Auto-Fine on an Uninsured, UN-Statutory Off Road Car

Tesla

Tesla

Tesla

Soldato
Joined
19 Jan 2003
Posts
17,599
Location
Bristol, UK
Am I hearing the news correctly today?

If you own a car which is taxed, not on the public highway but uninsured you will automatically receive a £100 fine.

Now, obviously the idea is to deter people from driving without insurance. An excellent idea. However, how is a £100 fine prohibitive. I have never known anybody to pay anything like £100 for insurance. The fine is going to be at least 1/2 of even the most cheapest policies?

Have I got the wrong end of the stick?

EDIT - I should have added this link: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicle/Motorinsurance/DG_186696
 
Last edited:
Tesla said:
Now, obviously the idea is to deter people from driving without insurance. An excellent idea. However, how is a £100 fine prohibitive. I have never known anybody to pay anything like £100 for insurance. The fine is going to be at least 1/2 of even the most cheapest policies?
Click to expand...

If you have a car sitting uninsured and not SORN'd then up until now you'd not have to pay anything, now, you have to pay an extra £100 and the car is still uninsured so if you decide to drive it and get caught you'll still get fined/points and (probably) have your car impounded
 
I see this as a good thing tbh, its not very difficult in 2011 to tax/sorn a vehicle as and when required, this new policy may be a minor inconvenience but it will go a long way to stopping the threat of uninsured drivers :)
 
Feel free to correct me, but this seems like just another waste of my money.

My Girlfriends car is sat on the drive waiting for her to take her test in a few weeks time, it has a few months of tax left on it. So now, I have to refund the tax (and get sod all), SORN the car, only to have to re-tax it at full price in a few weeks time - that or her face a stupid hike in premiums by taking out a full policy now and getting it bumped right up when she passes, instead of shopping for a deal when she does actually pass.

I could be talking cods, but thats how this change reads to me

Edit: As an aside, it takes 6 weeks to get the refund - on which there are several % losses, and a £7 handling charge. By which time I will be spending that money again to re-tax the car!
 
Last edited:
Just another ridiculous DVLA plan to cause even more confusion and annoyance to road users without really doing anything to help the underlying problem.
 
Didn't we have a thread about this a little while ago where someone said they read the same thing on their tax renewal but Fox refuted it on the grounds that he hadn't been made aware of an ammendment to the road traffic act?
 
What counts as the public highway?
My car is currently uninsured/untaxed, and is parked up on a grass verge beside the road in a wee village in the country (at my mums house) It's totally off the road, and other cars park there. There is then a hedge, and then the footpath in front of the houses.
There isn't a driveway, and the garage is used to store my Mums mini. I understand I'm not able to SORN it in this circumstance?
 
Ahleckz said:
What counts as the public highway?
My car is currently uninsured/untaxed, and is parked up on a grass verge beside the road in a wee village in the country (at my mums house) It's totally off the road, and other cars park there. There is then a hedge, and then the footpath in front of the houses.
There isn't a driveway, and the garage is used to store my Mums mini. I understand I'm not able to SORN it in this circumstance?
Click to expand...

My understanding is that if you own a car with no insurance and it isn't SORN then you will get a bill for £100 in the post.
 
Ahleckz said:
What counts as the public highway?
My car is currently uninsured/untaxed, and is parked up on a grass verge beside the road in a wee village in the country (at my mums house) It's totally off the road, and other cars park there. There is then a hedge, and then the footpath in front of the houses.
There isn't a driveway, and the garage is used to store my Mums mini. I understand I'm not able to SORN it in this circumstance?
Click to expand...

Depends if the verge is classed as part of the highway. You say others park there? If that's the case, it probably is classed as part of the highway hence your car should be taxed/mot'd and insured when parked there.
 
All the people saying it will reduce uninsured drivers, ummm, no it won't, the threat of £1000, crushing the car, and points on the license isn't working as is (some might say it is) but the people who drive uninsured vehicles, will continue to do so regardless of a piddly little £100 fine, as they're already as detached from reality as humanly possible already. Majority of unisured cars on the road are probalby declared SORN anyways, because if they're not paying for insurance why would they pay for tax?

All it is going to do is punish people like me, who last year I had my motorbike laid up off the road for a month, uninsured, and I'm not going to fart about sorning it when tax costs £15, and by the time it had all been processed by the DVLA would have been time to tax it again anyway. Sure if it had been nicked, or caught fire I would have lost out, but I could have got lay up insurance or something if I wanted to, but I did'nt feel the need because I knew it would only be off road for a month, and is pretty secure anyways.
 
I am struggling to see any point at all in this.

The uninsured will continue to be uninsured, the only people affected by this will be people who are totally law abiding.

In 2009 when I went to Australia for 6 weeks my insurance expired the day after I left. So I just left the car locked in the garage and sorted it when I got back. I'd taxed it for a year just a month beforehand so why would I have wanted to go through the faff of SORNing it?

If I did the same again this year I'd get fined, how is that fair?!
 
I kind of get the point. You have a car that can be parked on a public road as it is taxed, but you have no legal way of moving it (like the TV Licensing thing, its not a case of whether you actually watch TV, its just the fact its possible).

However, it is a completely noddy amount of money if it is to deter people who drive without insurance, and a complete ball ache for anyone who just wants to leave their car uninsured for a length of time.

It should have some sort of time limit on it. If you have a car taxed that is uninsured for 3 months or more, then fine them. Having to SORN and then Tax a car for the sake of a few days or weeks to avoid a £100 fine that isn't aimed at you is proper annoying.
 
Ahleckz said:
What counts as the public highway?
My car is currently uninsured/untaxed, and is parked up on a grass verge beside the road in a wee village in the country (at my mums house) It's totally off the road, and other cars park there. There is then a hedge, and then the footpath in front of the houses.
There isn't a driveway, and the garage is used to store my Mums mini. I understand I'm not able to SORN it in this circumstance?
Click to expand...

The rules suggest to be able to SORN'ed, the car needs to be kept somewhere where the public don't have access. However the dvla issued a fine to a mate for sorning his car on a unadopted road but dropped it once he got comfirmation from the council that it wasn't a public road. To be kept in a public place it definately needs insurance though.
 
Skeeter said:
I kind of get the point. You have a car that can be parked on a public road as it is taxed, but you have no legal way of moving it (like the TV Licensing thing, its not a case of whether you actually watch TV, its just the fact its possible).
Click to expand...

No - it's illegal to keep a car without insurance on the public highway and it always has been.

This is about cars on private land.
 
Ok... So what is the thinking behind this anyway? If someone has a car that is Taxed but not Insured then they MUST DEFINITELY be driving it on the road with no insurance?

Its a good job all our local Post Offices aren't being shut so we can all pop down and SORN our cars easily.... oh no wait.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom