Belgian Bureaucracy

or how to get lost belgian registration papers back

Volvo 140 series (and other series as well) tend to be a bit cheaper in Belgium than in the Netherlands, as Belgium doesn't seem to have quite as much of a "classic tank" culture as the Netherlands. Therefore, it sometimes makes sense to import vehicles from belgium. Usually the process is pretty simple (see RDW import procedure), but in this case I got hold of a vehicle without any of the supporting paperwork.

Maybe a little explanation is required here: License plates in Belgium are personal (although not personalized, usually), so people tend to take off the plates. However, the registration papers for the car ("bewijs van inschrijving") should remain with the vehicle. In this case that hadn't happened. So I had no idea of what the registration used to be, who the previous owner was, or where the vehicle came from.

However, the vehicle was cheap enough that we decided to buy it, on the premise that if a bit of phoning around could yield enough paperwork to import it into the Netherlands we would make a fair profit, and if it didn't we'ld still more than break even on parts after dismantling the vehicle.

First port of call was the DIV ("Departement Inschrijving Voertuigen"), the belgian DMV. They told me that yes, it was possible to issue an "attest van inschrijving" (proof of registration) if I sent them a copy of the bill of sale and an "attest van verlies van kenteken" (police report of lost registration) which I should get from the "rijkswacht" (federal police) or "politie" (local police).

Now this sounded promising, so my next port of call was the rijkswacht. Thinking that the rijkswacht probably new better than the local police force about the intricacies of licensing, and that the Antwerp police would certainly speak dutch (which isn't always the case in brussels, which is dutch/french bilingual), I called the rijkswacht in Antwerp. About 4 phonecalls later I got the right person, who informed me they could only help me if I was a police unit as well, and that I should call the police. Fine, so I called the police. Unfortunately, the Antwerp police were singularly unhelpful, sending me first through a maze of people who put me through to other people, answering machines, and disconnects, and after I finally got something approaching a sentient human being on the line they mainly laughed in my face, probably for being a stupid dutchman daring to ask them questions, detracting from valuable time loafing off. Not very productive.

My next attempt was the Brussels police, who turned out to be very helpful indeed (cuddos to all of them, thanks officers). Since I didn't know the previous registration or owner they couldn't help me directly, but they could check if the vehicle was reported as stolen (it wasn't), and told me that the DIV should be able to tell me the previous owner and registration, and that I could then file a report of lost registration at any police station I considered convenient, since they understood that it wouldn't be very efficient for me to drive all the way to Brussels.

My next port of call was to be the DIV again. Unfortunately, they couldn't directly give me the name of the previous owner due to privacy legislation.

A few weeks have passed.

Through a friend of a friend who works for a law enforcement agency I got the last known license plate, and name and address of the last known owner from the DIV. Armed with that knowledge I went to a police station in a small belgian town near the border.

After explaining what I wanted, and agreeing that yes, I realised that this was highly unusual but still, it's what the DIV told me to do (this line was a recurring theme, so if you want to go through this same process, learn that line by heart and keep a friendly, disarming smile plastered on your face at all times), a police officer took my statement and produced the object of my desire, an "Verklaring van verlies, ontvreemding of vernietiging van een nummerplaat of inschrijfbewijs" (declaration of loss, theft or destruction of a license plate or registration). This I've sent to the DIV with a short polite note requesting a replacement registration so I can import the vehicle into the Netherlands. I don't need a replacement license plate.

Then it was back to waiting, this time for my replacement document from the DIV.

About 3 weeks later I got a letter from the DIV, containing an "attest van voorgaande situatie" (proof of previous condition) in which was contained all the information needed to import the vehicle into the Netherlands: date of first registration, last known owner, last known registration, and a very official looking stamp. Now it's up to me to get the vehicle sorted out and run it through dutch inspection. This happened a few weeks later.

All Belgian police officers and civil servants I've spoken to, with the notable exception of the Antwerp police, have been friendly and helpful. Thanks to all of them.

To save you a bunch of calls to foreign directory enquiries, here are the relevant numbers and adresses:

DIV, Wetstraat 155, 1040 Brussel, tel. +32 2 2873111
Rijkswacht Antwerpen, +32 3 2241257 (motorvehicles division)
Police Antwerpen, +32 3 2025511
Police Brussel, +32 2 5179611