Register an Imported Trailer in France - Part One

They always say that pride comes before a fall and I am beginning to think that it might just be true.

We were preening ourselves at having put our second car through its Controle Technique on Monday and registering it on Tuesday.  How brilliant we were, anticipating the roadblocks that the functionaries would put in our way and deftly steering around them.  

Until that is we went to the insurance broker and the subject of the trailer came up.  Being from the UK, it never occurred to me to mention the trailer to the broker previously as it didn't really seem relevant.

Wrong.  Now, I know that this will come as a real surprise to all of you, but in France there's a rule about trailers.  Actually, being France there are quite a lot of rules, but the main one is that if the total loaded weight is more than 500kg then it has to have its own registration document.

No problem there, just go to the prefecture and get one, the French wouldn't want to make it difficult would they?  Well, strangely enough it's not that easy.  First, you need to provide the Certificate of Conformity, but of course in the whole of Europe only France requires this, so no trailers sold outside France have one.  It crossed my mind that this is a bit like a trade barrier, but France is at the heart of the EU so that can't possibly be the case.

So, if you can't get a Certificate of Conformity how do you register the trailer?  Simple, you get it tested and authorised.  But, by whom?  When you go to the website of the government agency that is responsible you find that it has been disbanded and there is no useful information on who would be responsible for the tests.

So, I've written to Service-Public.fr, le site officiel de l’administration française, to ask them who is responsible.  I can't do anything else now except wait and see.  Ahh, the joy of starting life afresh in France!