So I'm looking at buying a car that's not taxed, on Sunday..
Discussion
..how can I get it legal to drive home that day?
The car in question is 180 miles from me, it has an MOT but is currently SORN. Now, my plan was to go and have a look, and when I was happy that I wanted it, ring up my insurers to get it temporarily added to my policy, ensure that the MID was updated straight away, then toddle on to the Post Office with the seller to get it taxed.
However, the only day I can go down this week is Sunday, and obviously the Post Office is no bloody good to me then. Will I, within say half an hour, be able to ring up my insurers to get the car insured, and then tax it online? I can use the seller's PC and all to do that. But then can I drive it home without a disc? I know you're supposed to display the disc at all times, but if practical reasons such as this situation make it impossible, will I be okay should the BiB pull me? I'll have paid for the tax and all, but simply not have the disc through yet.
Thanks in advance for your collective wisdom!
ETA the chosen solution:
I have the car insured as of Saturday morning, and the seller has an electronic copy of my cover note for that, so he's taxing it at the PO on Saturday for me to go and collect Sunday.
The car in question is 180 miles from me, it has an MOT but is currently SORN. Now, my plan was to go and have a look, and when I was happy that I wanted it, ring up my insurers to get it temporarily added to my policy, ensure that the MID was updated straight away, then toddle on to the Post Office with the seller to get it taxed.
However, the only day I can go down this week is Sunday, and obviously the Post Office is no bloody good to me then. Will I, within say half an hour, be able to ring up my insurers to get the car insured, and then tax it online? I can use the seller's PC and all to do that. But then can I drive it home without a disc? I know you're supposed to display the disc at all times, but if practical reasons such as this situation make it impossible, will I be okay should the BiB pull me? I'll have paid for the tax and all, but simply not have the disc through yet.
Thanks in advance for your collective wisdom!
ETA the chosen solution:
I have the car insured as of Saturday morning, and the seller has an electronic copy of my cover note for that, so he's taxing it at the PO on Saturday for me to go and collect Sunday.
Edited by McSam on Saturday 18th June 09:41
I hate this situation. Can't the seller just put 6 months tax on it for you?
Could you not just go and have a look next weekend?
I believe legally you have to have the tax disc displayed. However, if you print the receipt off the web you may get away with it. In order to tax it online I thought you needed the renewal form??
Could you not just go and have a look next weekend?
I believe legally you have to have the tax disc displayed. However, if you print the receipt off the web you may get away with it. In order to tax it online I thought you needed the renewal form??
There are two offences - not being taxed, and failing to display a tax disc.
The first one you have covered, and there is now a five day exemption period for the second one.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicl...
The first one you have covered, and there is now a five day exemption period for the second one.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicl...
I'd much rather have the seller put the tax on, I would even send him the cash as a deposit, but he can't as it's not insured. Suppose I could always insure it from here a day in advance.. That could work? But it's obviously putting about £150 out on a car I haven't even got near to, plus my travel costs down there.
I could go next weekend, I'm totally free the week after next, but it's obscenely cheap and I fear may soon be gone.
I think you can do the renewal without the form (which the seller probably has somewhere anyway?), but you can do it online with the reg and log book anyway.
I have just realised that the tax disc would go to his address rather than mine, though, which isn't dealbreaking but isn't handy either.
ETA - Ah, cool, thanks for that link and info.
The way I read it is that it allows a grace period for the five days they say it takes discs to arrive. Usually it's next day, but anyhow - will that apply if the tax disc is new, rather than renewed? Guess so, reading what it says about the SORN. Nice
I could go next weekend, I'm totally free the week after next, but it's obscenely cheap and I fear may soon be gone.
I think you can do the renewal without the form (which the seller probably has somewhere anyway?), but you can do it online with the reg and log book anyway.
I have just realised that the tax disc would go to his address rather than mine, though, which isn't dealbreaking but isn't handy either.
ETA - Ah, cool, thanks for that link and info.
The way I read it is that it allows a grace period for the five days they say it takes discs to arrive. Usually it's next day, but anyhow - will that apply if the tax disc is new, rather than renewed? Guess so, reading what it says about the SORN. Nice
Actually, I'm not sure. Since the car's SORN with five months' MOT, it's hard to guess and I never thought to ask the condition of his insurance running out. But surely even in the Post Office, the system is checked electronically, rather than just looked at the insurance certificate?
Although, considering the general incompetence surrounding this sorta thing, maybe not
I know he couldn't do it online because that system does check the MID, but that doesn't matter since if he's doing it I'd be wanting him to get the physical disc from the PO anyway.
Although, considering the general incompetence surrounding this sorta thing, maybe not
I know he couldn't do it online because that system does check the MID, but that doesn't matter since if he's doing it I'd be wanting him to get the physical disc from the PO anyway.
