Why two certificates?
Regulation (EU) 2018/858 provides for multi-stage approval. The base manufacturer approves a chassis cab; the converter approves the completed vehicle once the living cell is fitted. Each issues a Certificate of Conformity for its own stage.
To register an imported motorhome, the authority needs the finished vehicle described: real masses, number of seats and dimensions. That data is on the converter’s document, not the chassis one.
What if the converter no longer exists?
The leisure-vehicle industry has seen many takeovers and insolvencies. When the converter is gone, three routes remain: the group that took the brand over sometimes keeps the archives; the chassis manufacturer can supply its own COC, insufficient alone but useful; and an identification certificate or an individual approval can regularise the vehicle.
Write to us with the VIN and the converter’s plate: we look for the right contact before you pay anything.
Gross mass, payload and licence
Most motorhomes are approved at 3.5 tonnes so they stay within an ordinary car licence. That limit is a real constraint: between fuel, water, passengers and equipment, the remaining payload is sometimes under 400 kg.
Some models exist in 3.85 or 4.25-tonne versions, which require a truck licence. The COC carries the approved gross mass — that is what counts in an overload check, not the sales brochure.
Camper vans and converted panel vans
A panel van converted by a professional follows the same logic: the converter’s document describes the vehicle. A conversion carried out by a private owner, however, produces no Certificate of Conformity at all: it goes through a national change-of-category procedure with the vehicle presented for inspection.