hire a car in Northern Ireland

T

Tiberium

Registered User
Messages
14
I have an interesting question here.

If you are resident in Ireland then:
As far as I know it is against the law to buy a car in Northern Ireland and use it in Ireland without registering it and paying the VRT, etc.
If you don't register your non-irish car in Ireland then you are subject to be prosecuted by the Gardai.

But as far as I know you have a "right" to "hire a car" in anywhere in the EU and use it anywhere(that includes Ireland) in the EU.
And if you can provide a "hire agreement" any time the Gardai stop you here then no such problem should occur described above. Surely they cannot force you to register a car which is not yours but hired as per hire agreement.

What I want to hear here that they are really powerless to do anything against you in this case (as I don't want to be harassed).

Before anybody thinks about any sinister....I just simply don't need to own a car at all (and pay all associated expenses/repairs of a car owner, etc.) and car hire in Northern Ireland is much cheaper than in Ireland (just like everything else cheaper there).

Once again as far as I know it's not against the law to "hire a car" anywhere in EU and use it anywhere in EU (once you have a hire agreement) without the need to re-register it anywhere as it is not your car but a hired one and regardless that you are resident in Ireland or not. (It's only against the law to use your "own" car and not register in the country of residency).

Please confirm.
 
I do not know the law in relation to this. But, it would seem to me that hiring a car in another EU state and then driving it here, where your normal address is, might well fall foul of the law!
 
Nope. There are established rules on this. It is permitted so long as the hire is strictly of a short term nature only.
 
Time said:
Nope. There are established rules on this. It is permitted so long as the hire is strictly of a short term nature only.
Click to expand...

I agree. I should have added 'for extended period..'. Ta.
 
As I understand it, it is illegal for a resident of the state to drive a non-Irish registered car in the state. So you would be breaking the law just to bring the car over the border.
 
What would the defintion of short term hire be. Would 2 months be considered short term?
 
I would hazzard to guess that the actual term may not matter that much but who was renting. If there was any implied ownership ie Hire Purchase then it would not be acceptable but I can't see why going to Avis or Hertz (other than the cost) and hiring for a couple of months would not be OK. I have driven long term in other EU countries in hire cars, and have also drive in Irish cars overseas BUT in the converse I am not sure. Then when it comes to cars our governments seem to think that more feature rich cars such as those available in the UK are some sort of sin! Now I'm getting on my high horse and off topic.
 
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