Help-Buying an Ontrario Bike in Germany
 

I'm buying a pristine Ontario registered KLR 650 from a buddy who has ended his ride in Germany. Here's the problem, to transfer title over to me (also an Ontario resident) I am being told by Service Ontario (Dept of Motor Vehicles) there is no way around the need to have the bike safetied in Ontario at an approved site.
I thought a German dealer could fill in the Ontario inspection form and use an affidavit to verify completion to satisfy the requirement but no go. This can't be the first time this has happened with all the Canadian ADV traffic over to the EU.
I'm looking for ideas, advice and options from the HUBB on where to go from here.
The only advice I have so far is to register the bike in an EU country using the address of my family in the UK or close friends in Belgium/Switzerland but have not followed up and am not sure I can do this as a non resident.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
G.

No country that requires an actual inspection would allow it to happen in a foreign country as the place needs to be government approved. To register it in Europe you would have to properly import it into that country. You should check carefully the country laws as it could be some would not allow importing a KLR because of the emissions. Switzerland for example is very strict on those regards. If you can register it in Europe great, if not your only option may be to have a notarized power of attorney from the current owner while leaving it registered in his name.

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Same situation in south america where there are a heap of BC-reg vehicles because it is easy for a foreigner to buy the vehicle while in BC, but then BC makes it impossible to transfer the registration unless buyer and seller are back in BC. Plates have to be handed back, new ones issued and mandatory insurance paid.

Guess they do it (illegally) using a power of attorney

Thanks for the input ....very much appreciated. Might be beggared on this one but will follow up on both registering the bike in the UK (might be easier with family there as the bike will not be returning to Canada if I can register it in my name) and the use of the bike for our ride if left in my buddy's name (letter of permission) as the two most viable options.
Didn't factor emission standards into this at all, thanks for the heads up and hope it' not the same in the UK.
Cheers,
G.

I imagine it'd be difficult/expensive to register a Japanese/Thai built bike in the UK. Import tax (10%) and value added tax (20%) to pay, along with all sort of hoops to jump through and other fees to pay.

I once imported a BMW from the Germany to the UK. It was a bit of a pita, but cheap enough as it was built in the EU.

Why not try to register it in the buyer's name in an easier US state?

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...nals-can-58648

Thanks for the info Chris,
More road blocks and no way around them...man this just keeps getting better....not sure what you mean on registering in a US state as this is a Canadian bike, but am still exploring a couple options, the easiest of which is likely to just abandon the idea of purchase and ship one of my bikes from Canada over. It buggers up ride timing, but it is what it is.
Thanks all....
Cheers,
G.

Not sure if Canadian bikes can be imported into the USA, but if so, Arizona would be a good state to register it in.

Or ask Martin Hurley at moto fierme in the Republic of Ireland to locate and register you a British or Irish bike. Don't have his website to hand, but easy to find here on the hubb or via Google. He's a good bloke.

Greg:

You've probably discovered this by now - it being 4 weeks since you made your original post - but there is just no way you can do what you want to do. Others have investigated in the past, and come up against the same roadblocks.

You could legally transfer title of the Ontario-plated bike without returning the bike to Ontario for inspection, but what you would then get would be an ownership document for an unplated (i.e. unfit) motor vehicle. I don't think that would meet your needs.

An added barrier that you probably haven't encountered yet is that even if you were to fly the bike back to Ontario and have it inspected and found fit, you would not be able to get a licence plate for it without proof of insurance. I think that the shortest term you can buy moto insurance for in Ontario is 6 months. You could probably cancel the insurance the day after you plate the bike (assuming you were to export the bike back out of Canada), but even that would probably cost you a few hundred dollars because of short-rating of insurance policies.

You have likely already discovered that you would not be able to register the bike in any European country because of differences in safety and emissions regulations between Europe and Canada. The cost of bringing the bike into conformity with European regulations would exceed the value of the bike.

In theory, you might be able to register the bike in a third-world country (e.g. Outer Mongolia or someplace like that) and get a licence plate on it that way, but it is unlikely that you would be able to avoid having to pay import duties on the bike that would be imposed before you could register the vehicle.

The only possible solution I can think of would be to leave the vehicle registered (& plated) to the current owner, and get an affidavit made out and signed by both you and the current owner transferring ownership to you. But even that would not guarantee that you would not encounter problems later on, for example, when you tried to insure it, or transfer it out of a country. Worse still, you could encounter a situation in which customs authorities decide that the bike has been illegally imported to wherever you are, and then you will get fined, have to pay import duties, etc. Remember, the current owner was only allowed to import the bike to Europe on the understanding that it would be used for his own touristic pleasure. He undertook to export it at the time he imported it, and now, he is defaulting on that promise to export.

In short, what you are trying to do is just not possible with an Ontario registration on the bike. Some Americans have worked around the same problem if the bike is US plated by registering it in a (different) state that does not require inspections, insurance, etc. But, as far as I know, every Canadian province and territory requires a safety inspection and insurance before they will register a bike... not to mention that you will have to pay provincial tax (possibly even federal tax in provinces that have a HST) before you can plate it in a different province.

Michael

this was really helpful! good job!!