2 Aussies buying a motorhome to travel Europe

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CathyMac

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Hi everyone!
Well we imported a motorhome to Australia back in 2020 an now live in it full time, following the weather and travelling our vast country.
A short time ago we realised that being 70ish we realistically (if health holds out) have 10 years for overseas travel.
We decided the motorhome lifestyle is definitely for us. We love having our home travel with us. No more booking into accom by a certain time and transferring clothes etc in then decamping in the morning.
So, this led us to look at buying a LHD motorhome in France. We are in the process of setting up a company (Societe Civile) which will purchase the motorhome. We will be the only shareholders of the company. We can get insurance and the accountant completing the procedure will provide his address as the company address any mail can be sent to them.
The next step is to purchase a French registered vehicle so save a lot of mucking around. This led us to a very nice vehicle in Las Palmas. We are seriously looking at visiting Las Palmas after Christmas when our Societe Civile has been established.
We have a quote to transport the vehicle back to Spain on the continent.
We intend posting this following question when our subcription to Motorhome Fun has been processed.
The motorhomes located in Las Palmas are ridiculously inexpensive compared to UK and the continent.
Does anyone know why this is the case?
Cathy & Iain
 
I’m probably one of the few awake at this time cos I’m on holiday in Perth. Someone will be along soon to help . My guess would be the cost of ferry to mainland then driving through n. Africa and ferry to Europe .happy travels
 
Some of us are awake and in the UK!

I believe they don't have VAT there so it could just be that there's a lower tax rate on vehicles - I'm not 100% sure on that so it would need verifying.

It might also just be that a French registered vehicle is harder to sell in Las Palmas so a lower price gets it shifted quicker.

As sueandjohn pointed out, there's also the cost and delay of shipping to be factored in which may put people off.
 
The reason they are cheaper than in Australia is that European motorhomes do not have to be extensively altered to comply with the Australian requirement of having any waste water drain down the plughole to go in a clockwise direction ... 🤔🤔😃😃😃😃

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Welcome aboard ;)

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I don't know what the market here in france is like at the moment, we replaced our old camper for a newer one 3 years ago, and the second hand market was mad, we must of had 20+ inquires within a day for ours, and we missed out on about 5 campers becouse we were not quick enough contacting the sellers, and they had already gone.

The one we did buy, had only been advertised for 20 minutes, and we were the first caller, so we got the first option to view, but we knew that we were going to have to make the decision, there and than at the viewing the following morning. After we had said yes, the seller said that he now had 15 phone calls to disappoint other potential buyers.

This was directly after covid when campers became very popular, hopefully the market should have calmed down a bit by now.

One good second hand site to look at is.

www.leboncoin.fr

If nothing else, it should give you an idea of what is available at what price.
 
Widge said:
I would also suspect that there are quite a lot of cargo ships doing that route, but how complicated it would be to ship i dont know.
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Most of the passenger ferries carry loads of freight. Probably 80% of the load.

I enquired about having my camper shipped. It's possible, but got fed up of unhelpful folk.
 
Wow! That’s a lot of response…..thankyou very much. We will investigate further.
It was the scam element we were worried about ‘if it sounds too good to be true…’.
 
My only advise would be do NOT send any money as deposit or otherwise until you are 100% the MH is gen.

OBTW, we will be in Perth 4th Jan arriving from Sydney on the Indian Pacific train.
 
bobnick said:
My only advise would be do NOT send any money as deposit or otherwise until you are 100% the MH is gen.

OBTW, we will be in Perth 4th Jan arriving from Sydney on the Indian Pacific train.
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That’s a big trip. We drove across the Nullabor last year. Certainly gives you a real feel for the vastness of the country.

Enjoy!
 
bobnick said:
My only advise would be do NOT send any money as deposit or otherwise until you are 100% the MH is gen.

OBTW, we will be in Perth 4th Jan arriving from Sydney on the Indian Pacific train.
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Agree, I would also ask if you can get it inspected (at your cost) at a garage/dealer of your choice, any complete scammers will bulk at that immediately.

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CathyMac said:
That’s a big trip. We drove across the Nullabor last year. Certainly gives you a real feel for the vastness of the country.

