I thought others might be interested in what the police would accept for a Hungarian resident to be driving a non-Hungarian registered car.
The Hungarian (resident) needs written permission of the owner to drive the car and must have this permission for each day they can drive the car. Each permission must be dated individually and cannot cover a period, only a specific day. Apparently it needs 2 witnesses to sign as well (although that might be a little over the top or precise). However one could quite easily imagine, although of course not condone, an automated mechanism to produce these individually dated and signed permissions several months in advance. I believe they must be signed as originals.
I believe if the cops are having a bad day, they will take the number plates and the fine is about EUR 800 - quite excessive. It's not clear if paying the fine, automatically registers you car in Hungary or it's just a fine with no other action. Presumably the cops maintain a list of stops, ID numbers and car registrations and if there's repetitive instances of stops with the same car/ID, then maybe they'd take further action. But of course, unless they immobilise the car physically, for UK drivers, the number plates are easy to obtain. One could carry a spare set.
I can imagine a considerable number of people on legitimate business in Hungary, Hungarians or otherwise, with multiple addresses being very annoyed at these new road stops.
I do wish the Hungarian authorities would lower the registration tax to a reasonable amount for passenger cars, say, EUR 200 or 300 and leave it at that. The registration scheme they run now is absurd. They need to shift the costs onto the annual tax and link it to vehicle inspections.
The Slovakian registration scheme is obviously one of the major targets. One thing which surprised me is that this sort of thing also goes on between Romania (which also has excessively high registration taxes) and Bulgaria (which has low registration taxes like Slovakia). I thought it was just localised to Hungary and Slovakia.
New car law (Hungarian residents driving foreign cars)....
Wow.
Is this for foreign licensed cars only?
I drive a rental car with a blanket permission from last year, Hungarian license plates though.
Slovakian plates are mentioned because the more reasonable taxing and other business costs drove a significant portion of the Hungarian economy to be registered there. There's a complete cottage industry to register expensive cars there if you don't want to bother with establishing the shell company and do all the paperwork yourself. Also Hungarians are supposed to hate Slovakians and vice versa (we've always been at war with Oceania style) so the collateral damage of hassling legitimate Slovakians is not that big of a deal. (Not to mention mostly the Hungarian-speaking minority visits here from Slovakia.)
So we are stuck with overpriced cars, no competition across the border, except for cars smuggled in as junk and then identification forged on. Yay!
(did I mention I must buy a car soon? We're just putting the cash together and looking at some ads to get an idea of the market, but I'm already sick of it.)
szocske wrote:Wow.
Is this for foreign licensed cars only?
I drive a rental car with a blanket permission from last year, Hungarian license plates though.
Yes, it's only cars with FOREIGN plates. If it's got Hungarian plates, there's nothing to worry about.
szocske wrote:Slovakian plates are mentioned because the more reasonable taxing and other business costs drove a significant portion of the Hungarian economy to be registered there....
It's just a typical solution which causes more trouble than it solves. Many of the diaspora are bringing money into Hungary and should be thanked, not hassled.
It's kind of a "Greek" political attitude. Bury your head in the sand and don't actually attempt to do any meaningful reforms and watch as the thing gets out of control when the population fights back or votes with their feet (e.g. they leave).
Second hand cars are ludicrously priced in Hungary. For the same price as a 5 year old car in Hungary, you can buy a new one in some other EU countries.
French Breathalyser Requirement
Anyone driving through France should note the above.
(you need a reflective vest reachable from the inside, a triangle, first aid kit and spare lightbulbs(?) somewhere in the car in Hungary too.)
Hi
Also in France you should have a fire extinguisher so you can in theory help any other driver if they have a car fire. I have been asked for this before on a roadside check when I lived in France.
markru wrote:Hi
Also in France you should have a fire extinguisher so you can in theory help any other driver if they have a car fire. I have been asked for this before on a roadside check when I lived in France.
Not sure about this but I think you have to stop if there's an accident etc, because of the so-called "Good Samaritan" law.
Breathalyser seems over the top. Anyone with any sense in Eastern Europe does not drink and drive (zero tolerance laws).
