New insurance requirements

Soldato
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Just seen on the askmid website that as of 2011, all cars must now be permanently insured unless SORN'd.

This is the first of it and hadn't seen any threads over the passed few days so just thought i'd give a heads up to those that didn't know. Not sure who would enforce this, other than the police i'd suppose (but how many of them are going to go round scouting peoples drives for uninsured cars)

Seems a bit daft if i'm honest. Most people who leave their cars off the road SORN them straight away...


Direct.gov.uk Link
 
its a letter sending exercise

From early 2011, if it appears from the database comparison that a vehicle has no insurance or no SORN, a letter will be sent to the registered keeper.
If the keeper takes no action, the keeper faces:
a fixed penalty fine of £100
court prosecution and be fined up to £1,000
having the vehicle clamped, seized and destroyed

So if nothing shows up on the database, you get sent a letter and can get fined if you dont respond to the letter

just the same way as with the Tax Database.

For law abiding citizens nothing has changed really.
 
Well that's good, less likely of being hit by an uninsured driver!
 
Knowing our postal system...needs more like 12 months. :p

But yeah, for the most part it won't affect anyone (by that I mean sensible people, not scum). :)
 
Just thinking though, what about indie car garages? They're going to have the extra hassle of SORN'ing every car when they receive it (could you test drive a SORN'd car on Trade Plates?) unless it doesn't apply to the motor trade.
 
I once took my car off the road for just over a month when the insurance ran out, this would have been a slight pain as the car was still taxed during that time, so I would have to had to declare a SORN, send the tax off for refund, then just over a month later re-tax the car.
 
Yes but you can no longer have a vehicle Tax'd, and without insurance, even if it is going to be kept off the road.
 
I suppose it makes sence, you only need tax to drive on a public road, and obviously, you need insurance for the same...

No doubt a way of screwing that little bit more from us.
 
[TW]Fox;18160335 said:
There is no requirement to insure a car that is not used on a public road or road to which the public have access.

There will be if it's taxed.

Yes but you can no longer have a vehicle Tax'd, and without insurance, even if it is going to be kept off the road.

Quite - I often have my Lexus or Westfield off the road but still taxed and insure them a month or a week at a time when I feel like using them.

This means I'll have to send the tax disc back for a refund, wait for the refund, send sorn off. Then when I want to drive it, I'll have to wait for the insurance cover note and troop down to the post office with all the docs and retax it - it's not like you can tax it for a month or a week!

No longer will I be able to look out the window and the weather forecast and go "ooh, it's nice out, I'll just phone the insurance company up and go for a nice drive" or "ooh, weekend looks great, I'll get the Lexus insured this weekend so I can tow the Westfield down for a trackday". I'd have to have them both insured all the time, which will add about £500 to my yearly insurance costs.

Utter ball ache. Probably sell the Lexus because of this and insure the Westfield all year round and forgoe the track days :-(

Stupid government.
 
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Yes but you can no longer have a vehicle Tax'd, and without insurance, even if it is going to be kept off the road.

Insurance has been a requirement for getting a tax disc for as long as I can remember :confused:

You can have a vehicle taxed but uninsured provided the tax is purchased when its insured.
 
[TW]Fox;18160995 said:
Insurance has been a requirement for getting a tax disc for as long as I can remember :confused:

Correct, but you can get tax on a day policy.

I can get the Westy insured for £4 a day or the Lexus for £6 a day.

You can have a vehicle taxed but uninsured provided the tax is purchased when its insured.

not under the new rules. If it's taxed it'll have to be insured.
 
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