policy there and then or demand them to produce their insurance cert within 10 days at a Garda Station. If they dont they will be prosecuted for no insurance.

How do you prosecute somebody when you can't bloody find them? Don't think their names are going to be in the phone book and the Gards have absolutely no way to track them down dude.... be realistic?

I just hope to God I don't ever have an accident with one of these cars because I could really do without the hassle.

mackerski

pedro ferio-vti wrote:

It's the same as if I went to Mainland Europe on a trip/holiday. The most my insurance company will cover me for outside of Ireland is 6 weeks and i'm sure it's no different for these guys too?

You're sure of this on the basis of no actual knowledge? Well if that doesn't sum up this whole thread...

I can only quote from my own experience. When returning from Germany with my car for an unspecified, but likely to be several months, period, my insurance company said "sure, no problem", backing up what my policy document had said. My reasoning - the bulk of German drivers that end up driving elsewhere in the EU do so where they drive on the same side of the road and do it pretty well, so no major change in risk.

Sorry to introduce actual data points, I know it goes against the flow a bit.

Dermot