How can you buy a Motorhome in Europe as a non-resident?

If you don't have a passport or residency in a European country or Great Britain, it can seem almost impossible to purchase a vehicle to travel around Europe long term. Some people will ship their vehicle over from another country such as the United States or even Australia, but this is expensive and not a solution for most us.

We had been looking for a very long time for options of how we could do this. We knew that we wanted to retire and travel Europe and the United Kingdom long term, buying a secondhand motorhome and registering it our name was the problem. You can buy one easily enough, but without residency or an address you couldn't put it in your name.

If you have a relative in Europe or the United Kingdom you can purchase a vehicle in their name. This can come with its own issues and you would need to be sure that you consider all potential problems before deciding upon this. We have a son in Europe but our concern was, what would happen, if something (god forbid) happened to him.

There is another way you can buy a vehicle and have it in your name.

You can buy a vehicle in France as a non-resident. It's not cheap but when you consider how much you spend on buying a motorhome, we believed the cost was negligible. The short story is, you create a "Societe Civile", basically you are creating a business. This is all legal, and done between a broker and a "French Notaire" (Solicitor). The most daunting thing for us, was sending money to the other side of the world. We had never done this before and we worried that we may have done a digit or letter wrong and it would be lost and take weeks to come back to us. The money didn't get lost and the rest was a very easy process. The legal documentation comes in French, which was, just a little difficult, but Google Translate saved the day.

There are only two places that we are aware of that offer this service. We used John Mottram from "France Motorhome Sales". John made the process very simple for us. John is English, and speaks French, so communication was easy. John was extremely helpful while we navigated the French system, and we highly recommend John, through our personal experience of working with him. You can read more about the process and costs on his website: https://francemotorhomesales.com/help/step-by-step-guide-to-buying-a-motorhome-in-france/#:~:text=When%20purchasing%20a%20motorhome%20in,structure%20called%20a%20soci%C3%A9t%C3%A9%20civile.

There are no kick backs to us if you use John and mention our names.

Once you have your "Societe Civile" the fun part begins.

Looking for your motorhome. You can do this before, or after you arrive in France. If you want to have this all set up before you arrive, John has a service to help find the motorhome you desire and he can arrange for a thorough inspection before you buy, once he finds the right one for you. There is another seperate fee for this service. We were very particular and knew exactly what we were looking for, so we spent hours trawling the web looking for the right motorhome for us. Once we found the one we wanted, we availed John of his service to communicate with the dealer and make arrangements to purchase the motorhome. We bought our motorhome through Manu at Libertium in Metz, we couldn't fault Manu and the rest of the team. They were very helpful and easy to work with, even with their limited English and our even more limited knowledge of French language. I must say, it was a pleasure doing business with the French. They are super polite and accomodating. Everything is very laid back.

Read our other blog that goes through other things to consider when buying a motorhome in Europe.

As in all things, you need to do your own homework and due diligence and consider if this information is right for you.