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    Can I take my self built trailer to BG and leave it there for use on my property (obviously I can't use it on the road there as I won't be able to register it), or would I need to remove it from the country after a set time?
I have seen people take caravans there and leave them on their land, and was thinking the same thing.. Just to use it as a utility trailer.

What documentation would I need etc?
   

    -@CarlS1986

How would you plan to take it to BG?

@CarlS1986 I don't think it matters if it's your own land I think you can put anything on it

@SimCityAT I'll drive it over on the back of my car but will leave it there upon return.

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I'm curious too as we'll have a related issue. Hubby wants to buy an old big-as-we-can-afford campervan, pack it up with our five cats and the selected personal possessions we'll take with us, and drive us all to Bg. But he doesn't want to do the drive back, in fact he says after that he'll never drive again, unless it's riding a motorbike! So he'll probably park the van up on our land to use as a spare room.

Sounds good in theory but I don't want to get whacked with import duties for a vehicle we won't be driving!

@janemulbery, you will need to export the vehicle or register it as Sorn I think, check out these YouTubers they have done something similar and may mention in one of their older videos

Thanks, Carl!

Wow, that is a coincidence! I am sure that's a house I was very interested in buying that sold while i was making plans to go over to see it and trying to talk hubby into it. Lovely to see how it's working out for them.

@janemulberry

When I brought my van and trailer to France, I had to include them on my Inventory list. If it's part of your permanent move, it's classed as part of your possessions and you have 6 months to bring everything over. I plan on doing the same with my move to Bulgaria. You may still have to pay import duty, so if worth checking that out.

    @CarlS1986 I don't think it matters if it's your own land I think you can put anything on it
   

    -@an3895509

It does matter, countries have particular rules and laws regarding trailers and caravans. My concern is that this is as it is self-made. 

its only a small one under 250kg that carries basic bikes and kit, but I would use it for gardening tasks around the land. its not worth anything and I won't be able to register it as a propper trailer.

As many of you know, I reside in Austria. I have many friends that drive back to the UK for Christmas. Every one of them has said they have noticed since Brexit the checks have increased coming and going to the UK via France.

A certain couple were in Calais in good time, but due to checks although they had nothing to declare and had correct paperwork, they missed their ferry to Dover and had to get the next one.

    its only a small one under 250kg that carries basic bikes and kit, but I would use it for gardening tasks around the land. its not worth anything and I won't be able to register it as a propper trailer.
   

    -@CarlS1986

I will have to have a look into it, but Austria treats them like cars.

@CarlS1986

My trailer is a hand made one, unbraked and because it has a loaded weight of under 500kgs, I didn't have to register it in France. It's included on my insurance and has the same number plate as the one on the rear of my van, but nothing else required. I just declared it on the inventory form as Ive described it here and I've never had any problems.

thanks thats what I was hoping

Under UK/EU law you will be able to drive it on UK towing car plates if under 3500kg temporarily( 750kg for commercial use) . Once here in Bulgaria its a different ball game and all trailers/caravans need to be individually registered in their own right having undergone a technical test, meaning you will need ownership/registration documentation and certificates of conformity, which is where the UK registration system falls down as there is no requirement to individually register them. .

Self build camper vans you can forget registering them if they are rhd UK registered if they deviate in anyway from the original EU Certificate of Conformity. Its just taken me 18 months of battling to register my non modified 2008 Renault trafic sport, Bulgaria is definitely clamping down on UK registered vehicles. As a note you only need to pay import duties if you plan to register or sell your vehicles once here, if its parked up on your land no one will bother you, legal disposal is another issue entirely.

    Under UK/EU law you will be able to drive it on UK towing car plates if under 3500kg temporarily( 750kg for commercial use) . Once here in Bulgaria its a different ball game and all trailers/caravans need to be individually registered in their own right having undergone a technical test, meaning you will need ownership/registration documentation and certificates of conformity, which is where the UK registration system falls down as there is no requirement to individually register them. .
Self build camper vans you can forget registering them if they are rhd UK registered if they deviate in anyway from the original EU Certificate of Conformity. Its just taken me 18 months of battling to register my non modified 2008 Renault trafic sport, Bulgaria is definitely clamping down on UK registered vehicles. As a note you only need to pay import duties if you plan to register or sell your vehicles once here, if its parked up on your land no one will bother you, legal disposal is another issue entirely.
   

    -@grahamstark1

Austrian Law

Trailers, when used on Austrian public roads need to be registered (number plates ), need to be insured and have a Pickerl every year!

Friends: We had police recently checking trailers when coming out of the recycling centre …

@grahamstark1

STOP giving false information

@SimCityAT

Which bit is false?

@SimCityAT

How exactly does this apply to the original poster towing his trailer on UK plates  to Bulgaria, which they can do quite legally ?

    @SimCityATHow exactly does this apply to the original poster towing his trailer on UK plates  to Bulgaria, which they can do quite legally ?         -@grahamstark1

Miss read your post!

But EACH country has different rules. It doesn't matter what the EU says.

If you travel through Austria (sorry its in German)

Basically, it must have a Pickerl and must have its own insurance.

You also can have on-the-spot fines.

Well.. this is getting confusing.. I surely would not need to comply with Austrian rules  to transit through the country, right?

I understand it would need to meet minimum criteria for safety, but to have a test and register it to travel through the country in a day?  This would apply to cars as well, then?