McSam said:
I could go next weekend, I'm totally free the week after next, but it's obscenely cheap and I fear may soon be gone.
Alarm bells ringing.... ?Are you sure he owns the car and has not taken a loan out on it with the logbook?
You could take insurance out on the car on Friday and tax it online at the sellers house? You will have to make sure the ins co update MID though.
Nah, it's not stolen-it cheap and to give you an idea, it's £500 when I'd expect maybe £8-900, so if he wants to shift it quickly seems reasonable. I've had a chat with the guy and it's all very nice, says he's run the car for almost a year and now has a Clio 172, so he seems to be on our wavelength 
If I insure it tomorrow, I could tax it online at the seller's house, but I think the MID would be fast enough that I could do that if I insured it when I got there, no? Limits my possible losses. My aim in insuring it ahead of time would be to get him to get a physical tax disc, but I believe to do that he needs a cover note from the insurance company. This means sending him a copy of all my insurance details..
cbcbcb said:
If you tax it online the tax disc will be sent to the seller's address
Yeah, I realised that above - but since it is a second car, even if he can't get the tax disc up to me within the five days' grace, it's not the end of the world.I am now definitely considering holding fire until Monday week, though. Tough call.
McSam said:
So how on earth are you supposed to legally buy and drive away a car that's not currently taxed or insured? 
Tow car and a trailer seems the only solution. (I'm off in a minute to pick up my old trackcar from my mates barn!) Will be re-commissioning it over the weekend, insuring it on Monday, MOT Tuesday then Tax.SmoothCriminal said:
Even if you did tax it online and you got pulled you'd still get the fine for "Failure to display" as the five day excemption only covers the FIRST five day of the month not taxing midway though.
Sorry it's not much help just didnt want you getting a suprise if you went this route.
This is wrong. It's possible, but extremely unlikely. Bib are not out there to penalise genuine people wherever possible. To get a policeman issuing a fine just because he can when you've made every attempt to comply with the law would be extremely unlikely. Failure to display a tax disc is designed to catch people doing something shady, like partially obscured incorrect disk, or using disks in incorrect cars etc.Sorry it's not much help just didnt want you getting a suprise if you went this route.
99%of bib would take no further action if you explained that you had just purchased a car, taxed in online, had it correctly insured, and were just driving it home (in the extremely unlikely event that they pulled you).
Thanks a lot for all the input so far, guys!
It does leave me with the problem of the tax disc being sent to the seller, though..
Sadly, trailering it is out of the question as any way I can get hold of a trailer and a tow car is expensive enough to make buying the car unviable.
I definitely did consider the MOT thing, though I suppose checks would reveal that the car isn't permanently insured and still has five months' MOT, so that really would be pushing it
With regard to the trade plates.. I do have a friendly garage owner, but how do the plates "work"? If I throw him some beer tokens to borrow them, even though the car is absolutely nothing to do with the guy's business, will I still be fine to drive 180 miles on them without tax? I presume I shall still need to insure it?
bozmandb9 said:
It's possible [that you will get fined], but extremely unlikely. Bib are not out there to penalise genuine people wherever possible. To get a policeman issuing a fine just because he can when you've made every attempt to comply with the law would be extremely unlikely. Failure to display a tax disc is designed to catch people doing something shady, like partially obscured incorrect disk, or using disks in incorrect cars etc.
99%of bib would take no further action if you explained that you had just purchased a car, taxed in online, had it correctly insured, and were just driving it home (in the extremely unlikely event that they pulled you).
This is reassuring. I realise now that since the five days' grace period is to cover you in the period between your old disc lapsing and your new one arriving at the start of the month, so wouldn't apply to me - but it's good to know that experience says I would not be likely to get fined for it if I had taxed the car online.99%of bib would take no further action if you explained that you had just purchased a car, taxed in online, had it correctly insured, and were just driving it home (in the extremely unlikely event that they pulled you).
It does leave me with the problem of the tax disc being sent to the seller, though..
Sadly, trailering it is out of the question as any way I can get hold of a trailer and a tow car is expensive enough to make buying the car unviable.
I definitely did consider the MOT thing, though I suppose checks would reveal that the car isn't permanently insured and still has five months' MOT, so that really would be pushing it
With regard to the trade plates.. I do have a friendly garage owner, but how do the plates "work"? If I throw him some beer tokens to borrow them, even though the car is absolutely nothing to do with the guy's business, will I still be fine to drive 180 miles on them without tax? I presume I shall still need to insure it?
You are making a big deal out of a small problem if you buy it, insure it, get a receipt drive it straight home tax it the next day.
To avoid the pain of any anpr tax collection cameras you may want to take the front number plate off for the trip home.
You can't use other people's trade plates either.
To avoid the pain of any anpr tax collection cameras you may want to take the front number plate off for the trip home.
You can't use other people's trade plates either.
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