Help on purchasing Motorcycle in Europe for Estranged EU Citizen
 

Hi all! I have EU citizenship but have never lived in Europe, nor do I have a European driver's license (i have a USA license and an International Driver's license). I do have family whose address i can use on any documents related to buying a vehicle. I was wondering if someone could tell me how easy it would be to purchase a vehicle in my name and get it insured. Is the process as straightforward as getting the title, getting it insured and getting it registered? Or does EU bureaucracy make things a little more difficult? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Also, i have heard different countries charge different amounts of tax... so perhaps there is a country in the EU where buying and registering is easiest? Thanks

Depends on where exactly in the EU you are a citizen. Local rules about tax etc. will apply.

In general, purchasing a vehicle does not require an EU driver's license. You can be the registered owner of a vehicle without having ever had a license - it's a property transaction! You could just give it to a family member to drive, that would be perfectly legal.

Insurance does depend on local rules, because that's a private market transaction - the insurance agency can choose to reject you if you don't have a license, or charge a prohibitively high price. In some countries, insurance attaches to the vehicle and is valid for anyone driving it. In others, it attaches to a specific named driver.

In my country, Estonia, it is perfectly fine and legal for a non-resident to buy and register a car in their name, if they have a local resident who is willing to put their name on the paperwork as the Responsible User. (Basically, the person that the local government calls if they have any questions about the vehicle.) The actual owner doesn't even need to be an EU citizen! I've done this for people who registered their bikes on non-EU passports, and drove all the way to Mongolia and Vladivostok on their Estonian plates, no problem. (Estonia also doesn't have any annual vehicle taxes.)

Finally, you can get a vehicle e.g. in Germany on export plates. These are special plates that mean you will take the vehicle and re-register it outside Germany by the time the plates expire - but before that, you can drive on them freely throughout the EU (or outside). They even come with insurance! And the expiration date can be as long as a year.

In the Netherlands you need a Dutch drivers license and a valid address in the Netherlands to get a vehicle registered on your name.

Some time ago I tried to sell a bike to a Dutchman who was working in the Dutch embassy in Ukraine and he could not get it done because he did not live in the Netherlands (although he owns a house in the Netherlands but does not currently live there). So he could not buy my bike.

EU not general
 

The question about what you can do and how it works in EU has no answer.
EU is not one country and have no common laws regarding this.
So you have to check the country(countries) your are interested in.

And since you have a citizen ship, why not start there.
I assume that you have an ID number connected to your citizenship.

Since you have citizenship and an adress, there should be no problem in most countires. To buy and insure a motorcycle. ID number and adress is what is required in most cases.

Insurance will always be valid in the country where the bike is registred.
But it can have a time limit within EU, outside the home country. E.g three months.

And also some countries have time limit, how long you can drive on foreign plates.

So if your citizenship, your adress and you main usage is in the same country, there should be no problem.

But again: Check with that country's officals. Do not trust me (or anyone else.)

Let us know who it goes.

(I could write along article about regulations in Sweden and Portugal. SInce I have adresses and bike sinboth countires. But that is of no use, if you are heading for another country)

Wish you good luck

Hi Granoturko:

You have received excellent answers (above) from forum members AnTyx, jkrijt, and Erik_G. There's really not much more that can be said unless you specify which country you are interested in purchasing and registering the motorcycle in.

Note that your question addresses two very different and very separate topics: registration (plating) of the motorcycle, and insuring the motorcycle.

The rules regarding registration & plating of the motorcycle are set by the various countries (governments). The matter of whether to insure you (or the vehicle), what the cost would be, and what coverage would be offered is a private sector matter that is up to the insurance companies who operate in the country where you elect to register the motorcycle.

Having said that, I do strongly suspect that no insurance company would offer you coverage unless you hold an EC driver license. This is because the insurance company would have no way of determining what kind of risk you present to them - in other words, what your driving record is - and no way of tracking your future violation history without you holding a local driver license.

I believe that generally (beware, this is a generalization) the Western European countries don't impose too much of a burden on North Americans who already hold a North American license to trade that license in for a European license. It is likely that you will need to pass a written test, and perhaps even take an in-vehicle test, but unlikely you would need to complete all the instructional requirements that apply to a novice driver in an European country.

Be aware, though, that some European countries impose age or experience restrictions on the horsepower of a motorcycle that a driver can operate. I recall that when I was working as an aircraft pilot in Switzerland, a 24 year-old colleague of mine found out that even though his pilot license allowed him to be employed to operate a 70 passenger commuter aircraft, he couldn't ride a high powered sport bike because he was under 25. We used to tease him mercilessly about that...

Also be aware that the relatively easy process to obtain a European country driver license on the strength of a North American driver license favours operation of automobiles, and might not exempt you from ab initio requirements to obtain a motorcycle license.

Hello guys,

I currently am in Portugal and am volunteering in a Workaway. I am looking to buy a bike in Lisbon but I do not know what I should do in terms of bureaucratie.

Thing is : the owner of the place I'm volunteering to offered me to use his adress. However, I am not sure of what I should do with that and if there were other requirements.

Maybe you guys know more about this ?

To answer, we need to know the following:

1) What is your citizenship (what passport are you using)?
2) Where is your permanent residence? If not in the EC, do you have a visa that entitles you to reside in the EC?
3) What country issued your driver licence?

1) French
2) France
3) France

Country where I want to buy the bike : Portugal

Microchoveur:

As a citizen of an EC country, you have the right to live and work in Portugal, so as long as you have "regularized" your residence in Portugal by fulfilling whatever registration requirements the Portuguese impose, you should be able to purchase a motorcycle, register it in Portugal in your own name, and insure it without any difficulty.

It might be easier (meaning simpler, less paperwork) for you to buy a bike in France, register it and insure it in France, then ride it over to Portugal.

If it is possible to register a motorcycle in France without a physical inspection of the motorcycle required prior to getting a French licence plate, then just buy the bike in Portugal, and register and insure it in France.

Michael