How can a Belarusian drive a car from Lithuania on his own?

This article will be useful for those who plan to purchase a car in Russia and then export it to Belarus or Kazakhstan. Here we will not advise how to choose a suitable car, check it for legality or serviceability - in this article we will talk about the detailed procedure for registering a car in the MREO.

How can a Belarusian drive a car from Lithuania on his own?

Search and prices

You can start your search for a car from the largest car website in Lithuania – www.auto.plius.lt.
Having chosen the right model that suits the price, call the seller to agree when and where it will be convenient for you to look at it. The second option is to go straight to the largest car market, which is located in Kaunas. There are many parking lots with cars for sale in the town of Taurage, but prices there are 5-10% higher than in Kaunas. Online prices are slightly lower than in the markets. And if you want to buy a car in one day, it is better to go to the market for a specific model. You should not go to the car market on Sunday or Monday: on these days there, as in Regitre (local MREO), it is a day off. On weekdays it is better to arrive at the market by 8 am, and on Saturday no later than 7:30.

Route and money

AiF previously told how you can get to Vilnius. From there, getting to Kaunas by bus or train is not a problem. You can bring an unlimited amount of money into Lithuania on a plastic card, but banks charge a considerable commission for cashing out. And ATMs have a limit on cash withdrawals. If you are bringing no more than 10,000 euros in cash, you do not need to declare the money.

As soon as you cross the border, look for a PILDYK SIM card (costs 4.5 litas) at gas stations, shops and supermarket checkouts to call sellers who leave their phone numbers under car windows.

Purchase, registration, insurance

So, you have found the car you need and negotiated it at the best price. It will be better if you agree with the seller on assistance in preparing all documents (deregistration, execution of an export declaration, obtaining transit numbers, execution of a purchase and sale agreement or invoice certificate). Typically, the costs of registration are divided equally between the buyer and seller, but do not forget to discuss this point separately. Also, don't forget to purchase insurance. You can do this: leave a deposit of about 100-150 euros, and after registration transfer the remaining money. The main thing is to have time to come to an agreement with the seller in the first half of the day, otherwise he will not have time to deregister the car and make a customs declaration.

Worth paying attention

If you don’t have time to check the chosen car at a local service station, you will have to trust only your own experience and intuition. Lithuanians themselves say that cars in Klaipeda are usually in better condition than in Kaunas, explaining this by the fact that cars are brought to Klaipeda by ferry. If the car has been registered, its details can be checked on the Registra website - www.eregitra.lt/viesa/paiesk/Index_en.php. You will find out minimal information about the car: enter the transit number and get the make, model, year of manufacture or first registration of the car.

Check the VIN number of the selected car, which is usually stamped in two or three places on the body. None of the symbols should arouse suspicion in you, otherwise border guards or traffic cops may later become suspicious. The VIN number also needs to be compared with the registration certificate. If possible, check it on the website www.vin.su. For convenience, a transcript of the selected model can be printed from the web page in advance.

Border and customs

Do not forget that the customs declaration is issued at a specific customs point, i.e. You cannot make a declaration for Medininkai, for example, but go to Lavorishkas. When you arrive at the border, stand in the red channel and wait for your turn. Next, the action plan is as follows: you submit an export declaration to customs officers, they make a mark on it, then the border guards inspect the car and check the numbers. Having received a departure stamp in your passport, you leave the territory of Lithuania.

At the Belarusian border, also stand in the red corridor. As soon as the line approaches, go to the transport inspection, where they will make a special mark. Afterwards - passport control and customs clearance.

First, in the window called “Beltamozhservice”, register to submit documents. Then, at any window, take a customs declaration form and fill it out according to the sample. Along with the declaration, you need to hand over the registration certificate and the invoice/sale agreement, as well as their photocopies to the customs officer (it is better to make photocopies of these documents in Lithuania - at customs this service costs 1,500 rubles per sheet). Based on these documents, the customs duty is calculated.

Carefully study your French/German documents: the engine volume is indicated there, accurate to the nearest cubic centimeter. So, for example, behind the commercial name “1.6 liters” there is a real engine capacity of 1560 cc, which means you can save 16 euros on customs clearance. When the fee is calculated for you, you will need to pay it at the cash desk in Belarusian rubles at the National Bank exchange rate on the day of payment. Sometimes the line at the ticket office is longer than for customs clearance, so remember that nearby, in other customs buildings, there are also ticket offices where you can pay customs duties.

While waiting, you can take out a contract of compulsory civil liability insurance, which is closely monitored by traffic police officers. And don’t forget that after successfully passing customs and border control, you are given 10 days to register the purchased car with the traffic police.

How to drive a car from Russia without getting into trouble?

