Buying a Car with no tax and how to get it home.

[bigshaun]

Hi everyone, picking up a car on Saturday that has no tax. Could be a pain in the arse to get it taxed on Saturday, (early post office closing and the owner has mislaid the mot cert).
In theory could I phone a MOT station close to my house and get it booked in for one about the time I'm gonna be driving back. So that if I get stopped I'm covered because I'll be on my way to an MOT and you don't need tax for that.

First time I've bought a car with no tax, so if anyone has any experience of getting it home with no tax, your help would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Shaun

[andy-xr]

Some post offices are open til 3.30 - I know this as I had to get my SORN'd and MOTless Quantum out of storage pretty quickly and found an MOT place that'd test it then drove it home and took the other car to get it taxed so it stays on the road. Check around on the website and phone the PO's first, the website isnt all that accurate

[loko]

that does work, i bought a van in Manchester and drove it home to Middlesbrough on the same idea

[V8 Disco]

If current owner still has insurance, offer to pay the tax cost in cash to them to tax it online for you. Won't produce a disc in time, so you are still taking a chance (failure to display is an offence in itself) but pretty sure you won't ping on an ANPR and you can prove tax was paid before driving if stopped (carry email confirmation).

HTH, bear in mind the bit about failure to display though.....

[AlexRS2782]

V8 Disco said:

If current owner still has insurance, offer to pay the tax cost in cash to them to tax it online for you. Won't produce a disc in time, so you are still taking a chance (failure to display is an offence in itself) but pretty sure you won't ping on an ANPR and you can prove tax was paid before driving if stopped (carry email confirmation).

HTH, bear in mind the bit about failure to display though.....

Only problem with doing that is the disc will be sent to the person selling the car, with no guarantee they'll bother to forward the disc on to you.

Worse case scenario when they get the disc they go & cash it in before they send the V5 off with change of owner details, leaving the car untaxed.

Lad on one of the RS forums had this happen to him not that long ago

[mike9009]

I had this problem when buying my VW T25.

Basically I saw the van one weekend and picked up following weekend. (Private sale) I insured the van in my name, after leaving a deposit. I applied for six months tax on line, five days before picking up the van. Tax disk delivered to owners house. They put tax in window for me ready for me to collect. All legal

Only slight issue was getting the insurance onto the DVLA database which took longer than expected!

Mike

[Lordbenny]

Man up & drive it home without a tax disc...simples!

[jambo103]

AlexRS2782 said:

Only problem with doing that is the disc will be sent to the person selling the car, with no guarantee they'll bother to forward the disc on to you.

Worse case scenario when they get the disc they go & cash it in before they send the V5 off with change of owner details, leaving the car untaxed.

Lad on one of the RS forums had this happen to him not that long ago

Talk about harsh! At least one knows where the offender stays however...

[mattman]

Lordbenny said:

Man up & drive it home without a tax disc...simples!

^ this!

[littleredrooster]

bigshaun said:

...In theory could I phone a MOT station close to my house and get it booked in for one about the time I'm gonna be driving back. So that if I get stopped I'm covered because I'll be on my way to an MOT and you don't need tax for that...

No you couldn't. The exemption only applies if it doesn't have a current MOT.

You need to get it taxed or run the risk of being captured. How lucky do ya feel?

[tim0409]

mattman said:

Lordbenny said:

Man up & drive it home without a tax disc...simples!

^ this!

When I was at uni I worked part time for a motor trader moving cars between dealers and auctions etc and very seldom were they taxed - I still feel virtuous when I tax my own car now given the time I spent driving around in untaxed cars.

MOT and insurance are a whole different kettle of fish, just drive it home!

[*Al*]

Just drive it man! As long as you have insurance of course.

[4lf4-155]

I bought a car with no tax on a Sunday, took the risk and drove home. I pinged an ANPR in a patrol car 300 yards from my front door.

Showed the officer the mot insurance and receipt for the car and he let me go on my way I thanked him and his parting words were ' I would have to be a monumental arse to book you for this'

True story....

• disclaimer : it was 8 years ago, not so sure that level of leniency is still allowed.

[anonymous-user]

tim0409 said:

When I was at uni I worked part time for a motor trader moving cars between dealers and auctions etc and very seldom were they taxed - I still feel virtuous when I tax my own car now given the time I spent driving around in untaxed cars.

MOT and insurance are a whole different kettle of fish, just drive it home!

the driver gets the fine thou..

i would insure it and tax it online

[softtop]

The Spruce goose said:

the driver gets the fine thou..

i would insure it and tax it online

and hope the tax disc comes your way. Leave them a stamped addressed envelope to take the hard work out of you getting it back.

[Kozy]

So long as it's insured and MOT'd, just drive it.

[fartIN'ajar]

Kozy said:

So long as it's insured and MOT'd, just drive it.

Yep, I don't see why people get so paranoid about these things.

[rob1234]

Just did it yesterday:

• Buy car.
• Go on internet and buy insurance. Print out insurance certificate.
• Take to Post Office and buy tax disc.

I know technically the PO only accepts 'genuine certificates', but I haven't had one in years as insurance companies tend to just send you a pdf one now.

Has worked for me for years at different places.

PS Sorry, didn't see the mislaid MOT certificate bit. Should be able to prove it if it's on the MOT database? May be down to the postmasster at the PO.

[chris182]

fartIN'ajar said:

Kozy said:

So long as it's insured and MOT'd, just drive it.

Yep, I don't see why people get so paranoid about these things.

This. Getting caught with no tax is a non endorsable offence with a minimal fine as far as I know so there isn't much risk there. That's how I got my first car home.

[falkster]

Lordbenny said:

Man up & drive it home without a tax disc...simples!

There is that but with post offices opening longer there is no need to.
I've driven a car back from Brum to Harrogate on a Sunday and got a tug. Showed officer the reciept and told him I would tax it the day after. Jobs a good un