How to buy a Campervan in the UK
Buying, MOT, insurance and Tax
A checklist for buying (and selling) a camper van in the UK
PREPARATION
You have chosen and settled on a price for the vehicle - get this in writing.
Make sure it has a valid MOT.
Organise a UK address.
Organise insurance quotes BEFORE handing money over and arrange to pay for your quote as soon as your money as transferred.
Organise an international money transfer and make sure you have spoken to your bank before doing so.
PROCESS
Pay the money to the seller.
Get the seller to register the vehicle to you online as well as fill in a green ‘new keeper’ slip and give it to you and destroy the V5C that they have. DVLA will update the vehicle record immediately and they will aim to send out a new V5C to you within 3 to 5 days so you will need a UK address for this.
Tax the vehicle at gov.uk
Pay for your insurance
Drive away
You need a UK Address
Lucky for us as with most Australian’s we have a few friends in the U.K so we registered the van to a friends place. We have been told that Brokers such as the Motor Home Depot will allow you to register your vehicle to their offices if you purchase a van through them, but always ask and never assume this will be the case.
THe Vehicle Needs valid MOT
Ministry of Transport (MOT) certificate is a roadworthy inspection undertaken annually for registration. The Maximum cost set by the DVLA is £54.85 and this handy link is a checklist before you take your vehicle for its check. You need to have a vehicle that has passed its MOT and when you are buying it is useful to check the registration on the MOT government checking website here. You can see the full vehicle history in all its gore or glory. Additionally you can see something called advisories. These are, as they say, things that haven’t failed the registration but need to keep an eye on as may deteriorate and become unroadworthy. This is also super helpful. It’s a step by step how to buy a vehicle https://www.gov.uk/buy-a-vehicle.
THe vehicle needs to be insured (and Motor Insurance is Expensive)
You can not leagally drive a vehicle of any kind in the UK and EU without insurance. Your registration is also invalid without it. Motor or Campervan insurance is a whole other beast that you need to organise when choosing a van abroad. As I write this, there are only TWO insurers that will cover non UK residents for travel throughout the UK, EU and non EU European countries, HIC insurance and Down Under Insurance.
HIC (Herts Insurance Consultants) cover Australians abroad even for vehicles older than 10 years. I found these guys after emailing Eunice from @thehurleyventures as their delightful instagram account shows them in a 1988 Fiat Ducato and I though “there is no way these guys got insured for that bad boy” and I was so wrong! Cover from 14 days to 12 months is available and includes contents insurance. This company are their own underwriters and have another branch called Just Kamper Insurance geared toward UK residents. Their site gives price examples but we found upon getting a quote for Europe that the online examples were NOT indicative of real pricing. To insure the Renault for 7 months was quoted to us at an eye watering £2000.
Down Under Insurance (underwritten by Allianz (Aus branch) or TIF group (UK branch) covers UK registered vehicles up to 32 years old. License holders must be 20 years and older and they will accept drivers with relevant documentation from America, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. Additional drivers at no cost (which is great) and it covers you throughout your travels in UK/Europe from 15 days up to 12 months. We found their phone centre helpful and responsive with comprehensive insurance for the continent coming in around £700.
Both cover you for Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and non EU countries include Andorra, Croatia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland (third party only).
For both of these companies Third party cover can be provided for some countries at an additional premium but some are excluded all together: Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, F.Y.R.O.M, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Tunisia, Serbia, Turkey (third party only) and Ukraine.
You will have to Tax the van online after you buy it
Tax was not something we had read about before purchasing the van and were a little surprised when we had to outlay extra to the government. If you jump online at gov.uk you can see the exact process of taxing a vehicle. We did it online in about 10 minutes and paid by card. You can also choose 6 or 12 month options depending on how long you plan to keep the van.
A note on Buy Back Schemes, Resale and brokers
This was a big one for us, we had heard of the delights of buyback schemes that some European and UK companies offer especially for those stressed about that pesky schengen visa. The ones we came across were Camperfun based in the Netherlands and the UK based Southern Motorhome Centre but for both you will need the capital to purchase. We didn’t use either of these and decided to buy outright as we were under no time constraints and have friends in the UK to help us with resale but if you pop over to blue planet nomads they used Camperfun and wrote a really helpful blog about it. Be aware of brokerage companies like Motorhome Depot. If you have ample money and no time to deal with selling it yourself you can pay them to do it for you but be warned that they will take their fare share of brokerage fees (upwards of £2000) and write up tricky contracts so that even if you found a buyer personally (and did all the work) they still take their commission regardless.
Documentation for purchase and travel
GB sticker
Get a GB sticker regardless of if you have the GB on the licence plate.
Green card (insurance)
A Green Card is a physical document evidencing that you have the necessary third-party insurance cover in force for driving outside the EU, EAA, Serbia or Switzerland – which an insurer or insurance broker can provide. Separate Green Cards are now required for cars, motorhomes and caravans. A Green Card for a car or motorhome needs to have Category A (“Car”) ticked; a Green Card for a caravan needs to have Category F (“Trailer”) ticked and you will need to speak to your car insurance provider and ask them for a Green Card. You may get slugged a fee for this.
proof of ownership of your vehicle (V5C document)
The seller of the Vehicle should have a registration certificate (V5C) and can register the vehicle to you online or by post. But obviously online is quicker.
To register online the seller will need to register the vehicle to you online as well as fill in a green ‘new keeper’ slip and give it to you and destroy the V5C that they have. DVLA will update the vehicle record immediately and they will aim to send out a new V5C to you within 3 to 5 days so you will need a UK address for this.
proof of your MOT
You can be fined up to £1,000 for driving a vehicle without a valid MOT so it is useful to sign up to get free reminders by text message or email when your MOT is due.
proof of insurance (certificate)
Insurance is covered above but make sure you have hard copies of the Insurance certificates whilst you travel to cover yourself especially at the Schengen boarders.
your home country driving licence and an International Driving Permit
And photocopies of these for all drivers.
your passport
Duh.
International Money Transfer
This was quite daunting for us initially. However we live in an age of technological wonders. There are two international money transfer sites that I came across with competitive fees. The first (and the one I personally use) is Transferwise it is fast, secure and definitely has the best rates I could find anywhere. The only other that came close was OFX. These guys have the personal touch and give you a call once you have signed up to walk you through their service. On say a 20 000 AUD transfer to pounds, the difference between them was around $80 AUD with Transferwise on top. If you want that little more personal service and a human at the other end OFX may be better. Note that OFX is only currently available to AU, CAN, USA, UK, HK, NZ and Singapore.
* EU Countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, UK.
** EEA Countries: All EU countries PLUS Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
A 'how to' for catching the car ferry across the Adriatic including advice on deck passage and other helpful tips and tricks we learnt on our journey. Taking a campervan, RV or motorhome by ferry saves a lot of kilometres but read here first to be best prepared for the reality of the overnight Croatian ferry!