Can anyone get around my insurance/tax problem?
Discussion
I'm looking at a car for sale in Wales on Saturday, but it's currently on SORN and without insurance. If the car's as advertised I'm pretty sure I'll be buying it. However, my current insurance only allows me to drive other cars if they're insured already, and this car isn't.
This all means that I'd have to buy it, then insure it in my name, then tax it myself. This wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the fact that I'm going to see it on a Saturday, and so the Post office won't be open to tax it...
Can anyone think of a way around this, other than driving to Wales (from London) twice!
TIA
This all means that I'd have to buy it, then insure it in my name, then tax it myself. This wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the fact that I'm going to see it on a Saturday, and so the Post office won't be open to tax it...
Can anyone think of a way around this, other than driving to Wales (from London) twice!
TIA

GKP said:
Post Offices are usually open until 1pm on Saturdays, the larger branches until around 4pm.
Oh really? That might make it possible then...doogz said:
Even if the post office is open, how do you propose to buy the car, phone your insurance company to insure it, then arrive at a post office with your insurance documents, will will more than likely not even have been printed off yet?
I'm going to insure with Adrian Flux, who email the docs to you. Hopefully fairly swiftly...Try www.dayinsure.com and get a one day insurance policy, then you can print of the docs and tax it
OK guys, I just rang Adrian Flux, they said it'd say no more than 2 hours for the policy to be emailed to me after taking it out. So if I saw the car early afternoon, I could insure it, wait an hour or so for the docs, print and then travel to a nearby post office, which apparently is open until 5:30pm on Saturdays...
Anyone see a flaw with this plan...?
Anyone see a flaw with this plan...?
musclecarmad said:
you cant tax a car that's day insured
you just have to drive it untaxed
a lot of people have the same prob when buying a car on a sunday - it's a risk you have to take sadly.
I have taxed a car on a day insurance scheme, at the Malmesbury post office.you just have to drive it untaxed
a lot of people have the same prob when buying a car on a sunday - it's a risk you have to take sadly.
I think its at the discretion of the post office concerned ?
dnb said:
Book it in for an MOT late on Saturday at your local garage. Then you only need insurance.
Obviously you have to show up for said test.
Hahah like the idea, I was talking about doing this the other day, don't know why I didn't think of that! It'd cost me the extra £40 though.Obviously you have to show up for said test.
Can anyone think why this wouldn't work though:
Mellow Matt said:
OK guys, I just rang Adrian Flux, they said it'd say no more than 2 hours for the policy to be emailed to me after taking it out. So if I saw the car early afternoon, I could insure it, wait an hour or so for the docs, print and then travel to a nearby post office, which apparently is open until 5:30pm on Saturdays...
Anyone see a flaw with this plan...?
It seems like the least messy way of doing it.Anyone see a flaw with this plan...?
Mellow Matt said:
OK guys, I just rang Adrian Flux, they said it'd say no more than 2 hours for the policy to be emailed to me after taking it out. So if I saw the car early afternoon, I could insure it, wait an hour or so for the docs, print and then travel to a nearby post office, which apparently is open until 5:30pm on Saturdays...
Anyone see a flaw with this plan...?
Erm I'm fairly sure that the Post Office need to see the original Certificate of Insurance and will not accept anything but the original, that includes an emailed PDF document. Anyone see a flaw with this plan...?
I would day insure it prior to viewing. Then risk driving to a post office and getting it Taxed.
If the PO won't tax it then I would just drive it home and take a chance.
The insurance is the "important" bit, just make sure you have that sorted.
I have driven untaxed cars back from purchasing them a few times and never got caught. Just take it steady.
If the PO won't tax it then I would just drive it home and take a chance.
The insurance is the "important" bit, just make sure you have that sorted.
I have driven untaxed cars back from purchasing them a few times and never got caught. Just take it steady.
GKP said:
Post Offices are usually open until 1pm on Saturdays, the larger branches until around 4pm.
And as I discovered recently, some of the Post Office branches located in other businesses are open on a Sunday (the one inside ASDA in Skelmersdale!)As for the "insurance problem" simply call your insurers and ask if you could arrange cover to drive the car home.
OK turns out the post office website was lying, and actually the post office near the car is closed on Sat afternoon. However, another nearby one is open until 4pm.
Hopefully I can get the docs before 4 pm and get to the post office and tax it. The chap selling the car checked that the post office would accept printed docs and they said yes to that, so that's one less thing to worry about.
If I can't get the docs by 4pm, then I can maybe tax online (but I'm pretty sure the database takes days to update, so I probably wouldn't be able to do that).
Failing that I can ring around a load of MOT places near me and book a test. I doubt I'd actually be able to get back to London in time and so I'd miss the test, but I doubt that would matter too much...
Or failing that, I can just wing it. Am I right in thinking that the car could be confiscated if I did that though?
Hopefully I can get the docs before 4 pm and get to the post office and tax it. The chap selling the car checked that the post office would accept printed docs and they said yes to that, so that's one less thing to worry about.
If I can't get the docs by 4pm, then I can maybe tax online (but I'm pretty sure the database takes days to update, so I probably wouldn't be able to do that).
Failing that I can ring around a load of MOT places near me and book a test. I doubt I'd actually be able to get back to London in time and so I'd miss the test, but I doubt that would matter too much...
Or failing that, I can just wing it. Am I right in thinking that the car could be confiscated if I did that though?
p4cks said:
Mellow Matt said:
OK guys, I just rang Adrian Flux, they said it'd say no more than 2 hours for the policy to be emailed to me after taking it out. So if I saw the car early afternoon, I could insure it, wait an hour or so for the docs, print and then travel to a nearby post office, which apparently is open until 5:30pm on Saturdays...
Anyone see a flaw with this plan...?
Erm I'm fairly sure that the Post Office need to see the original Certificate of Insurance and will not accept anything but the original, that includes an emailed PDF document. Anyone see a flaw with this plan...?
So I just rang 3 different police constabularies about driving to a pre-booked MOT without tax and all of them began by saying that you're not allowed to
I managed to convince 1 constabulary that it WAS allowed, but they then kept saying I "shouldn't" drive to an MOT station that isn't local, when I pressed whether it was legal or not they couldn't answer 
They couldn't decide what the penalty would be either. So not really very helpful...
I managed to convince 1 constabulary that it WAS allowed, but they then kept saying I "shouldn't" drive to an MOT station that isn't local, when I pressed whether it was legal or not they couldn't answer 
They couldn't decide what the penalty would be either. So not really very helpful...
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