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How do you deal with the above if your van is stored 365 days away from UK?
My understanding is as the van is registered in the UK it requires an annual MOT here, so requiring a trip to Dover each year.
Motor Tax needs to, at least, be bought each year and then displayed on the vehicle once on the road in Europe.
Is special insurance required. Normally insurance is determined by the keepers address on the understanding that is where the van is kept. Does storing on the continent invalidate that insurance and, if so, where do you get your insurance?
I am not sure but I think you would need to permanently import it into the country you are storing it if it is for over 12 months.
You certainly have to register a car in the UK if you keep it here for over 6 months. Most people get around this by making a hop across the channel every few months.
James
You are going to have to either have up to date tax and MOT (and for latter will have to come back to UK) or SORN it. You can no longer just keep off road and not renew tax without committing an offence, even if the van is abroad and laid up.
In any event if it is out of UK for longer than 12 months you should also send in your V5 as exported. (although how they enforce or know where a sorned vehicle is I do not know)
Insurance is slightly different. You can, and should, declare where it is kept, that is relevant to risk, the insurers are not going to insist on Tax and MOT, but when you move it again it will be untaxed and not MOT'd. Not a problem whilst abroad from a compliance point of view, foreign authorities do not enforce UK tax or vehicle examination standards, you must of course comply with local raodwirthiness standards, but when you get back to UK can only be driven to a prearranged appointmenmt at an MOT station. Your insurance may also require you to have an MOT, in which case you may be uninsured if you do not. There is a split on policies between terms which require keeping roadworthy or having an MOT, or both, as requirements, so you wil need to read
I had this out with DVLC years ago when we were spending more and more time over here with our UK registered Citroen.
They insisted we needed to 'export'. I insisted we were transient.
In the end they apologised (I kept the e-mail) and agreed we need not export or tax while being used temporarily at our holiday home in France.
We did eventually export and register in France mainly to avoid the ferry cost to MOT the car.
You DO NOT need UK Tax on a vehicle while abroad..!!!!
Ray.
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Whilst in an EU country I am pretty sure it is a requirement that any vehicle must comply with (all of) the same laws as if it was in its "home" country. Such as an MOT and believe it or not road tax as well (yes I know you only have to have an MOT in most of the EU every 2 years but its the law of your "home" country that counts)
You are permitted to use a vehicle for a maximum of 6 months in another EU country before it must be registered in that country (and comply with all the rules) It is very difficult to see how the length of stay could be proved though!!!
I used to come across a lot from Eastern Europe and the first thing they would produce when stopped would be a ferry ticket to show when they had (last ) brought the vehicle into the UK. In years gone by Customs and excise used to keep a database of foriegn vehicles when they came into the country so it was a simple method of finding out when the vehicle was first brought but no such database exists now.
Insurance might be a bigger problem. If the insurer finds out that you have "witheld relevant information" from them (i.e. where the vehicle is stored) they could well refuse to pay out and you could find yourself liable to prosecution for "making a false and misleading statement in order to obtain insurance" The penalty for which is pretty high !!
No, not all the laws. If it is legal to use it on the roads from type certification point of view in one country then that follows through all EU countries for temporary import. The authorities in a foreign country, even an EU or EEA one, have no interest in, no ability to enforce and no ability to acquire info about, MOT or tax status.
If it is stored off road in a foreign country eg in a storage facility, then it may well not need to be inmported to that country. It is off road and not being used.
To avoid SORNing you will need to tax and insure here and to tax will need an MOT
Finally Mr Plod witholding is not the same as giving info. There is a civil duty of full disclosure. Stop trying to scare someone uneccesarily. Of course the vehicle being in store abroad changes the kept at address and maybe the risk and thus the premium, so you should disclose that, but if you don't and it gets damaged you may risk cover being declined, not criminal prosecution.
not true as stated earlier it has to comply coutry of registration rules soneeds mot and tax . french and spanish police have acess to brit police database .
As pointed out above, if it's going to be out of the UK for more than 12 months the DVLA should be informed that you have exported the vehicle. The registration details are not deleted from the records though. If you then took it back into the UK without going through the correct importation procedure the ANPR system would detect you right away or the MOT station would.
It is a grey area on the RFL though, there was an EU directive, the number of which I am trying to find again which required EU vehicles to be compliant with the home country of registration requirements regarding road-worthiness and local insurance for minimum of six months to satisfy the host country, but this did not extend to RFL.
Sorn'ing a vehicle in the UK whilst still using it on foreign roads (yours is in storage, but you have to move it at sometime) is against the spirit of the rules which I suspect could give your Insurance Company an out in the event of a claim being submitted.
If you do not want to reregister it, I believe the only other option is to book an MOT near one of the channel ports and take it back and forward each year.
not true as stated earlier it has to comply coutry of registration rules soneeds mot and tax . french and spanish police have acess to brit police database .
Definitely incorrect voyagerstan, although a common misconception. The legal position is clear. It is in respect of construction and type, not RFL and MOT, not "rules".
The Spanish and French Police do not have direct access. They may ask under Data Protection. They have no interest in UK RFL or MOT except for using it to show the vehicle has not been in UK for years and so should have been registered in the country of import, that is what they will get you for.
Of course now it shouild be SORND anyway. That is what is going on and how, in Spain with al the untaxed not MOT's cars from UK being stopped and caught. The Spanish and French courts have no legislated powers to convict someone of not having an MOT or RFL.
If the car has been there for over 6 months and should have ben re registerd they do have powers re non registration and ITV and French equivalent.
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France
) brought the vehicle into the UK. In years gone by Customs and excise used to keep a database of foriegn vehicles when they came into the country so it was a simple method of finding out when the vehicle was first brought 
but no such database exists now.