Enjoy!
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This will be the 4th time we will have done The Nullabor, 2 motorhome, 1 car, 1 train.
 
Just a thought...

CathyMac said:
We are in the process of setting up a company (Societe Civile) which will purchase the motorhome. We will be the only shareholders of the company. We can get insurance and the accountant completing the procedure will provide his address as the company address any mail can be sent to them.
Click to expand...
Will this arrangement have any bearing on the Schengen llimitations? ie 90 days in 180?
Apologies if this is irrelevant but I couldnt see any proposed time scale in your plans (y)
This is on the assumption that you hold AUS passports
 
Hi,

I presume as you have picked france to be the base for journey and buying a Campervan (camping car), you are familiar with the system in france. But in case not.

Normally the vehicle you buy has to have had its CT (french mot) within the last 6 months, this is a requirement for registration of the vehicle in your name. It is often a practice of the seller stating that they will put a new CT on the vehicle when they have agreed a sale, to stop having to do it twice if it takes longer than 6 months to sell.

In the case of a vehicle bought in the Canary Islands, it may still have a current CT, but unlikely to be less than 6 months old, so you would have to get it done after you get the vehicle back to france.

Although I don't think a spanish CT equivalent would be an acceptable alternative, it is probably worth having one done just to verify there are no major issues. You will have to check with one of our Spanish members to see if this is allowed, certainly french CT centers will test non french vehicles.
 
If you buy a vehicle in the Canaries and sell it in Spain, there's tax to pay. Perhaps.

I know if we bring a vehicle from Spain, we have to pay tax.

It can be a minefield.
 
Yorick said:
If you buy a vehicle in the Canaries and sell it in Spain, there's tax to pay. Perhaps.

I know if we bring a vehicle from Spain, we have to pay tax.

It can be a minefield.
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If it is more than 4 years old, there is no tax to pay on importation.

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Yorick said:
I know if we bring a vehicle from Spain, we have to pay tax.
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is that becuase your iva is 7%?
Yorick said:
If you buy a vehicle in the Canaries and sell it in Spain, there's tax to pay.
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If as above then they should be refunding?
Anyway if I buy in Canaries & ship to spain & use how does anyone know? & vice versa?
 
gus-lopez said:
is that becuase your iva is 7%?
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No IVA rather IGIC and it changes depending on the vehicle.
gus-lopez said:
If as above then they should be refunding?
Anyway if I buy in Canaries & ship to spain & use how does anyone know? & vice versa?
Click to expand...
They know because technically you are importing the vehicle and there is paperwork to be done.
 
Yes Schengen still applies so we are planning on getting a
namwaldog said:
Just a thought...


Will this arrangement have any bearing on the Schengen llimitations? ie 90 days in 180?
Apologies if this is irrelevant but I couldnt see any proposed time scale in your plans (y)
This is on the assumption that you hold AUS passports
Click to expand...
Long Stay Visa for France which you can get for up to a year (will have to get assistance with this we assume so that we meet requirements). This allows a lot of time in France and from what we understand will allow us to use the 90 day Schengen rule in other countries. Not 100% on this but investigating. The visa must be applied for and granted before you arrive in France.
One thing we can’t work out is how they work out where you’ve been if there are no border checks? We think should the occasion arise where we are questioned it will be up to us to prove we have done the correct thing (guilty until proved innocent 😂). It would be great if anyone can enlighten us on this).
 
Barriesimpson said:
Well if it has a French registration it will be very difficult to sell here so they cut their losses and offload it as quickly as possible. Someone mentioned taxes, here we pay 15% on vehicles of this type.
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Hallo Barrie, I will message you directly with a couple of questions about Gran Canaria. Yorick mentioned you may know.
 
Widge said:
Agree, I would also ask if you can get it inspected (at your cost) at a garage/dealer of your choice, any complete scammers will bulk at that immediately.
Click to expand...
Thanks Widge, yes we are lining that up. We have had quite a few emails back and forward plus I have checked out the company and they are definitely registered but that does not mean anything really. We will let everyone know how it all turn out.

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