Hi All,
I have a Le Mans 3 and it spends a lot of time down in Italy. I’d like to sell it to my better half, who is Italian, so that we can make it legal for riding down there long term. As a foreigner there I cannot own or register a bike myself. So she would become the owner and then would very kindly allow me to take the bike out for rides - that’s love for ya! (I’d become effectively a named rider on the insurance).
Can anyone tell me what the process is to do this. I’ve tried the Italian consulate, they don’t assist non-italians, and I’m drawing a blank everywhere else. It must be possible, I’m looking for the mechanism.
Thanks in anticipation.
TheBat
@italianmotor1 Adam Bolton has a some knowledge of the Italian system and may be able to help.
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but is currently in Italy - per favore aspetta
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Hi Bat, my wife and I did exactly that back in 2016 with a UK registered Stelvio. I am British and my wife is Italian. We rode the British registered bike to Italy and whilst there decided to register it in Italy. As you say, only an Italian can own a vehicle in Italy. We sent off the de-registration part of the UK ownership document to the DVLA and got a refund on the remaining road tax. We went into the local NOVA “shop” in town an completed all the forms to re-register the bike in Italian. This was quite costly and took about six months. My wife had to get a notorised form from the local council office where she is registered as resident in Italy. Six months later all was completed. The bike had an Italian registration number, we paid the annual road fund (Bolo) fee and completed the bi-annual (Revisione) MoT test. You will then need to arrange insurance. This again will have to be in your wife’s name, but it is the vehicle that is insured not the driver so that is not a problem. We use Nobis for insurance as they do a 180 day insurance that lasts five years. You just open and close it until you have consumed the 180 days or the five years has lapsed. Hope this helps, Phil
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Hi Phil,
Fantastic information and really nice tip on insurance. Just one small clarification, was your wife already listed as a (co-)owner of the bike or could she simply rock up and do the registration without being so? I had thought I’d need to sell it to Fra first but maybe that part isn’t strictly necessary, alternatively is might be easier to register her as a co-owner here before embarking on the registration adventure.
I’m Peter by the way, nice to meet you.
TheBat
Hi Peter, no, Liliana was not a co owner of the bike whilst it was registered in the UK, only me. Liliana is registered as being domicile in the Town of Spresiano where we registered the bike. I think that she will need to get her AIRE document sorted out if she hasn’t already done so. Cheers Phil
The advice given by Phil Skinner is good, but whatever way you do it, it’s going to be complicated. Not true however to say only an Italian can own a vehicle in Italy, anyone with Italian residency can, I owned several vehicles while I lived there.
Thanks Italian motor1. I mistakenly used Italian citizenship and residency as being the same thing. You are correct. I’d be interested to know what hoops you went through to obtain Italian residency. I have two friends are trying to do this but they are struggling to get answers on what the requirements are. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks Phil