EU Drivers Licenses (Residents in Canaries)

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Taken from the latest issue of The Voice (mid Dec to mid Jan):

"If your current driver's licence has NO expiry date or one of more than 15 years, you should have already renewed it to a Spanish license if you were registered as a legal resident before 19/01/2013. If however, you registered as a resident after this date, you must renew TWO years after your official resident date. The law will come into effect come January 2016."

[RVEEE]

This is similar to UK law; as soon as you become resident here you need a UK entitlement. It catches out students regularly. It basically works on having a UK address, paying bills etc. A bit vague...

[Globetrotter]

Just a daft (or maybe not) question to throw in, what do you do if you live say 6 months in the UK and 6 months in Fuerte and you own a property in both locations and you have a valid UK licence, do you,
a) change your licence from UK to Spanish, then change back to UK on return each time.
b) keep your UK licence and chance it with the Guardia.
c) change to a Spanish licence and chance it with the UK police.
d) change to a Spanish licence, give up your DVLA one and realise when and if you return full time to live in the UK, you go through the whole cycle of applying for a valid licence, (new test maybe).
or e) stop driving and catch buses.
There seems to have been lots of (useful ?) info written about this on various Fuerte sites, seems sometimes nearly every week someone (in the know ?) posts "you have to change your licence", "no you dont if its an EU licence", "I know this info is correct", "no you dont have to", "Yes you do", etc, etc.

[Will196]

Legally if you're living for more then three months in a row you're supposed to register for residency. Six months spilt into two three month trips isn't an issue.

You also can't drive a non local plated car for more then six months a year.

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Just a daft (or maybe not) question to throw in, what do you do if you live say 6 months in the UK and 6 months in Fuerte and you own a property in both locations and you have a valid UK licence, do you,
a) change your licence from UK to Spanish, then change back to UK on return each time.
b) keep your UK licence and chance it with the Guardia.
c) change to a Spanish licence and chance it with the UK police.
d) change to a Spanish licence, give up your DVLA one and realise when and if you return full time to live in the UK, you go through the whole cycle of applying for a valid licence, (new test maybe).
or e) stop driving and catch buses.
There seems to have been lots of (useful ?) info written about this on various Fuerte sites, seems sometimes nearly every week someone (in the know ?) posts "you have to change your licence", "no you dont if its an EU licence", "I know this info is correct", "no you dont have to", "Yes you do", etc, etc.

Hi Globetrotter
This is my take on the 'resident' situation - hopefully correct!
You only 'live' in one location, any other location would be somewhere you went for a long stay/holiday. Normally the location with the most ties, property, employment/finance/income, family etc would be your main location, ie the place you 'live'. If Fuerte is your 'other location' you don't need to register as living here as an Extranjeros and therefore don't need to change your driving licence.
If you do come to Fuerte to 'live' as your main location then you need to register as Extranjeros after 3 months and deal with your driving licence if your licence falls in the categories I mentioned in the OP.
One of my neighbours is Guardia Trafico and checked with me a few months ago that I'd changed my licence (I had) so that I didn't run the risk of getting caught out when the law comes into effect in January. When I saw the article in The Voice it reminded me and prompted me to raise the issue on the forum to hopefully help others avoid a potential fine.
Hope this helps.

[Joseph]

If you ask 10 people about residency you will get 10 different answers.
Some say if you have a holiday home in Fuerteventura and spend more than 6 months at you holiday home you fall for Spanish taxes.
It is as confusing as renting out your apartment for short term holiday lets .
Recent UK legislation says if you spend more than a month in Fuerteventura or anywhere else you will lose all benefits other than state pension.The cost of checking this and follow up would be very expensive.But who knows?