Getting an address in UK and buying bike/vehicle

[popotla]

I hope I'm posting in the appropriate place. My question relates to the registration and ownership of a bike or vehicle, which I'd like to buy in Britain. (I live in Germany at present.)

I have no address in Britain but by renting a place for, say, three months (something that in any case I'd love to do, in my old home town) I would have one and could then buy and register, I assume, my bike/vehicle.

Then I ride/drive away. But what happens then as regards the licensing authorities? I'd no longer have an address there. Is there no problem here, is is it something I can't do? When the time came to renew the licence, I suppose I could go back, if I wasn't already there, and get a new address (by renting again) and hey presto!

Please help me by commenting on this. Perhaps I'm not the only one who's been in this position.

(By the way, one might well ask "Why not buy your bike or vehicle in Germany and register it there?" Well, there are reasons for not being able to do this.)

[Blade Haggarty]

You don't even have to rent a place. You could just use a mates address for the paperwork to be sent to. It's very easy to buy a a bike in England. Moving won't be a problem. You don't have to renew a licence either.

[Pongo]

It is not quite as simple as Blade makes out. Yes, you can use a friends address, but the friend will normally be required to give confirmed details that you are resident at that address and you have to be resident for at least six months. Similarly if you rent a place, you have to have at least six months living there to be classified as a resident, and you will normally be required to show proof of residency with bills ( electricity/gas/landline phone). The DVLA do check voting registers and other means to establish residency. If you don't qualify you won't be allowed to register any vehicle in your name. If you don't have a vehicle registered in your name you can't get insurance. I'm not sure what you mean by ''licence'' ( there are many different understandings of this word). If you (still)have a U.K. driving permit ( licence), you can only renew it if you are resident in the U.k., the DVLA will not send abroad, and you must sign an on line declaration that you live in the U.K. It is now a criminal offence to say otherwise. The old annual/ quarterly road fund''licence'' or tax disc does not exist anymore, but you still have to pay the annual taxation. If you mean the registration document ( V5c), then that doesn't need renewal.**

If you successfully register a bike in your name at the DVLA it is automatically checked for MOT ( if required), insurance and annual taxation. Normally a vehicle is sold with current MOT but with no insurance or taxation. You must do this immediately or it will be flagged up on the PNC ( Police National Computer), and the ANPR ( Automatic number plate recognition system) will catch you if you are out on the road. All these elements are now computer interlinked, and if one element is missing or not valid then all the others are void, and if caught your vehicle will be taken away from you until you sort it out.

If you don't renew the elements which require to be up to date ( MOT, Insurance and driving permit), you will not be legal out on the road wherever you are because the international convention on vehicles in circulation states that all vehicles must comply to the roadworthiness regulations of the country of registration.

Don't forget that as of the end of next week, the U.K. will have confirmed it is leaving the Union, and all laws will be subject to change, possibly at very short notice.

** If it is your intention to take the bike to Germany where you are now resident, you must re-register it in Germany. The European Regulations state that it is illegal for a resident of a country to own and drive a vehicle in that country which is registered in another country.