DVLA website isn’t as clear as I’d like….

We have a vehicle that was taxed, MOTd and insured. Fully legal. Up until I switched the insurance to another vehicle. Do I have to SORN it? It’s still got 2 months rent and permit though.
Online SORNing website suggests that you only do that if you’re not taxed, but I’m sure if a vehicle isn’t insured you have to do something… right?

Ta in advance 🙂

Answered my own question.

https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-insurance/uninsured-vehicles

So, what happens to the tax I have? It’s not worth getting a refund for a 200cc bike that only costs £35/year.
When it’s sold, can it just be taken off SORN and the current tax is still valid?

SORN has nothing to do with insurance, but if its not insured you need to ensure its ‘off road’.

SORN has nothing to do with insurance, but if its not insured you need to ensure its ‘off road’.

It does these days! You need to be either INSURED or SORN or you get fined. 🙂

See here
http://moneyfacts.co.uk/guides/insurance/insure-your-car–even-if-its-off-the-road/

Which I can deal with.

But does SORN invalidate the tax disc I possess and mean the new owner will have to re-tax?

Hmm. It’s a right can of worms of badly thought out legislation according to a very informative thread on Pistonheads
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=1164729

Basically, you CANNOT have a taxed but uninsured vehicle legally, and as soon as you SORN the tax disc is cancelled. This is a right ball ache. It’ll not cost me anything but it makes my vehicle less attractive to buyers. A true case of trying to catch crims by penalising honest people.
Apparently you should return the disc if you SORN and it buggers their system up if you don’t. Well, I paid £35 for that disc, so they can pry it out of my cold, dead hands if they have to. Fek ’em.

It’ll not cost me anything but it makes my vehicle less attractive to buyers.

I sold my car on ebay recently as “no VED included” despite having 4 months tax still on it, as I figured I’d get more from cashing it in than the amount extra I’d get for the car by including the tax (the VED was a significant proportion of the value of the car!) I was kind of expecting whoever bought the car would buy the tax off me, but in the event the bloke who bought it didn’t so I got my refund – it certainly didn’t seem to put people off buying the car, as I got far more than I was expecting for it.

Surely you might as well get your fiver refund by sending the disc in if it’s got 2 months to run? Though I have to admit I’m a bit confused about why you’re not just selling the bike if you’ve already replaced it and not planning on riding it again (admittedly I had a few days overlap where I owned two cars, but they were both insured for that period – in fact I’m still theoretically insured on my old car which I no longer own as it was cheaper to get a new insurance policy than to switch the existing one and add a couple of days bridging insurance, and it would have cost me money to cancel the policy when I sold it!)

Agree, it is a right PITA.
My example, £260 tax due in November. Bought new van in June.
Theoretically I should swap the insurance over, cancel the tax (loosing the rest of the June tax as they only refund whole months) and then the buyer can retax it in mid July (paying for the whole of July as they only do whole months) Net result, government gets an extra month’s tax out of us! (which on £260pa is not insignificant, the car wasn’t worth much more than that)
.
Anyway, the way around it, which I am not advocating 😉 , but theoretically one could insure the new van with a different insurance company as the old insurance won’t let one swap vehilces as they only do cars. One then has two vehicles insured and taxed, but both using the same 7yrs NCD, this is not allowed! FFS, it’s me that’s had 7yrs without crashing, not the car. Anyway, one could use this 7yrs NCD on two policies simultaneously provided that the car can be sold and the insurance cancelled (can’t cancel insurance straight away or it would have to be SORNed, aarrgh, why pay to insure a vehicle I’m never going to use again) before the new insurance company gets too stroppy about proof of the NCD.
Really badly thought out system.

It does these days! You need to be either INSURED or SORN or you get fined

Sorry, learn something new every day…

The database can’t be too hot as it missed me and my insurance company not noticing auutorenewing hadn’t happened. Still taxed but must have been uninsured for while. The first I knew was when tax reminder came in with an insurance warning.

Pete **** em

Ive got a disco on my drive thats not been sorned or insured for 3 years ad they can suck my knob if they think they are towing it off my private property – i started to get reminders through – r i tell them its scrapped – as its got no engine now !

Long as its not on public property i wouldt be worried.

– i started to get reminders through – r i tell them its scrapped – as its got no engine now !

This works up to a point. If you are really not going to use it again, maybe just a spares donor, or use it only for offraod stuff then you will be fine. However, if you ever get it working again you may find you have trouble insuring it, most insurers don’t like rebuilt stuff, even Cat D.

Chassis is rotten and engines in my garage for new cam/rebuild for me 90

Its nit going on road !

I sold my TVR and the insurance company demanded £40 admin fee to cancel the policy. I said stuff that and they threatened me with £200 penalty for insuring a car I didn’t own!

It was a limited mileage special classic insurance deal that only cost £110 for the year and I was cancelling it one month early.

I sold my TVR and the insurance company demanded £40 admin fee to cancel the policy. I said stuff that and they threatened me with £200 penalty for insuring a car I didn’t own!

Really? I just didn’t mention to mine that I don’t own the car any more or try to cancel (I’d already checked out the policy details as I was wondering about the cost of transferring the insurance). You’d think they might have guessed given I set up a policy for a new car with the same company and then went on to cancel the automatic renewal of my old policy in the same phone call – though they have sent me renewal docs!

My cancellation charge was also £40 on a £180 policy which had just over a month to run (the transfer fee was £7, so given I wanted to insure both cars for a few days that was the cheapest way to do it).

Yup sorn or insure seem to be the only options i got my sorn fine last week , it really is a crap setup it dousent really solve anything as the fine is cheeper than the ins companys charge.

Ive got a disco on my drive thats not been sorned or insured for 3 years ad they can suck my knob if they think they are towing it off my private property – i started to get reminders through – r i tell them its scrapped – as its got no engine now !

erm why don’t you just sorn it? It’s free to do.

I had my car SORNed for 6 months then flogged it, just sent the form back to say it had been sold, new owner taxed it, I was slightly worried about the gap between me selling it and new guy driving it home first and then taxing it but no one questioned me about it, besides once I’ve been paid and new owner has signed the form I guess it’s his problem.