When does insurance-SORN law kick in?

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

I need to get a formal reply to my complaint about Shitcover before switching over to a trader policy, and this means I could be uninsured for 10 days or so. I obviously won't be driving, in fact I will be abroad for about a week, and shouldn't have a problem parking on private land, but wouldn't like to pay a fine or even get in a massive argument with DVLA in order to avoid one. Unsurprisingly, the directgov article on Insurance-SORN is full of irrelevant shit and doesn't actually specify when the law comes into effect. The only thing it says is "From the end of June 2011 Insurance Advisory Letters (IAL) will be issued to the registered keepers of uninsured vehicles". No mention of whether the letters will only be on up-to-the-minute data or also refer to cars that had been previously uninsured.

 

Shall I try and declare SORN via their Kafkaesque call-centre, or just not bother?

[Pete-M]

End of June probably. This is gonna be a pain for me as my trade policy will only let me add a few cars, so I'm gonna be taxing and untaxing stuff all the time. It's just another illegal DVLA tax.

[Lankytim]

Is this law being introduced to stop people insuring a car to get road tax, then canceling the insurance and getting the money back? Thats the only reasoning I can find behind it. It is going to be a big PITA for alot of people. The DOOVLA should see a healthy amount of fine money appearing in their coffers from it.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

It's quite amazing that the Government (following EU rules) are happy for you to be entrusted with the lives of hundreds of people by starting up an airline in Bulgaria/Latvia/wherever and do domestic flights within the UK (or any other EU country for that matter) only using the airworthiness certificate from that country, yet insuring your car with a company based elsewhere, even if it's technically legal, is frowned upon and almost guaranteed to get you into a world of trouble!

[forddeliveryboy]

It's just another illegal DVLA tax.

 

Subversive is the word, and governments should not be seen to be acting subversively within their zone of occupation. They should be an example of fair play, but trying to catch out the old, forgetful, mentally troubled and the plain absent-minded with punitive fines is not justifiable. I collected a car from near Aberdeen a while back, his neighbour (about a mile away) had spent his retirement restoring an old car. Returning home from two weeks in hospital he was devastated to find his car had been stolen. Except it hadn't oficially. The DVLA had sent round their lorry and scrapped it for him, for not jumping through all the sorn hoops. Someone should be locked up for this sort of behaviour.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Is this law being introduced to stop people insuring a car to get road tax, then canceling the insurance and getting the money back? Thats the only reasoning I can find behind it. It is going to be a big PITA for alot of people. The DOOVLA should see a healthy amount of fine money appearing in their coffers from it.

 

 

It's because the insurance companies are a fucking cartel. If my dad lives in another town and I visit him every so often, I should be able to drive his car (assuming it's taxed and MOTed) under the "driving other cars" clause, and I should even be able to park it on the public road (do park benches have to be insured? Didn't think so!). In fact, that used to be the case until a few years ago, then (despite the "fierce competition" in the industry) it got changed to "the owner has to have valid insurance in force for the vehicle" and, because that was also deemed insufficient, the lobbyists for the finance/ins sector decided they wanted this, and the Government was only too happy to oblige!

[autofive]

i got a note about it in my latest tax reminder a couple of weeks ago, but i cant give you a date when it starts as i promptly binned the dvla bumph

[Craig the Princess]

I need to get a formal reply to my complaint about Shitcover before switching over to a trader policy, and this means I could be uninsured for 10 days or so. I obviously won't be driving, in fact I will be abroad for about a week, and shouldn't have a problem parking on private land, but wouldn't like to pay a fine or even get in a massive argument with DVLA in order to avoid one. Unsurprisingly, the directgov article on Insurance-SORN is full of irrelevant shit and doesn't actually specify when the law comes into effect. The only thing it says is "From the end of June 2011 Insurance Advisory Letters (IAL) will be issued to the registered keepers of uninsured vehicles". No mention of whether the letters will only be on up-to-the-minute data or also refer to cars that had been previously uninsured.

 

Shall I try and declare SORN via their Kafkaesque call-centre, or just not bother?

 

Couldn't you run both policies for 10 days? I seem to recall if you SORN a car by surrendering the tax disc you cannot re-tax it that month.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Do I have to surrender the disc to declare SORN? I certainly don't want to do that!

