Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

I Tried to renew my annual "car tax"and buy insurance this morning at Metehan. I was told by the man in the booth that as from this morning non TCs were no longer allowed to drive in the south and he could therefore not renew my certificate. When I pointed out that as an EU citizen I had free movement within the EU he said that I could go to the south but not in my car. I had to leave my car at Metehan and get a taxi. He held onto my documents until I had driven round to come back through the border to the TRNC. He met me by the Greek passport and customs booth to give me back me papers.

My friend and I then crossed at Ledra Palace on foot. We asked the police why we were not allowed to drive through. I believe he was a senior policeman. He made a phone call and told us that as from this morning the government in the ROC was envoking an old UN rule that only TCs were allowed to drive across the green line. They also needed to be the owners of the cars they were driving. He said that foreigners are no longer allowed to drive across the green line in a TC registered car.

I have been living here a long time and didn't think much could surprise me anymore. However, I really cannot see what the ROC hope to achieve by this. I wonder how the talks are going in New York?

Was there any body else (non tc) being turned back I think it would have been been obvious?

Hope this was a one off. Think of the money they are not going to have ringing up the tills.

There was another British lady in front of me in the queue. She was told she couldn't drive across as well. I have posted to inform forum members what happened to me this morning. I will be contacting the BHC to find out what they know about this.

If they are going to implement this rule then they will have to stop non gc.s from driving over from the south talk to shooting themselves in the foot.

I suspect the ROC shops will be up in arms when they hear about this. The loss of millions of euro's has a major effect on the economy.
Just as well the reunification talks are going well,,,lol.

"How to win friends and influence people"!

Helvetia what time did you attempt to cross only 2 sets of friends went over around 9 this morning no problem?
One came back at 10.20 & one 16.00 did not notice anyone being turned back.

Does anyone have an update on this as was going across tomorrow thank you

Is it only at Metehan or are all Green Line crossings involved, please?

If this is correct I will need a tc or taxi to take my daughter back to Larnaca on Saturday morning.

I was at Metehan at 10.00. It was very busy. There were a lot of cars parked up. I cannot say whether any of the other drive over crossing points have also implanted this policy. I will e mail the BHC and post again with any information they can provide.

I have just spoken to a friend who did manage to drive over at Metehan this morning. They already had their road tax and just needed to buy insurance. I can only reiterate what the ROC policeman at Ledra said to me. He phoned the office who issue the "road tax" and they had been told by the government that non TCs are not allowed to drive in the south.

I was told I could not drive my car in the south and would have to park it at Metehan and take a taxi. As usual one hand doesn't seem to know what the other hand is doing.

Same happened to me . All crossings affected according to the Greeks .

Didn't a similar thing happen last year sometime?

Helvetia wrote:I was at Metehan at 10.00. It was very busy. There were a lot of cars parked up. I cannot say whether any of the other drive over crossing points have also implanted this policy. I will e mail the BHC and post again with any information they can provide.

I have just spoken to a friend who did manage to drive over at Metehan this morning. They already had their road tax and just needed to buy insurance. I can only reiterate what the ROC policeman at Ledra said to me. He phoned the office who issue the "road tax" and they had been told by the government that non TCs are not allowed to drive in the south.

I was told I could not drive my car in the south and would have to park it at Metehan and take a taxi. As usual one hand doesn't seem to know what the other hand is doing.

Can you or someone clarify what you mean by buying road tax? What road tax is this?

We purchase our TRNC road tax from the tax office in Girne.

So did your friend arrive at the border crossing with no TRNC road tax, which the ROC police would check along with MOT and registration docs. If they had no TRNC road tax then of course entry to the ROC would be refused.
Yes of course insurance for the ROC is required but unsure what you mean by road tax.

Many Thanks

PoshinDevon wrote:

Helvetia wrote:I was at Metehan at 10.00. It was very busy. There were a lot of cars parked up. I cannot say whether any of the other drive over crossing points have also implanted this policy. I will e mail the BHC and post again with any information they can provide.

