Urgent Help! Low Emission Zone in Belgium - Had been unaware for over a week!

[Return2thebasic]

We are 8 days into the holiday. Staying in a holiday house in Brussels, while having travelled into different cities including Antwerp.

Only today, when DH was looking up for traveling information to a museum in Ghent, their website highlighted about the low emission zone.

Now we are in a panic state - haven't registered our car before entering the cities and we can't register now either, as they all require owner's vehicle registration document which we obviously don't carry around with us when travel to another country (or should we???).

So on their LEZ official websites, they all state really seriously that you need to register with them "before" entering LEZ, or a fine (£150 for 1st offence, £250 for repeated offence) will be issued. UK driver shall expect Belgian bailiff if not pay off.

WTF! I mean how many foreign tourist would be aware of this? Google navigation usually is really good at warning like this in London, but nothing marked in our entire journey. Those city officials say they've put up signs across the city, but neither DH nor me have spotted/noticed any (or may be the signs are just not eye-catching???)

Anyone has similar experience? Will we end up with >£1000 fine? - have been travelling in and out these cities everyday!

Ridiculously, we can't even register even if we found out the first day -as we don't have the right document with us to do so!!! Help!!!

Yeah just looked
Looks complicated but I can only see your option is to pay fine

Not sure about Belgium but I know it is the law in France and the Netherlands that you must have your registration documents with you. As for fines, they may not have cameras yet, I have been in low emission zones in Germany and France and both relied on police physically stopping you and fining you so you might get lucky!

You should always carry your V5 and car insurance certificate with you when driving your car abroad. Not thats particularly helpful to you now.

Even if your car meets the LEZ criteria (which it probably does) you do need to register. Think you have 24 hours after the journey. So I'm not sure how to get out of it if you need details off your V5 or need to upload it like you do for the French crit'air.

I live in Belgium and we have to have car registration docs in car at all times. Have been stopped by police at a checkpoint and had to produce all paper work. This is very rare tho! Not sure about LEZ zones in cities other than Brussels - I can drive my car no problem in BxL without registering it. It's not diesel and not really old.

Forgot to add that Antwerp is I think the only city that is really strict currently. We had a hybrid a few years ago and still had to register to drive into the outer part of the city. Try not to worry too much- it's done now and if you don't have the car reg docs you can't register. Any way someone at home can send you a photo of them??

I might be wrong, but DH just said he understands V5C document is not required to be carried with the driver in the UK. So we just never thought about it.

Plus, we've been travelling to France (2022) and Belgium (last time was 2019) frequently and somehow never came across this issue!

Check on this website whether your car needs to be registered

www.lez.brussels/mytax/#

@belge2 , no one is at home to send it across and we looked up online that there's no way we can obtain a copy via an official source.

DH just filled up a contact form to one of the city team and will have to see what they say. Honestly, I know it sounds stupid that we never thought about this. But since our car meets the requirements, at home we never needed to think about it. On the way to cross the channel, not one source has explicitly warned any traveller - not Euro Tunnel, not Google Navigation (which usually always does good job at home for warning going into London).

It's also law in France to carry your car registration documents. Just a heads up if going back to France....several French cities now have ULEZ and LEZ several of which are only active when they decide air pollution is too high. So getting a crit'air sticker is pretty much becoming essential.

@belge2 , wouldn't work. Once I selected UK, it pops up this "If your vehicle has not been registered yet, you will not be able to check your vehicle with your license plate. So you have two possibilities: register your vehicle or check with your registration certificate."

@Amethystanddiamonds , thanks for the heads-up. We will certainly remember to check this from now on - just a habit thing, never needed and never been explicitly told, hence unaware...

What car do you have? Both our cars have apps which hold all details such as VIN number which I presume is what they actually need.
Also you may be able to access your V5 online since you can now pay everything online.

We came across this recently when in France. Luckily it currently relies on police going around checking. We crossed our fingers and ignored until back over the border to Germany!

Not sure if you speak French but just found this:

www.bruxelles.be/lez#:~:text=Il%20est%20important%20de%20ne,le%20site%20Site%20externe%20Lez.
Basically it says all foreign cars must be registered 😳 (for free) . I had no idea either and I live here ! Tho my car is not foreign...

But as another poster said, not sure Belgium is that organised yet (ever). I don't think there are cameras up and i certainly don't remember seeing signs up in the city ever. I think you will be ok 🤞

Sorry my post wasn’t helpful. Realised that if you have your car you have your vin number.
After being caught out with ID and other red tape issues when selling a business I now scan a copy of all our documents onto my phone. I know that is too late now but maybe an idea for the future.
I drove through Birmingham recently, had no idea they have green charges in the city centre. Fortunately when I checked later my car is low emissions. But they use registration plate recognition.

Unfortunately you can't access your V5 online....I know because DH has put mine in a 'safe place' when I changed the address after our house move. Still can't find it so looking like I'm going to have to pay for a new one. Fortunately we took his car on holiday to France this summer.

@Angrymum22 VIN number is actually usually on the windscreen of all cars - I still have yet to see it with my own eyes, but that's what DH says. So probably they need more than VIN number...

I just looked up on GOV.UK website where they say you can apply for a duplicate (online or by phone), but you will still receive it via post - which wouldn't help.

@Angrymum22 I guess we need to get used to the new norm - I agree it's for the better cause, but just resent they should have done a better job to make travellers aware up front!

Not what you'll want to hear, but this caught out a friend of mine in Italy. She didn't notice the signs (or cameras) in a small town we were all staying in (only she had a car), and she drove in and out several times. Law says they have 360 days to fine you... she got notice of all her fines 350 days after she'd first arrived.

Not Belgium, granted, but not far from your scenario. I'd be looking into how long it could be before a fine comes through, so you'll know up until when you could potentially get something.

How is a Belgian balif going to enforce the fine if you are back in the UK?

@ReviewingTheSituation , thanks for the information. Honestly, I don't think I can wait for a year to keep worrying about it... We will try to contact them and see if they would give a bit empathy to allow us register once get home - maybe pay a late registration fee or something.

@Rollercoaster1920 , no idea... Maybe just scaremongering. But it worked as I'm scared!

I agree I suspect that it passed everyone by because it was introduce just before Covid so for a couple of years only HGVs would have needed to register. Maybe worth contacting ferry companies or Eurotunnel. It would add to customer service to add it to their website now people are travelling freely to Europe.
It would be easy to blame the traveller but like you I was caught out in Birmingham because I’ve had no reason to drive through the city until recently. It’s probably been on the local news but I stopped watching the news after Covid. I suspect like speeding fines the city councils are hoping to make a considerable profit from the charges rather than actually reduce emissions.
We have a Euro 6 car so are exempt from most emissions charges.
It is a good idea to reduce emissions but what stopped me from driving into Brum was the parking charges. I can park at the local station and travel by train for half the price of parking in the city.
I hope you don’t get charged too much. It does put a damper on your holiday though and it’s probably not the easiest place to plead ignorance as a Brit.

@Angrymum22 , yes, I'm going to contact Eurotunnel. They are the best point to give ahead any information like this.