MGB Register Forum

Hello,

I’m relocating to the Channel Islands for work. As it will be for over 12 months and I’ll be classed as a resident, local laws require me to register the car and affix local registration plates. I don’t plan to live in the Channel Islands permanently, so in due course the MGB will be reimported back to the UK.

Does anyone have any experience of doing this? The legal process seems straight forward enough, and so long as I continuously own the car I shouldn't fall foul of HMRC on my return. However will the car (which was first registered in the UK) end up being classed as an import? If so;

• Will this impact value (not that I plan to sell)?

• How will the insurance companies treat the car once it’s re-registered in the UK?

Put another way… do I take the MGB, or are the headaches such it’s better to SORN the car at the back of a family member’s garage and find myself an MGF to play with.

Thanks!

I'd SORN it in the UK and hire a car in the Channel Islands to save the inevitable bureaucracy you'll encounter.
Get someone to start it regularly and get insurance for laid up cover.

So I thought I should update this thread… just in case someone finds its useful in the future.

I got the car through most of Jersey’s importation process without too much difficulty. The final step however, the DVS checks… they were something else.

When you bring a car into Jersey for use longer than 12 months. You need to complete an import declaration online. To complete that, you need a recent (last six months) valuation of the car. The online guidance on Jersey’s website states this must be completed by a garage or dealership. In practice, for cars 35-40 years old or older, I found Jersey customs accepted an online valuation from the MG Owners Club.

The valuation is used to work out how much tax you have to pay for importation. GST (5 percent) is payable on the value of the car. Imported cars are also subject to a Vehicle Emissions Duty. The good news is any car over 50 years old is exempted from the VED and if you can prove you have owned the car for long enough, you may be excused the GST. The awkwardness is that you can only apply to be exempted from one of the taxes on the online form. But it seems the customs team in the Jersey Government will apply the other exemptions when they process the paperwork. I was excused therefore from all tax on the condition I did not attempt to sell the MGB within 12 months.

It is annoying though… having to pay for the car to be valued so someone can calculate zero percent of its value for tax purposes!

Once you’ve declared your car to customs, it is illegal to drive it in Jersey on UK registration plates. The exceptions are when it is taken for its DVS test (see below) or to a garage for repair.

The next step is to apply for a DVS check on the car. This is described as Jersey’s version of the UK MOT. I discovered it is much stricter than an MOT. Despite having passed a UK inspection a few months before, my car was failed on two issues. Evidence of a slow oil leak from the engine, and failing front shock absorbers. The shock absorbers were a fair cop (how were they missed in the UK MOT!?) but the slow oil leak was minimal weaping from the side banking plate of the engine that most classic car owners would regard as more than acceptable.

The issue (as I found out from the owner of the garage I took the car to after I failed the test for the first time) is that the DVS check was rushed by the Jersey Government when it looked like the UK might crash out of the EU in a no-deal Brexit. Although Jersey was never in the EU, it has limited access to the Common Market and one of the quirks of that access was that Jersey cars could be driven in France automatically. Had the UK left the EU without a deal however, Jersey registered cars would have been treated as Third Country cars and only allowed onto EU roads if they had been subject to a regular road worthiness test (like the UK MOT). Except Jersey had never had an equivalent of the MOT, so the Government quickly set up a test that would meet the European requirements (the DVS). They phased in the legislation for imported cars, commercial vehicles and motorbikes, but when the UK came to an agreement with the EU that included access for cars on European roads, the need to implement the DVS for private vehicles disappeared.

The catch is the DVS test was designed with modern cars in mind and it is very difficult to get a vintage or classic car through the test. In my case, the shock absorber test requires not just a minimum standard of shock absorption, but for the two front shock absorbers to absorb shocks at the same rate (with a small tolerance for difference) . This is something modern cars can (should) achieve, but finding two lever absorbers engineered to such precise standards was very difficult. Even the expensive “new” shocks sold by Moss had noticeably different levels of stiffness. I ended up ordering god knows how many, run an audition process to pick the two that appeared closest in performance and sending the rest back.

Thankfully that worked and the car passed the DVS on the third attempt! The only good news is that you pay a flat fee for the DVS check. If the car fails, you are not charged for taking the car back later for a retest. Once the DVS has been passed, your car is issued with a Jersey registration number right there and then.

Insurance has not proven a challenge. My old UK insurer was quite happy to keep insuring the car under its New Jersey registration. My insurance premium has not gone up.

Still no idea how (or whether) this will affect the cars resale value in the UK as and when I return (not that I have any intention of selling the MGB).

Anyway. I hope the write up is useful for the next person…!

If you put the car on SORN in the UK you could just relax it (free) and bolt the old UK numberplates back on the ferry. The DVLA have no reason to know it's been anywhere other than locked in a garage and customs have no reason to think youve just not been away on a trip