I have just spoken to a friend who did manage to drive over at Metehan this morning. They already had their road tax and just needed to buy insurance. I can only reiterate what the ROC policeman at Ledra said to me. He phoned the office who issue the "road tax" and they had been told by the government that non TCs are not allowed to drive in the south.

I was told I could not drive my car in the south and would have to park it at Metehan and take a taxi. As usual one hand doesn't seem to know what the other hand is doing.

Can you or someone clarify what you mean by buying road tax? What road tax is this?

Yes of course insurance for the ROC is required but unsure what you mean by road tax.

Many Thanks

Road tax is given complimentary by the roc government at the metahan crossing only then can you get insurance

PiD. The RoC authority requires an annual road tax certificate, which you have to produce to get 3rd party insurance. It was issued at Metehan and you needed your TRNC car docs, UK DL, passport etc.

The Road Tax certificate issued bt the ROC is free, just proof required e.g. Tax Disc, that you have paid in the North.

Further to this post I have sent the original post by Helvetia to http://www.mustafaakinci.com/?lang=en which is President Akinci's web site.

tomsteel wrote:PiD. The RoC authority requires an annual road tax certificate, which you have to produce to get 3rd party insurance. It was issued at Metehan and you needed your TRNC car docs, UK DL, passport etc.

Understand the above of course. Yes we have our annual bit of paper issued by the little booth next to the passport office. Valid till June 2017. So presume we are ok till then and would have to see how things develop!

Crazy!

I already had insurance and road tax and whilst my papers were inspected by the border control I was let through this morning.

I am not saying that you will get through as it all depends how the GC border controllers feel on the day and probably which side of the bed they get out of but 'MAYBE' because I wasn't renewing anything they let me through ......

I did see them turn back a small grey car but thought nothing of it until I heard what had happened.

I have informed the BRS Chairman of this post and he is contacting the BHC and maybe others affected need to do so as well to back up the BRS and put pressure on the BHC to try and resolve this?

I had all my documents. TRNC log book, road tax, mot and insurance. Plus my uk driving license. I know it is not called "road tax" but this seems to be the popular name for the annual certificate that you need to get from the booth directly adjacent to the passport booths on the ROC side. Without this piece of paper it is not possible to buy any insurance to drive in the ROC.

I can only assume that no renewals or new certificates are being issued and so anyone who has a valid certificate can still buy insurance. This is only my assumption of course. I am hoping that the BHC will be able to shed some light on this latest development.

Helvetia wrote:I had all my documents. TRNC log book, road tax, mot and insurance. Plus my uk driving license. I know it is not called "road tax" but this seems to be the popular name for the annual certificate that you need to get from the booth directly adjacent to the passport booths on the ROC side. Without this piece of paper it is not possible to buy any insurance to drive in the ROC.

I can only assume that no renewals or new certificates are being issued and so anyone who has a valid certificate can still buy insurance. This is only my assumption of course. I am hoping that the BHC will be able to shed some light on this latest development.

Think your assumption may well be correct.

Lets hope that between them the BRS and the BHC can clarify the situation.

Would have been "sensible" if some prior warning of this change was given. But then again this is Cyprus.

The form issued by the ROC is form T.O.M. 89A. It is in both Greek and Turkish.
I believe it is simply the ROC MOT since you cannot get it issued without your current TRNC MOT ( I did mine this month).
(edited: However it maybe connected to "road tax")
You also need to show a valid UK drivers licence and sometimes your original Vehicle Registration document.
They did not ask to see my TRNC road tax disc.

Without form T.O.M. 89A you cannot buy the ROC third party insurance.

We crossed at lunch time and they issued us with Road Tax no problems at all .....strange

Crossed this morning around 11.00am returned around 17,30pm........smiley officials on both sides of the border .....no delay whatsoever. Its not April 1st is it ?

Ah Ha, it's all about when the bad guys come on shift then! Like it was when they first started scanning passports and the bad fat policeman had to display his authority and ability to shout!

