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What to do with my converted UK campervan?

Hello,

I have a 2005 Citroen Relay 2.2-litre van I converted to a campervan in the UK. I am looking into registering it here, as I have moved back permanently. I went through the UK DVLA and converted it officially, but they did not change the vehicle category. It is N1. I checked this with them when I got the log book back and they said it remains as is, a commerical vehicle.

Here I understand I need to go through the whole palaver again and get an engineer to sign off the conversion, so it is MI, passenger vehicle. If I am looking at this thing correctly, I would be paying €900+ tax? Onto insurance, any idea what I would be paying on this size vehicle? I have two years' no claims driving it in the UK. Do they accept UK no claims here? It's hard to find the information online as you need to enter your reg and as it doesn't have an Irish reg yet, I have met some dead ends. The van is not worth much and it looks like it will cost me a whole lot more to run it here than in the UK. I am trying to get an idea before I start spending money, if it's a good idea to keep it, leave it on the drive or see if I can take it back or sell it to a UK driver. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

E O'Mahony O'Mahony (Cork City)

Jul 2018 Filed under: commercial vehicle

Expert answer

Hi there,

OK, as a camper van or a van, you’re going to be paying the same Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT) when you bring it into the country, which will be 13.3 per cent of the Irish market selling price, as decided upon by the Revenue Commissioners. Now, whether they will accept the vehicle as being a camper van or a plain van is a bit of a finger-in-the-air exercise, but the most likely outcome is that they’ll take whatever the DVLA tells them, and it’ll remain as an N1 vehicle. That’s bad news from a motor tax point of view, but it’s equally not the worst news ever — it means you’ll pay €333 a year to tax it, rather than the camper van rate of €102. As for insurance, sadly no-claims bonuses are very rarely, if ever, transferable between jurisdictions so you’ll most likely be starting from scratch. I’d try and find a good broker to see if they can track you down a deal. 

Neil Briscoe - Complete Car Advisor
@neilmbriscoe


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