Do I have to open Bg. Company or can I import in my personal name

If you are already legally resident in Bulgaria, then you can register a vehicle in your personal name. Otherwise, you have to register it via a Bulgarian company.

Is there a legal requirement to re-register your vehicle or can it be left on UK plates paying UK insurance and having it MOT’d in the UK yearly.

@Trilogy121!!

Officially, there is a time limit for re-registration, but it's poorly enforced.

If you drive over every year to spend a few months here, then simply keep it on UK plates. If you relocate here, or leave the car here, you should re-register. Apart from anything else, it's a very long (and expensive) drive back to the UK just to get a new MOT.

As everywhere, cars must be road-legal: taxed, current inspection (MOT), valid insurance. But this also is VERY poorly enforced, especially in comparison to the UK and the rest of the EU, where your chances of driving such a car without getting a hefty fine and your car impounded are very slim. Here, there are folks driving foreign cars for several years, especially if they live in a more rural area.

UK is easy for tax and insurance, which you can quickly renew online. However, the MOT is a deal-breaker, as it's so expensive to get it back to the UK for its test. As far as I know, there's no way to substitute a local inspection for a MOT. More importantly, even if you renew your insurance, it won't be valid (or, perhaps, it's technically valid, but any claims will be denied) if your tax or MOT has expired.

I simply re-registered my vehicles here. My total for tax, vignette, service, inspection, and insurance is definitely less than the cost of a trip back to the UK. (And definitely less than the UK equivalent.)

So if you are prepared to travel back with your car do you think that is legal - as long as the MoT is done and your UK insurance is happy with you being abroad for that length of time?

@Trilogy121!!

Grey area, I'd guess. If you're here all year, only driving back for a week or two in dear old blighty for a couple of beers and new MOT, then you're definitely spending more time than officially allowed to re-register, but I doubt anyone will check. AND you'll have all valid documents (tax done online, insurance done online, new MOT done on your annual visits). You can get your Bulgaria vignette (and do your SMS parking here) with a UK plate.

My guess is that most insurance policies won't give very long EU cover (typically 60 or 90 days), so again you've got a potential breach of your insurance terms. No problem if stopped by police somewhere (either in Bulgaria or on your route back to UK) as you'll have insurance that looks valid. But if you had an accident somewhere in Europe, then I'd imagine an insurance company might want to check your tax and MOT... and when you left the UK most recently.

I don't know if you've made the drive already, but it's a long way. I've done it a couple of times, but I really hesitate to repeat it! I definitely would not want to be planning for this to be an annual thing. Especially as I can get Ryanair from Plovdiv back to Stansted in 3 hours for around 50 euros. You also have to factor in that there's no leeway on the MOT. If you're sick, or there's some reason you can't leave when it's due, you then have a big problem. Once your MOT lapses, I would definitely advise you not to drive back across Europe, in case you get stopped by the police somewhere. You'd be safer putting it on a trailer instead. Which will be really expensive.