Announcement re road tax

[stretch]

I taxed my DTI at the end of November to start from the 1st of Decemeber and recieved confirmation email, direct debit info etc. A short while ago Gemma was pulled by the police as the car was showing as untaxed on their database. It seems this new system has failed miserably as it should be up to date after nearly 2 weeks. I'm going to print out the confirmation email so she can keep it in the car and it might be worth other people doing this if they've recenetly taxed using the new system.

[mickh]

Sigh of relief there Brian, you won't be in the dog house after all

[Retro Pedro]

Know what you mean Brian
The system can catch you if you don't do things in the time scale allotted. Where I'm coming from, by mutual agreement I purchased a car from a relative with the view of him losing the minimal amount of tax and me not paying for more than I had to. Timed it for the transfer date to be the 29th of the month. Documents sent and for a 10 day period, the online tax check kept stating that the car was taxed. Didn't want to risk the DVLA having more dibs at our money than what they were entitled. Then bang, registration got changed to our name and the online tax check status changed to Untaxed.
The system is that new owner is required to quote the 12 digit V5C/2 document ref code. As I found out this is only valid whilst the vehicle is still registered with the previous owner. Once the DVLA press the transfer button, the new owner can't do an online vehicle tax. From there, the new owner will have to wait for the new V5C document to arrive with the new different doc. ref. codes. The way round it is to tax the vehicle at the Post Office. During that period you are at risk of getting done for an untaxed vehicle if caught on the road.
If left off the road untaxed, in theory, can they do you for not doing a SORN?

[Big Dav]

Even taxing at the post office doesn't avoid
the systems hopeless lag. I transferred tax class
on my motor doing so on 31 of the month, I
still got stung the following months fee as the
v5 didn't get processed until 10 days into the
new month.

[gregster]

[Big Dav]

Plus there's continuous insurance to
worry about if you haven't declared SORN
isnt there?

[RatCav]

The car doesn't need to be insured if it isn't on the road. If it is just sat on the driveway and has no intention to be on the road it has to be SORN'd but nothing else. They dropped the continuous insurance concept when the mahoosive outcry of classic car restorers, car museums, etc etc occurred.

Basically if it is physically on the road (even if not being used) it has to be taxed, MOT'd and insured. If it is off the road (private land, driveway, garden etc) it has to be SORN'd at the very least.