Bit confused about new UK road tax laws??

[RichB]

Strange, I taxed my Griff on the PC this lunchtime in all of 2 minutes.

[Terminator X]

Bought VED today and received no disc, felt weird

TX.

Edit - yep at Post Office ...

[Impasse]

Petition to stop the double tax collection at sale/purchase of car.
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/68471

(Not mine, just passing on the clicky.)

[heisthegaffer]

Renovation said:

heisthegaffer said:

What I want to know is how the devil am I going to tax my car in time for tomorrow when the website keeps crashing?

Yes I'm trying to tax online too and neither the old nor the new system will even load.

Now working although, not using Google Chrome surprisingly but it did when I used Opera.

[JonRB]

heisthegaffer said:

Now working although, not using Google Chrome surprisingly but it did when I used Opera.

That's odd, since they're both the same engine now.

[Renovation]

Unable to use service

Unfortunately, because of the tax class of the vehicle or recent changes to the vehicle record, you are currently unable to apply for vehicle tax or make a SORN using this service.

---

Great to see the usual DVLA service has been maintained.

It's PLG and there has been no change.

[deltashad]

Should be plenty of tax disc holders going cheap on ebay now.

[SV8Predator]

deltashad said:

Should be plenty of tax disc holders going cheap on ebay now.

Gosh, I hadn't thought of that! I'll have to buy a few.

[redtwin]

I plan to buy a car next week from a trader. Obviously it won't have any tax and I will have to buy some before driving off their forecourt. How best to go about this?. I intend to transfer the insurance policy from my current car to the new one, anyone have any clue how quickly the insurance database will update?.

I can just envision hanging about at the garage trying to buy tax online/by phone only to be told the car I want to tax is not on the insurance database (yet) and therefore cannot proceed and as the insurance from the current car has now been transferred, I cannot drive that one away either.

[Roo]

You haven't needed insurance to tax a car for a long time.

Just use the new keeper supplement either on line or over the phone.

[redtwin]

I thought there was something new introduced last year where you couldn't have a taxed car that wasn't insured, even if parked on private property?.

I suppose I mistakenly took that to mean that insurance was now a requirement to tax a car.

[JonRB]

I'm sure that the Post Office always used to check that your car was insured. In pre-computerised days you'd have to take either your renewal letter (or your V5 + fill out a form), plus your MoT certificate, plus your proof of Insurance. And they wouldn't accept a cover note either.

As far as I am aware, there is still a requirement for the vehicle to be insured in order to tax it, but they just look it up on a database now.

[redtwin]

Well that was my original concern which I am still no closer to understanding.

Does anyone have any experience with the length of time (if any) it takes for the insurance database to update?. Just want to know if I should even bother planning to drive the car away on the day of purchase.

Another option would be to have the garage deliver it on their trade plates and leave it on my drive until I know everything is sorted, but I suspect that may entail me having to declare it SORN at some point during the process.

[Renovation]

JonRB said:

I'm sure that the Post Office always used to check that your car was insured. In pre-computerised days you'd have to take either your renewal letter (or your V5 + fill out a form), plus your MoT certificate, plus your proof of Insurance. And they wouldn't accept a cover note either.

As far as I am aware, there is still a requirement for the vehicle to be insured in order to tax it, but they just look it up on a database now.

I have taxed a car using Trade Insurance ie it would NOT appear on any website as the car wasn't specifically insured.

And the PO happily taxed it.

I think they have decided that they'll take your money regardless.

If when checked on ANPR it doesn't appear to be insured you are in trouble unless you can prove that it is insured.

[405dogvan]

I discovered from this very forum that renewing Road Fund Licence no longer requires proof/checking of insurance - hasn't done since late last/early this year apparently.

Edited by 405dogvan on Thursday 2nd October 01:33

[405dogvan]

redtwin said:

Does anyone have any experience with the length of time (if any) it takes for the insurance database to update?. Just want to know if I should even bother planning to drive the car away on the day of purchase.

As I said above, tax no longer requires insurance 'proof' (DB or paper) and if you're stopped by an NPR-check showing you as uninsured the officer will call your insurer and check that you have a policy (even if you carry the certificate they will almost always call and check you didn't cancel it anyway).

So long as they confirm you're insured - you'll be GTG and even if there was an issue, you can choose not to accept the on-the-spot ticket and take the matter to court with whatever proof you can dig-up meanwhile.

[Renovation]

405dogvan said:

As I said above, tax no longer requires insurance 'proof' (DB or paper) and if you're stopped by an NPR-check showing you as uninsured the officer will call your insurer and check that you have a policy (even if you carry the certificate they will almost always call and check you didn't cancel it anyway).

So long as they confirm you're insured - you'll be GTG and even if there was an issue, you can choose not to accept the on-the-spot ticket and take the matter to court with whatever proof you can dig-up meanwhile.

I know mechanics who have been driving customers cars, who have had to walk home as the Police couldn't check their trade cover as it was after 6pm and impounded the car - I think they had to pay the recovery fees too.

[99t]

lamboman100 said:

* Nov 1st 2014 = Daily Mail reports on new digital car taxdisc system spiralling into chaos with crashed computers...

• Dec 1st 2014 = Daily Mail reports on new digital car taxdisc system being scammed by genius crooks and hackers...

• Oct 1st 2015 = Daily Mail reports on new digital car taxdisc system being hit with unplanned spiralling IT costs...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2776158/DV...

First prediction correct! Wouldn't bet against the other two either

[pingu393]

When we had to display a tax disc, covering a car in the street was frowned upon by the authorities as you weren't DISPLAYING the tax disc.

Can you cover a car now, as they still won't be able to see the car's identity?

[Renovation]

pingu393 said:

When we had to display a tax disc, covering a car in the street was frowned upon by the authorities as you weren't DISPLAYING the tax disc.

Can you cover a car now, as they still won't be able to see the car's identity?

I'd suggest the No plate has to be visible.

If the car's can't, I'd stick one on the cover.