 

Running the two policies at the same time isn't a good idea as I will be using the NCD from one onto the other and I don't want them to become iffy (they give you X days after commencement to furnish them with proof, but presumably they wouldn't be happy about me having it on two concurrent policies).

 

I could just buy the new policy when the old one is cancelled, but I don't know exactly when that'll be, the trade ins brokers only work 9-5 Mon-Fri and, to complicate it further, the Monday after tomorrow is a bank holiday.

 

bloody hell, 4 edits. My grammar's awful tonight.

[HillmanImp]

If my dad lives in another town and I visit him every so often, I should be able to drive his car (assuming it's taxed and MOTed) under the "driving other cars" clause

 

On the few policies that still have this clause in, the car you are driving must be insured by someone else for your 'driving other cars' cover to be valid. A lot of policies don't have this clause anymore (my mate got an £800 fine for this a couple of months back and his housemates car impounded), none of mine have for a few years but some still do.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

If my dad lives in another town and I visit him every so often, I should be able to drive his car (assuming it's taxed and MOTed) under the "driving other cars" clause

 

On the few policies that still have this clause in, the car you are driving must be insured by someone else for your 'driving other cars' cover to be valid. A lot of policies don't have this clause anymore (my mate got an £800 fine for this a couple of months back and his housemates car impounded), none of mine have for a few years but some still do.

 

This is a relatively recent change. In 2002, I had a policy (branded FordInsure, underwritten by Norwich Union) that allowed me to drive other cars without specifying that they had to be otherwise insured. I even got stopped by the police driving a car that didn't have any other insurance and they were fine with it (I had been carrying the ins certificate just in case).

[Craig the Princess]

Do I have to surrender the disc to declare SORN? I certainly don't want to do that!

 

I thought you couldn't have a car both SORNed and taxed, but the DVLC website is awful, so I could well be wrong.

 

Running the two policies at the same time isn't a good idea as I will be using the NCD from one onto the other and I don't want them to become iffy (they give you X days after commencement to furnish them with proof, but presumably they wouldn't be happy about me having it on two concurrent policies).

 

I could just buy the new policy when the old one is cancelled, but I don't know exactly when that'll be, the trade ins brokers only work 9-5 Mon-Fri and, to complicate it further, the Monday after tomorrow is a bank holiday.

 

bloody hell, 4 edits. My grammar's awful tonight.

 

Do you know anyone else with trade insurance who can over the period? That said I doubt their system (even if up and running) would get you in such a small window.

[tabact]

I don't know when it starts but I complained about this stupid law a while back to my MP and pointed out the potential hassle of trying to sell an untaxed car due to a compulsory SORN if the insurance is cancelled so no legal test drive is possible even if you arrange insurance cover for a test drive. I finally got a reply last month from Philp Hammond, the minister in charge, in which he suggested I may wish to consider delaying cancelling the insurance until a car is sold. I'll just take out another policy for the replacement car then, sod the cost. He also points out a car would have to be taxed for a test drive so I should delay sending in the tax disc or pass it on to the buyer.So much for the new law saying you have to SORN the car and return the disc if you cancel the insurance on it.

 

Regarding enforcement he states that this will only take place 'after a reasonable period of time has elapsed' following DVLA being notified the insurance is cancelled, nice and precise. After this 'reasonable period' a warning letter will be sent out and only if you fail to act on that letter could you face potential action. So basically it all hangs on how long a reasonable period of time is defined by DVLA before you get a warning letter. Who knows how long you would have to respond to the warning letter though? I'd assume you should be good for at least a few weeks.

[Tayne]

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[Lankytim]

I recently taxed the Audi and the website and SORN reminder merely stated that the new legislation was being introduced "soon"

 

IMHO the whole process needs to be streamlined so that even a 5 yr old can understand it and easily keep within the law. All this is doing is making an already annoying system even more complex.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

According to the always correct* and truthful* BBC, it's 20th June, so that'll do fine as far as I'm concerned (I'm only driving the Scorp "on loan" under DOC till tomorrow when I will officially buy it, then going away).

 

It does look like you can't declare SORN without surrendering the tax disc...Clever stuff!!!