I just had another thought. We chat to vanlifers all over Europe in our travels, and some countries do not allow self-conversions. I think Italy was one, possibly the Netherlands and some Scandi countries. Perhaps worth a mensh.

Also in the UK, some body types will never get change of use to a motor caravan, or if you do, it can cause all kinds of problems with an old vehicle that isn’t up to modern standards.

For example, a truck is not an acceptable body type, so we can never change our registration to motor caravan. We’re registered as a private LGV, but our MOT test is for a motorcaravan, since that is patently what we are!

I did hear of a case via a friend where they had to abandon their conversion because they changed an old vehicle to motor caravan, but failed on hundreds of issues and could never bring it up to standard.

The ombudsman has recently been involved in a few cases where the British DVLA has kept moving the goalposts!

“Communication failures by the DVLA about what a campervan is leave people confused. This is a failure of DVLA’s role, according to the national Ombudsman.”

Let’s hope DVLA implement the findings and provide clarity for self-builders.

https://www.ombudsman.org.uk/…/dvlas-poor-communication…

ombudsman.org.uk

DVLA's poor communication causes confusion for campervan owners | Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO)

Communication failures b