I've been working here 8 years and just moved over the border from Belgium where I happily drove around on a UK license, bought and sold cars and as long as I paid my tax + insurance nobody seemed to mind - as an aside I've always LOVED my Welsh driving license and the fact it's always acted as a "get out of jail free" card!

Anyway, last week I sold my Belgian car to a German guy who was planning to export it to Russia. He gave me the money, we signed a contract and "tara, have a nice life". Saturday I tried to buy a Dutch car - the lady at the post office was absolutely adamant that there was no way I was going to be allowed to have this car unless I was registered at the Gemeente AND with a dutch driving license.

At the time I thought "fair enough" but once I'd calmed down I thought how the heck do dealers or the like deal with this? What if I'd just said "look, I want to take this car back to the UK and my ferry is tonight" - how would that have been dealt with?

I mean I *will* be registered in NL pretty quick but due to tax/housing issues in belgium it'll be another 6 weeks which is a long time without wheels! I'm a nice lady who pays her tax + insurance so what's the big deal? I saw another post on the next page saying it WAS possible to register the car on a UK driving license, so my question is, is there any way around having to be registered with the gemeente? Thanks for any input.

The cloggies would call your question: "vragen naar de bekende weg!"

I bought a motor scooter recently and went through this drama.

You must be registered with your town hall. You need to ask for a special form from them that says you are registered. Just go to the town hall after you have registered. Tell them you are buying a car and need proof of registration. They will know what form to print. Cost about 9 euro. You can only get the form about a week after first registering a it takes a while for the details to go through the system.

You do not need a Dutch licence. You only need an EU licence.

Surely this is more nonsense... when I bought my first car here in 2004 I was never asked for any proof or had to show anybody any particular paper work that I lived here, that I remember anyway. Bought another new car last year without worry too...