Traveling In Europe Without Original V5

MotorhomersRus

MotorhomersRus

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Barnoldswick
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Carthago E Line
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2010
Is it to bigger risk to travel to Europe with only a copy of your original V5 ?
Looked it up and some of the post are to old.
 
I carry both when abroad, copies hidden but easily accessible, originals hidden very well and never needed to retrieve so far.
Electronic copies also on the "cloud" somewhere ????

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I suppose it depends where in the eu you go, the German and Austrian police get very tetchy if you don’t have original documents with you. (From experience)?
 
I suspect that the "average" Traffic plod, would not be able to identify an original from a GOOD copy. Never took mine out of the R-V safe (abroad) in over 5 years of Swanning back and forth to Spain. Guardia looked at the copy 3 or 4 times and just frowned and handed them back without comment!. I reckon I could have cut the page out of the SUN and they wouldn't bat an eyelid. (unless she had really big ones) :LOL:

Seriously, does anyone think the authorities are going to train every traffic officer to identify "forgeries". Just not worth their time.

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Carry the original documents. It's the law or be prosecuted.

And don't forget to wear your yellow vest if you get out on a motorway as broken down and warning triangle (2 for Spain) its easy to overlook.
 
Many thanks for all your information, after all the replies we will be taking our V5 with us.
The reason we were asking is that we have uprated our MH but it was only done 2 days ago hence not got time to change the V5 now.
 
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MotorhomersRus said:
Many thanks for all your information, after all the replies we will be taking our V5 with us.
The reason we were asking is that we have uprated our MH but it was only done 2 days ago hence not got time to change the V5 now.
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This is our second trip to France without V5C due to the incompetence of DVLA. Our neighbour emailed yesterday to say that it had arrived in the post, hopefully they have managed to correct their mistake re showing two different weights.
 
My friend did not even have a copy, so it may have been possible to get away with it if he had. Usual disclaimer for those with copies only!
 
Casper46 said:
This is our second trip to France without V5C due to the incompetence of DVLA. Our neighbour emailed yesterday to say that it had arrived in the post, hopefully they have managed to correct their mistake re showing two different weights.
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I have just spoken to our neighbour and DVLA have sent it back again without changing it. Gross weight 4800, permissible mass 4600.
Who do I complain to??
 
Can't move without a permit de circulation (carte grise) here. Needed before a garage will open the bonnet or for any other process. Mr plod would have a fit if he thought it wasn't in your car, asked to produce it at every police encounter.

Why not carry it in your vehicle anyway, no downside that i can see.
 
We carry all original documents in a folder for the local plod to inspect if needed as well as copies if they need to keep any.
Got one of those small safes from Homebase to keep them in
 
We take the originals of all vehicle docs and hide them well, we also have scanned copies on USB sticks which we keep with us just in case the originals go missing (along with the camper probably!).

We have been asked to show them at least three times, the most recent time was when exiting Andorra last year, so it does happen.

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olley said:
You must look dodgy minxy
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It's not bad seeing as we've been going abroad since 2005 ... first time was at the Swiss/German border, second time was when we were going into Croatia on a little road (I suspect normally used by 'non-law abiding' people to smuggle stuff etc), and the last time in Andorra as part of the check to see what 'contraband' we had (ie did we have more than out alcohol allowance).
 
Minxy Girl said:
It's not bad seeing as we've been going abroad since 2005 ... first time was at the Swiss/German border, second time was when we were going into Croatia on a little road (I suspect normally used by 'non-law abiding' people to smuggle stuff etc), and the last time in Andorra as part of the check to see what 'contraband' we had (ie did we have more than out alcohol allowance).
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Here they'd just be checking if you had too much unprocessed beef, they're more interested in that than cocaine.
 
Many thanks everyone we have brought it with us as we have normally.
It was regarding sending it off for a weight uprating.
 
Casper46 said:
I have just spoken to our neighbour and DVLA have sent it back again without changing it. Gross weight 4800, permissible mass 4600.
Who do I complain to??
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Happened to me recently. Had to phone 3 times and mail twice. If the upgrade is recent your data may have an open case number. After I managed to get a case number, logged all calls, finally got it sorted correctly after complaining but you will need to call and be persistent.

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We're in exactly the same position, didn't allow enough time between receiving the new uprated plate (3850kgs) and documents from SV Tech in time to send to DVLA before we set off for France and Spain. We manged to keep just below the current GVW 3700kgs for this trip. so to answer the OP question we didn't take the chance of not carrying the correct V5. Having said that this is our 5th such trip since taking up motor homing and have never been stopped.
 
And a general observation here..... I would rather that the police / enforcement agencies DID ask for relevant paperwork for vehicles, to aid the identification of stolen vehicles.

There’s lots of chatter on this and other forums of vehicles going missing and winding their way abroad, so it’s great that the police stop and check vehicles to ensure that paperwork is in order (along with corresponding ID checks).
 
So how does the law regard employed drivers of coaches and trucks who I know from experience only carry copies of original documents, and hired vehicles too ?
 
Casper46 said:
I have just spoken to our neighbour and DVLA have sent it back again without changing it. Gross weight 4800, permissible mass 4600.
Who do I complain to??
Click to expand...
On my last van it took them 4 months to get it right.
 
Camping Gaza said:
Carry the original documents. It's the law or be prosecuted.

And don't forget to wear your yellow vest if you get out on a motorway as broken down and warning triangle (2 for Spain) its easy to overlook.
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Can you supply any written documentation to prove this please.. as we have driven to France more than 20 times since 2016 and when asked for documentation (only the once) copies is accepted.. it’s just that we are going again in 1 months time, and want to be legal.. thank you (y)

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