As I understand it the extinguisher is recommended, not mandatory in France.
fidobsa wrote:As I understand it the extinguisher is recommended, not mandatory in France.
List of Compulsory Equipment (according to the AA in the UK)
fluffy2560 wrote:Not sure about this but I think you have to stop if there's an accident etc, because of the so-called "Good Samaritan" law.
I think that's more of a "duty to rescue" law. "Good Samaritan" laws keep you out of murder charges if you don't succeed in the rescuing.
Same thing going on in spain i hear. Well, they need the money...
I think you have better chances if the car is registered on your name (in a foreign country) and you still have an id card/passport with a foreign address on it.
I asked the police department in XIII disctrict and they said its allowed. But hey i wouldnt count on it. In a german forum they wrote the police still did take the number plates and fined them.
But its hard to enforce i think, in theory they can check for your address card but then again how can they now how many days per year you stay in Hungary...
Just to register an used vehicle with hungarian plates on a different name is about 200 Euro. In germany its about 20 Euro.
On the other hand the registration tax got reduced already.
Lets say you buy a 10 year old car, till 1.8 liters with at least Euro 2-3 emmission class its about 500 Euro reg tax. If you aim for brands like BMW its really worth it. Im not saying its a good thing but if you dont wanna clown around with the police then...
You can get some good deals here on used latest generation Suzukis but thats about it.
What if you are a Uk citizen driving a car with UK registration plates in Hungary?
It can always been treated as foreigner being temporary in Hungary. Not hungarian re-registraion needed?
Cheers
the_highlander wrote:What if you are a Uk citizen driving a car with UK registration plates in Hungary?
It can always been treated as foreigner being temporary in Hungary. Not hungarian re-registraion needed?
Cheers
You can get away with it for a long time if you are not a resident. However, the cops tend to stop people and check your docs quite often (1 x every 6 months perhaps). If you have a British passport, British everything and matching docs, then you'll be fine. The cops check your passport number to see if you are "known" in the system.
How can they check if the insurance in UK still valid as have no access to that?
the_highlander wrote:How can they check if the insurance in UK still valid as have no access to that?
They wouldn't know. But they can read the docs you show them. If you are involved in an accident then you and the other persons involved are stuffed. It's not worth it is it?
The only way around (and it's not advisable) it is to SORN your car in the UK once out of the country, otherwise you'll get fined by DVLA for having a non-SORN'd car, no insurance, no tax and possible no MoT. There's now the concept of continuous registration, insurance etc. SORN lasts one year.
Hahaha true. Not worth it.
You can buy a tax disc online as long as you have the MoT and insurance but they will only post it to your UK address so you have to get someone to post it on to Hungary. I think they have now dropped the requirement to renew the SORN every 12 months. I forgot to SORN my Vauxhall van last August and recently had to pay an £80 fine. I drive a Hungarian registered car now so the van is just parked up anyway. It is worthless here due to being right hand drive so I will probably break it for spares.
Readers of this topic might find this news item of interest (reflecting the issue of foreign registered cars in the UK):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-22189967
the_highlander wrote:How can they check if the insurance in UK still valid as have no access to that?
In Hungary you have to carry in your car proof of current and valid insurance from your insurance company. Normally, the yellow payment tag from the bill is sufficient as it is dated and names the insurance company. If you don't have such proof you get fined and possibly have the car impounded until you can prove insurance coverage.
And the police here are very progressive. They now carry all sorts of hardware in their patrol cars wireless linked to external databases.
klsallee wrote:the_highlander wrote:How can they check if the insurance in UK still valid as have no access to that?
In Hungary you have to carry in your car proof of current and valid insurance from your insurance company. Normally, the yellow payment tag from the bill is sufficient as it is dated and names the insurance company. If you don't have such proof you get fined and possibly have the car impounded until you can prove insurance coverage.
And the police here are very progressive. They now carry all sorts of hardware in their patrol cars wireless linked to external databases.
In the UK they also do this. They use ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) to check on the continuous insurance requirement. Anyone can check if a car is insured including the police if they choose to do it. Here's the link: Motor Insurance Database.
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