Buying a car in U.K. And bringing it to Belgium

The first thing that you are going to have to do is to insure and register the car in the UK before you can drive it to Belgium; on the assumption that you don't have a UK residential address, you may find that much more difficult than you imagine. You will also have to obtain a certificate of conformity from the manufacturer of the car (which probably won't be cheap).

In Belgium, you will have to ensure that the car meets Belgian requirements, particularly in respect of the headlights which you may well have to change. Then you have to arrange insurance and make a special appointment with the DIV for an examination of the vehicle with a Customs officer present. Since you won't have owned the vehicle for 6 months, you may well be required to pay TVA on its value. If all is well, you will be sent a rear plate, you have to obtain the front plate yourself, once fitted you can drive the car. In due course you will receive a bill from the DIV to pay the annual tax plus the special first tax. Finally, you send the DVLA in Swansea notification that you have exported the car.

This is only an outline, you will need to check the detail yourself.

The person you buy the car from keeps the export slip and informs the DVLA of the export.

I have never heard of a customs officer needing to be present at the DIV, you just take the papers to the customs office.

TVA is not because you owned the car for less than six months, it's only due if the car is less than six months old and 6000 kilometres.

Try to get the COC from the UK, the Belgian dealers do not like you importing UK vehicles and will make life as difficult and expensive as possible.

I did it with a new car and had to take a UK temporary insurance to drive it to the continent. No problem, just additional costs.

With a used car I would ask the owner to leave his plates on the car while driving it over the channel and then do the paper work in Belgium with a car parked in your garage.

The plates always stay with a UK car, no need to ask the owner to leave them on.

The plates do indeed stay with the car and the previous owner will have notified the DVLA that the car has been sold. If you drive to any port without insurance in place you will spotted by one of the ANPR cameras and a fine will follow.

As I have indicated before, when you purchase the car and before you drive it anywhere you will have to register and tax the car in the UK. Since the abolition of the former (and very long standing) tax disc regime, the registration and taxing of the car dies with the sale and the new owner has, in effect, to resurrect it. You can do this online but I suspect that your lack of a permanent UK address will prove a huge stumbling block, you will, of course, have had to arrange insurance with a UK company beforehand.

The alternative to this is to trailer it to Belgium. If you take this route you will have to keep it on a trailer until the DIV have issued you with Belgian plates unless you are able to get temporary "green" Z trade plates - but they are expensive.

Finally, if you still have a UK issued driving licence, don't forget that the DVLA won't recognise it if you no longer have a permanent address in the UK.

I had a temporary insurance for my export plates arranged by https://www.skyinsurance.co.uk/temporary-car-insurance.html
I did not need a UK address to do it. Everything was done through their web site and a couple of emails.