Without such iron transit numbers, a car will not be registered in Belarus.

After Belarus joined the Customs Union and equalized duties on cars, the imbalance in the automobile market leveled out. Numerous Russian buyers have disappeared from Belarusian car markets, and prices for cars in Belarus and Russia have become approximately the same. Moreover, now in Russia you can find a suitable copy, sometimes even cheaper than here. This is precisely the option that turned up for Minsk resident Inessa, who saw a 2005 Ford Fusion in Moscow for just $5,000. The Ford's fender was cut off and the windshield was cracked, but after calculating the cost of repairs, Inessa decided that she had to take it and went to Moscow. Then she did not yet know what bureaucratic obstacles she would have to face in order to register a car legally purchased in a friendly state.

“The car has already been deregistered,” Inessa told Komsomolskaya Pravda. “Neither the seller, nor the employees of the nearest auto commission, nor the traffic police officers who are involved in registration knew whether there were any special features when selling a car to a Belarusian. I concluded an agreement with the seller, written literally on my knees, certified it for 500 rubles in a second-hand shop, received a PTS from the seller (Vehicle Passport - Ed. ) and with a clear conscience set off towards Minsk.

The first problems began literally immediately - we couldn’t insure the car the first time.

“It turned out that from May 1, you can’t buy a green card for a car if you only have a PTS,” says Inessa. “But I was lucky - I managed to persuade a girl from a kiosk on the outskirts of a small Russian town. Apparently, she simply did not know about the innovation.

But this turned out to be just the beginning. In Minsk they refused to register the car, citing the absence of a vehicle certificate (STS) among the documents with a note that the car was deregistered for export outside Russia.

“It turned out that in Russia you can rent a car in different ways,” said Inessa. — Russians are used to selling cars exclusively to each other, and they simply don’t know about these features. They deregister it, receive paper transits and transfer it to the new owner of the vehicle. And in order to deregister it and sell it to Belarus, you need to keep the STS, which is cut and the appropriate stamp is placed on it. Plus, iron transit numbers are issued. According to Inessa, the Minsk traffic police told her that they couldn’t help her, and advised her to go to Moscow again - find the seller and ask him to re-register the car, and then deregister it, but “as expected.”

Unfortunately, as of May 1, this proposal was deleted from the resolution. Inessa found a way out - she remembered her relatives in Smolensk, who agreed to transfer the car to themselves, and then back to Inessa. Additional time, nerves, expenses for fees and duties, gifts for relatives - this is what the difference in the legislation of Russia and Belarus resulted in for the future car owner.

As Komsomolskaya Pravda found out, hundreds of Belarusian buyers have already faced this problem. Some knock on the thresholds of traffic police offices, begging to enter into the situation and trying to resolve the issue. Others are looking for relatives in Smolensk or Vyazma - it’s closer there than to Moscow or St. Petersburg. Still others hope, why are there no organizations capable of re-registering cars correctly for an additional fee?

OFFICIALLY:

“To register a car purchased in Russia, you need to have a Russian registration certificate with a mark from the Russian registration authority about the deregistration of the vehicle in Russia, transit registration plates and a purchase and sale agreement,” the press service of the capital’s traffic police told Komsomolskaya Pravda. “Unfortunately, with a title alone, it will not be possible to register a car purchased in Russia in Belarus.

ADVICE "KP"

How to buy a car in Russia in order to register it in Belarus without any problems?

If the car has already been deregistered, the owner only has the title and paper transits, but you haven’t bought the car yet:

Ask the seller to re-register it and deregister it for export outside the Russian Federation. Ultimately, you should have in your hands a cut-up vehicle certificate (VTC) with a stamp inside and iron transit numbers. Not every seller will agree to this, since he incurs additional bureaucratic procedures and payment of relevant fees. In addition, until you register the car in Belarus, the seller still pays insurance for the car and is responsible for it. If the seller refuses to deregister for export outside the Russian Federation, it is better to refuse the purchase.

If you have already bought a car and you only have PTS and paper transits in your hands:

There are three options:

1. Find a car seller and persuade him to waste a day in queues at the traffic police. You need to sell him the car again, wait until he registers it, gets the license plates, deregisters it again and sells it to you again.

2. Find a friend or relative in Russia and do exactly the same procedure with him. Do not forget that the purchase and sale agreement must have a round seal. We advise you not to contact strangers or private companies offering vehicle re-registration services. The fact is that with such a procedure, the car is legally transferred to them, even if only for an hour. Unscrupulous actors can simply legally take your car.

3. Buy temporary registration in Russia for a period of at least six months. Then you can do the entire procedure described above yourself. Registration will cost approximately 5,000 Russian rubles ($160).