I'm moving to poland; I got sick of the London lifestyle

Hi im and Englishman with a Polish girlfriend and we have decided to move to Poland as we are sick and tired of the london lifestyle, can anyone give me information on how i could go about finding work over there as i dont speak that much polish but am learning now and what would be the best sort of work to get into for someone with limited language over there. We are also thinking about driving our car there to save money on tickets and having to ship our stuff there so any info on being allowed to drive a right hand drive in poland or even being able to sell the car when we get there. Thank you

Why don't you sell your car in the UK and buy a left hand drive over there. It might be cheaper and you can use it when you get here.

cool another londoner comes to poland...... where abouts are you moving to ???
and as for a job what are you doing now??
this might help in me finding you a job.



this is true you would proberly get a better car when you get here if you sell it before you leave...flights are so cheap coming here and i no some realy cheap movers who could drive your stuff out for for next to nothing....

Finding work is a tough one if you don't speak Polish. The usual English teaching, try Berlitz or any Callan school as they give all the training needed and want native speakers.

Hard to help without knowing where you are going and what you can do. If you buy a car in Poland it will need to be registered in your Polish girlfriend's name, we can't easily register a car there without being oficially 'meldowany' (maybe spelt wrong).

If you take the Uk car there you can drive it no problem but expect problems getting pulled over for no real reason. You can't register a RHD car in Poland, getting it converted in possible but expensive depending on the car.

Poland is a great place to live I was there for 13 years, It is more expensive now but you can still buy land and build a house. You can still call an ethnic minority a black person, without being called racist.

UK has gone mad, keep an open mind, avoid the expats and Poland is a wonderful place to live.

I m moving to a little village called Kunow about 45km from Kielce, i have the phrase book Berlitz and im amazed at how good it is, it actually helps english people to pronounce the polish language a lot easier. Here in the UK i work as a recovery driver/delivery driver. We plan to move there depending on work but if its not possible we will keep tracking back to UK and work and bring money back to build house and maybe start up a new buisness in the local town, maybe a english themed bar and do kareoke nights as there is nothing like that in the local town ( ostrowiec) although they are really going places there with a new shopping galleria including a tesco so might be an ideal site for a new bar. Still not sure about the driving side tho as i hear from polish friends here that a good bet would be to buy a diesel car here and drive it there maybe a vw or audi as they will sell over there quite easily if you find the right buyer who would be willing to convert it, I also hear that cars are expensive to buy in poland, my girls dad just bought renault megane year 98 for 11000zl over here would cost less than 700 pound.

Take ur riot shield, villagers have such temperaments. Ask a city-dwelling Pole, hehehe. Nah, u'll be fine

so does the lonely planets book too :)

but all the best to you :)

I decided that I could do with a phrase book for my last visit. I couldn't belive how bad it was.

DK Eyewitness Travel Guide

Maybe I am just too demanding though.

I got the Berlitz book too, 20p if I remember, Scots are so resourceful

Have you been there to check it out or is it simply where your girlfriends folks live? "The Village" (every village is called "The Village" in Poland) can be a strange and lonely place. Make sure you don't end up sitting outside the local shop drinking vodka with a few old boys who have ex-wehrmacht WWII bicycles and rubber boots lined with felt! In all serioussness it can be fun for a few hours but serious potential to go totally bonkers.

The easiest thing to do would be to get a qualification in teaching English as a foreign language and become an English teacher. Much less stressful than running a bar in a country where people don't go out much.

I believe you can register a RHD car here if you bring it over when you become resident here and declare it as part of your assets, but otherwise it's not possible. So selling it to a Pole would be a problem.

A polish guy here im friends with said you can take cars there but they need to be converted to left hand drive before you sell them so that the buyer can register it or you just knock it of the price and let them sort it out being converted. I really dont know what to do :-(

Sell it before you come and buy a car here. Very simple and very obvious. I've seen one RHD car in eight months. That should tell you something. If you bring it and have it converted you'll be out the cost of the conversion. That makes no financial sense. Just sell the dang thing.

My friend was quoted 40,000PLN to convert an old RHD Land Rover Defender to LHD - about 8x what it's worth.

Brett, the secondhand car market here is ridiculous! People want 3-4 times more than you would pay in the UK for piles of junk. I think the problem lies in the fact that if a private individual is selling something that belongs to him he thinks it is the best thing in the world and wants an ENORMOUS amount of money for it. Check out the auto section on Polish 'Allegro' (Polish ebay). If you see an ad in a car window that the vehicle is for sale they never put the price, when you phone up they tell you crazy prices. I think it may be worth coming over and then taking a weekend trip to Germany and buying a car there. Not sure how that works in terms of registering it though? The other cheap option is to buy a really crap Polish or East German secondhand car, things like Trabants, Wartburgs, Polonez or Polski Fiats do actually sell for peanuts as no one wants to be seen in one anymore but offers the solution of a basic runaround. They can be picked up for so little money that if it conks out just scrap it! Not ideal but a simple starting off way to get mobile here.

