I have a car which I will not drive again before it’s sold. I will buy a replacement before I sell it so will transfer my insurance to my new car. Insurance company will not cover both on the same policy so this will leave the old one uninsured. It is highly unlikely anyone will steal it and if they do they won’t get more than a couple of miles in it!

So… is it legal to leave a car on the road taxed but not insured?

I think I can but I’d like to know for sure.

Googling has turned up the usual mixed bag of ‘yes’ and ‘no’ including this “If you buy the car with tax on it, it will be taxed in the other persons name which means he still owns the car.” from a site offering ‘trusted legal advice’ – I’ll take anything else on that site with a large pinch of salt.

Yes, as long as it’s not driven of course.

Also, it would be a bit of a risk if someone drives into it and you don’t see it happening.

EDIT: Smee makes a good point down there ?

Needs minimum of 3rd party insurance. What happens in the brakes fail and it rolls off or catches fire and ruins the road – who pays for it?

It must be insured to be on the public highway. Have you not got a friend with a drive, work car park etc?

Yeh it needs to be insured to be left on the road. If your mate was to drive the car on the 3rd party cover provided by his fully comp insurance on his own car, he would also be uninsured as the car needs to be on the insurance database itself as a condition of the third party insurance.

Last time we changed cars our insurance allowed us to have two cars on the policy for two weeks. Certainly gives some incentive to sell the car quickly 🙂 Another alternative that I have used a couple of times now when test driving cars is one of the temporary insurance companies. It normally costs around £15 for a days insurance but the price comes down relatively quickly if you buy a week or two at once. They send the docs by email for you to print out.

Is it legal to leave a car on the road taxed but not insured?

No.

Unless you deposit £500,000 with the Accountant General, in which case you can.

As others absolute no, it has to be insured, even if you parked it on the footpath clear of the roadway.

as above no. bizare some of the laws in this country eh?

even if you parked it on the footpath clear of the roadway

parking on the public footpath is illegal and would void your insurance!

As of the 1st jan it isn’t even legal to keep a taxed but uninsured car OFF off the road. If it is taxed it must be insured, the end….

Continuous Insurance Enforcement (CIE)

Once the necessary regulations are drawn up, it will be an offence to be the keeper of a vehicle which is not covered by a specified policy or by a blanket policy (“open cover contract”) covering vehicles owned by the policyholder or other party named in the policy. There will be specific exemptions, the main two of which will be that the vehicle has been statutorily declared off the road (SORNed) or a change of keeper is in the process of being completed by the DVLA.

So if you SORN it you don’t have to insure it but can’t keep it “on the road” – ie you can keep it on your drive / in the garage, but you can still insure it if you want.
If you tax it then you have to insure it.

OK, it looks like day-rate insurance ’til I can get rid then unless the seller of the replacement offers ‘drive away’ insurance for 7 days or so.

Explain to your insurers and add it on/keep it on temporarily.

Explain to your insurers and add it on/keep it on temporarily.

I’ve done that before but current insurers can’t/won’t do it.