I don't see how they can discriminate on the grounds of race, either TC vehicles are permitted or they aren't. An EU country can't behave like that surely?

Helvetia, are you on a British/EU passport? Neighbours of mine got across no problem between 10.30/11.00 this morning - they already had all their paperwork but weren't asked for it though.

Bailey wrote:We crossed at lunch time and they issued us with Road Tax no problems at all .....strange

If you were allowed to pick up your Road tax/MOT form and then go and purchase your insurance it seems as you say very strange indeed.

Maybe it was one of messages that gets distorted as its passed down the line. Or maybe there was a sudden change of mind.

Who knows!

frontalman wrote:I don't see how they can discriminate on the grounds of race, either TC vehicles are permitted or they aren't. An EU country can't behave like that surely?

I have a horrible suspicion that it is the EU that is driving this, or at least interpretation of EU rulings.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/m ... witzerland

The rule bans EU citizens from driving non-EU registered hire cars in the EU.

It may be that there is no connection between the new EU rule described in the link above and what has been reported to be happening today re green line crossing in Cyprus but something tells me the two are very likely linked.

The irony may be that non Cypriot , non EU citizens, like say my NZ partner will be allowed to drive a 'non-EU' (north) registered car in the South, but EU citizens are not allowed to do so !

I mentioned this to one of our friends who needs to take his wife to Larnaca on Wed. He has just this minute emailed back to say they have made inquiries and it is a lot of nonsense. There explanation is this. It was a public holiday in the South and Insurance etc. could not be obtained today.

Let's hope its correct for the people who go South. Never seen the need really, but I know many people like to.

erol wrote:
I have a horrible suspicion that it is the EU that is driving this, or at least interpretation of EU rulings.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/m ... witzerland

The rule bans EU citizens from driving non-EU registered hire cars in the EU.

!

That article only refers to hire cars - not personally owned cars??

I suspect this is another storm in a teacup. Start up the outrage bus and let's all climb aboard

Johnny Lee wrote: There explanation is this. It was a public holiday in the South and Insurance etc. could not be obtained today.

Except it was not a public holiday in the RoC today (26th September 2016), if you believe that the Bank of Cyprus knows when there are public holidays in the RoC, that is.

http://www.bankofcyprus.com.cy/en-GB/Cy ... -Holidays/

or

http://www.officeholidays.com/countries/cyprus/

Mowgli597 wrote: That article only refers to hire cars - not personally owned cars??

http://www.ch.ch/en/driving_foreign_car_across_border/

In principle EU residents are not entitled to drive a vehicle registered in Switzerland on EU territory. If an EU resident drives a Swiss-registered vehicle borrowed from a Swiss resident in the EU, this can already be considered as car smuggling. European Union regulations apply.

This refers to all cars, though it does seem it is far from clear what the rules actually are.

Mowgli597 wrote:I suspect this is another storm in a teacup. Start up the outrage bus and let's all climb aboard

I sincerely hope it is all a storm in a tea cup and that things will return back to as they have been previously. However I do have a hunch, and it is not more than that, that this may be a RoC interpretation of these new EU regulations being applied here.

Just saying how it was explained to our friends by a G.C. taxi driver. I don't really know and I don't really care. I do not get kicks out of trying to make people look stupid on a forum, I leave that to people with sad lives.

Johnny Lee wrote:I mentioned this to one of our friends who needs to take his wife to Larnaca on Wed. He has just this minute emailed back to say they have made inquiries and it is a lot of nonsense. There explanation is this. It was a public holiday in the South and Insurance etc. could not be obtained today.

Let's hope its correct for the people who go South. Never seen the need really, but I know many people like to.

Load of Rubbish I bought insurance at Metahan today at about 9.30am, and no Public holiday in the South.

tutor4u wrote:

Johnny Lee wrote:I mentioned this to one of our friends who needs to take his wife to Larnaca on Wed. He has just this minute emailed back to say they have made inquiries and it is a lot of nonsense. There explanation is this. It was a public holiday in the South and Insurance etc. could not be obtained today.