@CarlS1986

Very doubtful if your trailer has an IVA, Austria has the six month rule in place so as long as you are insured you wouldn't need a Pickerl.

As a note you only need to pay import duties if you plan to register or sell your vehicles once here, if its parked up on your land no one will bother you, legal disposal is another issue entirely.
   
    -@grahamstark1

Thank you! Good to know, as that is the point I wanted to verify. And Carl is in the same position, I think, in that he won't be looking to use his trailer on the public roads once he's settled in Bg.

    @CarlS1986
My trailer is a hand made one, unbraked and because it has a loaded weight of under 500kgs, I didn't have to register it in France. It's included on my insurance and has the same number plate as the one on the rear of my van, but nothing else required. I just declared it on the inventory form as Ive described it here and I've never had any problems.
   

    -@grumpyoldbird

Just spoke to MY family from FRANCE. You are and have broken the law,

@SimCityAT

Instead of quoting friends, family, Fritz and Pierre down the road can you show any hard and fast facts ? Most EU countries you can drive on UK plates for up to six months, although your insurance will normally restrict that to 3 months, you should take out a seperate green card on your trailer and either have an IVA or manufacturer Certificate of Conformity. Austria, France and countless other countries cannot afford to restrict tourist caravans, trailer tents and trailers needlessly. Show hard facts instead of telling everyone else to do it!!!!

The Austria stuff is a bit scary, but it seems to say that IF a trailer is registered, then it must have separate insurance. UK is unlike many (most) EU countries which have separate registration for trailers. If it's not registered, it can't be insured separately.

Likewise, breaking the law in France is a bit scary, but I'm not sure how a UK trailer, in the UK, has broken French law.

I'm definitely no expert on this, and maybe others are. And maybe things are much stricter now. And maybe I was just lucky. But I drove my little trailer over from UK to BG, no problems at all.

I suppose it's good to check the exact rules, but it's also useful to remember that even poodling along at 50mph with your trailer, you will typically transit France/Austria/Germany in a couple of hours. I've never been stopped on a European motorway while in transit.

I'd imagine that even if my trailer didn't have its own registration, I could have found some way to get the appropriate documentation in Bulgaria. However, it didn't seem worth the aggravation for a cheap trailer. It's still sitting at my house, clogging up the BBQ area (with a bunch of the stuff I drove over with still sitting in it). :-)

My car I did bother to register, and it was pretty straightforward. Now, I've heard that RHD is a bit of a problem, and that might change your view of how keen you are to register your car.

The VAT/duty issue is for the formal import of non-EU vehicles/goods. And there's an exemption for ToR, Transfer of Residence (subject to paperwork, and owning everything more than 6 months). If you just drive in, you shouldn't be hit with these charges anyway, and then you can decide what to do.

Your car will become illegal when the insurance/tax/MOT runs out. It's easy to renew UK tax and insurance online, but you need to drive back to UK to get a new MOT. It's a long way to go for an MOT, but it's possible. Similarly, the trailer becomes illegal when the car does.

Bulgarian police are very laissez-faire with foreign-registered vehicles, and not, in my experience, very bothered about your residence status. They've not asked me for my driving license or my residence permit. They ask for my registration and my insurance, and these two documents they insist on. They also care about the vignette, but that's online now. I doubt they would check a UK MOT or UK tax. But they might, so it's a risk.

If you have a village house in countryside somewhere, you would likely have even more leeway.

I'd recommend you keep your vehicles fully legal, of course. But enforcement is very different from UK (automatic license plate checks for tax, mot and insurance), and from Spain (checks on length of residence, so even a legal vehicle or a legal driving license can be insufficient, and lead to impounding of your vehicle).

I now have BG-plated cars, so I can't take my trailer on its UK plate. I certainly would not drive it across BG (or out of BG). But I wouldn't worry overly if I wanted to use it to drive to Kazanlak (10 minutes) to pick up some tools or building materials, or use it to carry firewood from the forest above the village.

Similarly, one of my cars (during Pandemic) stayed on its UK plates, maybe for nearly 2 years. Officially, it was definitely illegal as the MOT expired. I didn't drive it on the highway, or any significant distance. But I regularly took it out for a drive every week or two, just to make sure it was OK. Typically just around the nearest villages, but I went to Kazanlak Lidl with it a few times too.

Your house is pretty much your domain. There are limits as to what your neighbours will put up with. And there are laws that exist. But my impression (and especially in rural villages) is that BG is very laissez-faire here too. If you want to keep an old trailer, old car, old caravan in your garden, I doubt anyone would bother you, or demand that you register them or pay any taxes/fines/duties on them. You'd probably even get away with dumping them outside your house and leaving them to rust for the next 10 years. One of the houses in the villages has about 6 scrapped cars outside. But we Brits would never dream of doing such a thing. :-)

As you can see, laws and enforcement of those laws, are two separate issues. As we're in the EU, most of those laws are pretty similar from one country to another. But some countries (e.g. Austria and Germany) are very strict about enforcement, with big fines for non-compliance. While Bulgaria is at the other extreme, with low enforcement and small fines. That said, I'd encourage you to self-regulate and be a good neighbour and a law-abiding citizen.

@SimCityAT

Sorry I've only just picked up your reply.

This is a link to the Service.fr website and my trailer is perfectly legal, as confirmed by my insurers.