No, the problem lies in the fact that cars are expensive in Poland. New cars are expensive, so the used are also.

Used cars

Hi

I did exactly the same as you 2 years ago - tired of London so moved my stuff (4 van trips) to Poland where we now have a house.

I reckon each van trip cost about £300 in fuel and ferry tickets. Cheaper than a UK removal company and doing it myself meant nothing got lost or broken. I didn't know any Polish people who were able to help but that could be another good option.

I tried to register a right hand drive van in Poland and you can't - it's not allowed because you won't pass the technical inspection. But you can drive your UK car over here if you keep your UK plates. See here: English cars in Poland

As has already been said, the only way is to convert the vehicle to LHD, but that is so expensive (new dashboard and other parts... not to mention the labour) that it's just not worth it.

Selling your car here will be difficult - again, who wants to buy a car they can't register? Either buy a crap van before you come (which is what I did) and scrap it when you are done with it, or plan to drive back to the UK one last time to sell it.

I have blogged all about this, driving in Poland, importing UK motorbikes, registration etc.. on my blog if you are interested - http://british-in-poland.blogspot.com/

Sorry I can't comment about getting work here because I haven't tried and don't have any experience of that.

Good luck with everything though!



I think another reason used cars are more expensive is simply because of supply and demand - quite simply more people in Poland want to buy old cars and therfore they hold their value better.

As a result of this it becomes profitable to buy used cars from France/Germany/Italy and import them - especially damaged cars which Poles can then repair.
You will see lots of Polish cars towing trailers back from France or Germany with crashed wrecks on the back - anyone been on the E40 motorway lately?

I have a cousin who makes money on the side by buying motorbikes in the UK and cars in Germany, bringing them here to Poland and selling them on.

Great blog, thanks for the link. I would be interested to find out the system for importing cars from Germany, i am due to upgrade shortly and would like to know the im
port tax rate.



I know Kielce and Ostroviec my wife actually has family in the area, good luck with the Kareoke bar that will be difficult as Poles are so reserved and what language will the tracks be in ?

It's the same system - importing any vehicle you need to pay VAT at the urząd skarbowy. If you owned the vehicle abroad and used it there when you were living there then you don't pay tax as long as you write a declaration that that was the case (just a flat fee of 160 złoty - as per this link).

If you just bought the car abroad and didn't live/use it there then you will need the receipt from when you bought it. I don't know what the tax rate is though.

There is a thread (in German though) in detail about bringing cars from Germany here:
[url=http://www.polenimpott.de/polen-forum-viewtopic_2427-13.html]
http://www.polenimpott.de/polen-forum-viewtopic_2427-13.html[/url]

Hope that helps.

OK, thanks again. I just read your blog about registering your motorbike in Poland and I have absolutely no intention of going through that. I will if need be buy my next car in England (hopfully a left hooker) register it to a UK address get insurance with the AA (the only insurance company willing to offer Polish 12 month insurance) and drive back for MOT's.

I wonder if theirs an angle for buying a car in Germany and keeping it on a German plate!! Thus avoiding the buerocracy and import tax.

you could keep the car in Germany but in Germany they also have the system where you have to be registered to an address (anmeldung). Like in Poland, to register the car you need to show them your residence registration. I guess it could work if you have a property there or family there or had a trusted friend...

If you are going to go back and forth in the UK for MOT's then you don't necessarily even need a left hooker, although I guess it makes sense to get one if you find one.

Regarding insurance - I presume you are talking about fully comp? Because you could just get 3rd party only insurance with any company and it will be valid across the entire EU.

That's true... but people in Poland doesn't buy old cars because they adore old cars. They simply can't afford a new cars. The average salary in Poland is about 2300 zł before tax (approx. 2000 zł after tax). Now.. The new Fiat 500 (btw. ugly as hell, small as beer can) costs 47500 zł! Let count: 47500/2000 = over 23 months! You have to work 2 years not buying food to purchase this pile of s**t.

That's why people in Poland buys old cars.

Yes - exactly. Sorry when I meant "want to buy old cars" I really meant more that they don't have as much money for newer cars like other countries...

My wifes brother paid 15,000 PLN or £3000 for a 2001 ford escort 1.3 two years ago in Poland of course, i could have got him one for around £500