Let's hope its correct for the people who go South. Never seen the need really, but I know many people like to.

Load of Rubbish I bought insurance at Metahan today at about 9.30am, and no Public holiday in the South.

The problem is not buying insurance. The issue is around getting the form TOM89A ( Road tax/mot?) which you must have before buying insurance. This form is valid for a year I believe so if you already have it, then that's fine you can purchase insurance.

What needs clarifying is has the ROC stopped issuing this form to non Turkish Cypriots driving a TRNC registered vehicle. Thereby not allowing insurance for the ROC to be purchased.

Going by the messages already posted it's not clear whether this is an official ban or not.

There was a BBCprogramme on the hire car & Switzerland hire car situation @the French exit door cars were a large percentage more than at the Swiss exit door
Should make Irish travel more interesting if not impossible post Brexit it costs more to travel N_S than S-N at present with some companies refusing to allow it
Also read Navek post on Yesilmek he did not make it because of the tax situation today

As someone who , in earlierr existence. had to attempt to interpret and explain EU legislation , I really suspect that Erol's solution to the mystery is correct. The article does say "let us say it is not exactly comprehensible to the average listener" and my experience is that it is EU legislation is normally not at all comprehensible to the average expert in the subject. I can even find it in my heart to feel sorry for the GC tax/immigration people !! and not exactly surprised that some dont even seem to know about it. The query is however that the legislation came into force at the end of May - why did it take them so long? Is some GC official a secret Guardian reader and suddenly came across this, or am I nastily suspicious in wondering if it was saved up to throw a small spanner in the reunification works at an appropriate time.

Apologies for going slightly off topic (or rather crossing topics and rather hoping Waz is not reading this ) as it does not really affect me as I cant cope with aggressive traffic with my small car and couldnt afford the cost of crossing the border if it did, Actually I panicked a little when I saw it, because I rely on vital medication which I can only get from the South, but then I realised the only person prepared to help me was TC anyway and not affected my the new ruling.. I can not therefore help finding it rather amusing that those who are concerned about crossing the border for their weekly shop may have to wait two years at least for if and when Brexit is implemented and they are no longer EU citizens. The complexity, illogicality and sheer confusion of legislation emanating from the EU was of course why so many people wanted out. I dont think however they were thinking about British Expats (even before Brexit) or even the effect their decision might possible have on the situation in Cyprus, or indeed elsewhere. That is the problem - the Eurocrats have tunnel vision, and once they get an idea in their heads they do not check it to see what side effects might result.

Surely if there was a new law in place, the customs would stop you not tax officers. Also just to put 'obtaining car tax at borders right' the border crossing at Famagusta will issue the annual document as well as Metahan.

a TC friend of mine is quite high up in government and was in the company of the transport minister last night. I told him of what's been occurring and he confirmed with the transport minister. It's all a load of rubbish. No law has been passed and they should not be doing what they are doing.

They are just picking on people for the sake of it & im sure action will be taken. British passport holders are still part of the EU and they cannot stop us crossing over.

well, something is going on....

although she did drive on the greek side since the border opened, a couple of month my sister, german and TC citizen (20 years ago she was married to a TC, she even is holder of a "kimlik card" and crosses the border with it.. ), was told that she can not drive a car with a TC driving licence in the RoC any more.
reason given: from now on she will be "seen as a german" and for driving on the greek side she needs an EU driving licence.

so, her TC husband has to drive on the greek side.

yesterday, my sister and TC husband wanted to get a MOT (TOM89A) renewal, but the car is in the name of my sister.
refused.
reason: from now on, the car is "seen as a german car", and "foreign cars" can not cross the border any more, and the TC must own the car to get a renewal.

something is going on....

Gdrunk

You can cross over.

The unclear part is whether as a non Turkish Cypriot you can take a TRNC registered vehicle across. As I posted earlier the replies on this topic add to the confusion.

