Driving without tax disk
Discussion
moles said:
When buying a second hand car is it ok to drive home without tax and purchase it as soon as possible when you get back?. Or will the BiB fine you anyway?.
It will depend on which BiB pulls you of course - but most are likely to be understanding of your new car situation, however - your insurance may be invalid if you are not legally supposed to be on the road.
For the sake of a twenty minute trip to the post office, better to be safe I reckon!
It isn't possible to get your new car taxed after you've just picked it up any night of the week/Saturday afternoon or Sunday due to Post Office opening hours.. also not forgetting you may not have received the covernote from the insurer in order to get it taxed - so provided you can prove you bought the vehicle on or around that day by producing a receipt (handwritten, signed and dated by both seller and buyer is good) then it shouldn't be a problem. As for invalidating your insurance - check the small print of your policy but again that should be ok.
If there was an online facility to make a rfl payment in leiu of (within 7 days say) providing cover note and mot etc at a post office then I'd have used it.
Instead, I ended up driving around for a few days without rfl because the post offices were all shut and the cover note was in the post. I'd px'ed my old car so what was I supposed to do? How else was I supposed to get it home?
I took the risk and didn't get caught, I also had my part of the V5 and a receipt for the car, and an email from my insurer confirming cover.
If this ANPR/Insurance/MOT database was truly up and running then we wouldn't need a stupid paper disc in our windscreen and wouldn't need to trudge to the post office every year.
Instead, I ended up driving around for a few days without rfl because the post offices were all shut and the cover note was in the post. I'd px'ed my old car so what was I supposed to do? How else was I supposed to get it home?
I took the risk and didn't get caught, I also had my part of the V5 and a receipt for the car, and an email from my insurer confirming cover.
If this ANPR/Insurance/MOT database was truly up and running then we wouldn't need a stupid paper disc in our windscreen and wouldn't need to trudge to the post office every year.
If you buy a second hand car which is not taxed on a Saturday afternoon or a Sunday, you will not be able to buy any tax for it!
Strictly speaking, you should not drive the car until it is taxed.
HOWEVER
If you drive the car, remove anything that looks like a tax disc but is not such as the empty tax disc holder as this is a dead giveaway but an empty windscreen may just have the tax disc lying on the dashboard.
If you are stopped, show the officer/s the receipt and the green part of the V5 showing the date of sale (which is what you use to tax the car at a Post Office after buying it second hand) and you will be told to tax the car at the next available oportunity if the stop was within a couple of days of the purchase.
If you are reported for the offence, make sure that you tax the car immediately for the inclusive months duty whatever the date of the stop may be. i.e stopped on 28th June, buy tax from 1st June.
Do not worry about being reported for no tax in these circumstances if you are stopped after buying a second hand car.
1. It will not be proceeded with if you tax it for the whole month.
2. It is not in the public interest to summons for the offence of fail to display tax alone.
3. It is not in the public interest to summons for no tax if the duty is received for the whole month that the car was stopped in.
4. DVLA are only worried about getting the required amount that is due to them. If you send it in due course without trying to pull a fast one and save a few quid, you will be left alone!
I hope that helps you in your quest for an answer.
Don't tell anyone I told you!
Strictly speaking, you should not drive the car until it is taxed.
HOWEVER
If you drive the car, remove anything that looks like a tax disc but is not such as the empty tax disc holder as this is a dead giveaway but an empty windscreen may just have the tax disc lying on the dashboard.
If you are stopped, show the officer/s the receipt and the green part of the V5 showing the date of sale (which is what you use to tax the car at a Post Office after buying it second hand) and you will be told to tax the car at the next available oportunity if the stop was within a couple of days of the purchase.
If you are reported for the offence, make sure that you tax the car immediately for the inclusive months duty whatever the date of the stop may be. i.e stopped on 28th June, buy tax from 1st June.
Do not worry about being reported for no tax in these circumstances if you are stopped after buying a second hand car.
1. It will not be proceeded with if you tax it for the whole month.
2. It is not in the public interest to summons for the offence of fail to display tax alone.
3. It is not in the public interest to summons for no tax if the duty is received for the whole month that the car was stopped in.
4. DVLA are only worried about getting the required amount that is due to them. If you send it in due course without trying to pull a fast one and save a few quid, you will be left alone!
I hope that helps you in your quest for an answer.
Don't tell anyone I told you!
gone said:
If you buy a second hand car which is not taxed on a Saturday afternoon or a Sunday, you will not be able to buy any tax for it!
Strictly speaking, you should not drive the car until it is taxed.
HOWEVER
If you drive the car, remove anything that looks like a tax disc but is not such as the empty tax disc holder as this is a dead giveaway but an empty windscreen may just have the tax disc lying on the dashboard.
If you are stopped, show the officer/s the receipt and the green part of the V5 showing the date of sale (which is what you use to tax the car at a Post Office after buying it second hand) and you will be told to tax the car at the next available oportunity if the stop was within a couple of days of the purchase.
If you are reported for the offence, make sure that you tax the car immediately for the inclusive months duty whatever the date of the stop may be. i.e stopped on 28th June, buy tax from 1st June.
Do not worry about being reported for no tax in these circumstances if you are stopped after buying a second hand car.
1. It will not be proceeded with if you tax it for the whole month.
2. It is not in the public interest to summons for the offence of fail to display tax alone.
3. It is not in the public interest to summons for no tax if the duty is received for the whole month that the car was stopped in.
4. DVLA are only worried about getting the required amount that is due to them. If you send it in due course without trying to pull a fast one and save a few quid, you will be left alone!
I hope that helps you in your quest for an answer.
Don't tell anyone I told you!
This all sounds like a common sense approach to dealing with the matter and is done within the spirit of the law and not just blindly enforcing the particular law to the fullest extent.
However, in this day and age I am afraid that such a common sense approach is no longer applied and I would not be surprised to learn that the culprit would be fined by the DVLA for non payment of Tax, while att the same time, prosecuted by the police for failure to display and any other offences which could be thrown in.
Wasn't there a thread here recently, in which such a thing has already happened?
gone said:
If you are reported for the offence, make sure that you tax the car immediately for the inclusive months duty whatever the date of the stop may be. i.e stopped on 28th June, buy tax from 1st June.
Do we even have the option of NOT taxing for the entire month? I can see how your suggestion would make sense if you were stopped at the end of the month but then waited until the start of the following month to buy the disc, but surely if you buy the disc in the same month that you buy the car then it'll always run from the 1st of that month
twister said:
...... but surely if you buy the disc in the same month that you buy the car then it'll always run from the 1st of that month
Some people are tempted forget about the month they buy the car in and tax it from the next full month to save a few quid!
Not a good idea. You never know who might have seen it on the road
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