Still not clear if the Greek Cypriot side are issuing the TOM89A form to non TC driving a TRNC registered vehicle. This form valid for a year. Without this form you cannot by insurance.

A poster earlier did say that they travelled across yesterday and got the TOM89A or sometimes known as road tax/mot form then purchased insurance.

I am sure clarification will soon come.

I spoke to the chairman of the BRS last night. He had already contacted the BHC and was awaiting a response from them. He has said that he will call me as soon as he has any further information. I will also make my own enquires this morning.

There seems to be a lot of confusion around this and a few people seem to be implying that I am making this incident up! This actually happened to me and so it seems to other people as well. The problem centres around the annual certificate and not the insurance. The ROC is refusing to renew the annual certificate for non TCs and so making it impossible to buy insurance.

They are not stopping EU citizens crossing, just not in their car. An earlier poster asked what passport I was travelling on. I was using my British passport and UK driving licence (I am also a Swiss passport holder). I showed my driving licence but they were not interested in seeing my passport .

Having thought about this over the past day, I believe that when the UK leaves the EU, the ROC will make it very difficult for British citizens to cross the border. People don't just cross to go shopping. A lot of people go over for vital medical treatment that they cannot receive here. I am very concerned about this.

I will post again once I have any further information.

Helvetia

Thanks for your update. You have made it clear what the problem is.

You are correct the situation does seem confusin, lets hope clarification comes soon.

Mr Akinci must be happy all the money being spent on the Greek side will be spent here hopefully and Ercan will benefit somewhat. But who knows?

no law has changed.. just the one or other "regulation"?

that my sister can not drive in the RoC with a TRNC driving licence any more, was "silently introduced" and not withdrawn since then..

my brother, german, no TC citizen, but holder of a TRNC driving licence, never was permitted to drive in the RoC.
from one day to the other, they ( the traffic ministery, whoever) see my sister "as german only".... and driving in the RoC (with a TRNC driving licence) is prohibited for her.

as they have been refused to get a renewal for the car, they went to Ledra crossing, where my sister finally crossed the border with a TRNC kimlik card.
but, she was told from the RoC border officer that "for the future you better carry your german passport as well..."
my sister told me that this was the first time ever an officer told her that.

is there something going on? and it seems it is not "just affecting UK citizens"

Just to warn all board members, next Saturday IS a Public Holiday on the south side.

İ think this is a one off...a mistake or simply bad luck...İ own a cyp reg car here in trnc. yesterday about 1115am My wife and İ fancied a quick trip to the south off we went to the Metahan crossing. TC side quick check of passport and confirmed my reg number. Tamam so far. Greek side passport shown No problem. İ needed to have new insurance and tax. Went to İnsurance office...yup ill have a month lutfen...ah you need to see that office over there for new bit of white paper...ok...take your reg doc n passport d licence etc. OK...Bloke behind the counter..told me .rules have changed he said...oh İ replied...car in your name..reg doc shown....yes i replied...ok.. you go back you not allowed to take your car to this side..only TC s allowed to cross in their cars...your joking i said...he obviously wasnt..he told me to turn around ...i could see no point in arguing..perhaps there was such a new rule ...ok i put my hand out to retrieve my bit of white paper...no turn around (your car) then i give you...strange attitude...went back to the turkish side and spoke to the police....they asked me to say it again...they found it incredible..they just shook there head...you can speak to the UN police if you want...hey ive had enough of poor jokes....(sorry lads im sure you do a good job)...
this may be a short lived change of policy....i do wonder why they have introduced it in the first place..whats the agenda....most brits who cross do so to spend money...i only hope the north dont reciprocate...let the brits spend money in the north and see how nice it is and perhaps dispel a few myths..if i hadnt stopped i would have gone onto the greek side for some shopping...was it simply bad luck...is there such a policy...if so why hasnt it been in the papers...some of my friends have gone over and np...then again they didnt change the white bit o paper...curious....my cyp friend said he d travel across with me....lets wait n see...

There is a whole thread on this started yesterday. You are not the only one - see the other threads on here relating to your experience.