SORN query

[Onelastattempt]

I bought a Kawasaki Z650 on Saturday that had been sorned on the Friday. Did the owner change online on the Saturday as well but when I tried to tax it the DVLA website kept telling me that the sorn was still progressing and I could not tax it, kept trying but it wasn't until Sunday morning that I managed to tax it. It wasn't a big problem for me as I had picked up the bike in a borrowed van then put in my garage because of the crap weather but could not help wondering what other people do when this happens when buying a car or bike. Do they just chance driving / riding back as the chances of getting caught are pretty remote ?
This must of happened to other people besides me.
Must admit though, the DVLA seemed to have upped their game recently. Doing the logbook changes online is really easy and the new logbook in my name arrived in this mornings post.

[Mark V GTD]

I suspect many do but its a obviously a risk. As you say, done on line most DVLA stuff is relatively painless!

[sixor8]

The seller complicated the issue by declaring it SORN (which can take 48 hrs ish for the database to update) so VED couldn't be bought as a new keeper until this had worked through. September's VED had already gone, only complete months are refunded.

I can understand maybe that they did it on the last day of the month (30th Sept) to avoid losing another month's VED. But if they had done a change of owner online before 7pm (only allowed 7am to 7pm), you could have bought VED on the Saturday (no time restriction) as the new owner. The few hours it was untaxed would not be pursued; I've done it a few times.

ETA: It was probably showing on the database as still taxed on the Saturday anyway so it 'may' not have been picked up as untaxed on ANPR since the database hadn't updated yet. I realise that the seller may not have known he was going to sell the bike on Saturday; but declaring it SORN a couple of days earlier would have avoided the problem you had.

Edited by sixor8 on Wednesday 5th October 18:10

[Pica-Pica]

sixor8 said:

The seller complicated the issue by declaring it SORN (which can take 48 hrs ish for the database to update) so VED couldn't be bought as a new keeper until this had worked through. September's VED had already gone, only complete months are refunded.

I can understand maybe that they did it on the last day of the month (30th Sept) to avoid losing another month's VED. But if they had done a change of owner online before 7pm (only allowed 7am to 7pm), you could have bought VED on the Saturday (no time restriction) as the new owner. The few hours it was untaxed would not be pursued; I've done it a few times.

A month’s VED? What a tenner at most? Tight seller.
Don’t buy anything that’s SORNed unless you have time to spare.

[sixor8]

£8.41 at most (if over 600cc) ! The buyer wouldn't have known the bike was SORN possibly since the DVLA database would have still shown it as taxed, even on Sat morning.

[griffter]

I forget the details but they’re on the DVLA website - if you SORN online you can’t then tax online for 14 days or something. You’ll need to go to the post office I think.

[Onelastattempt]

sixor8 said:

The seller complicated the issue by declaring it SORN (which can take 48 hrs ish for the database to update) so VED couldn't be bought as a new keeper until this had worked through. September's VED had already gone, only complete months are refunded.

I can understand maybe that they did it on the last day of the month (30th Sept) to avoid losing another month's VED. But if they had done a change of owner online before 7pm (only allowed 7am to 7pm), you could have bought VED on the Saturday (no time restriction) as the new owner. The few hours it was untaxed would not be pursued; I've done it a few times.

ETA: It was probably showing on the database as still taxed on the Saturday anyway so it 'may' not have been picked up as untaxed on ANPR since the database hadn't updated yet. I realise that the seller may not have known he was going to sell the bike on Saturday; but declaring it SORN a couple of days earlier would have avoided the problem you had.

Edited by sixor8 on Wednesday 5th October 18:10

Thanks for that info, never knew that a sorn request could take up to 48hrs to update. I have always assumed that because it is done online that it would be almost instant. I also did not know about the 7am to 7pm owner change.

[sixor8]

griffter said:

I forget the details but they’re on the DVLA website - if you SORN online you can’t then tax online for 14 days or something. You’ll need to go to the post office I think.

The official advice is 5 working days, but even the DVLA database is usually faster than that. The OP was able to tax the bike 2 days after the original SORN was made, on a weekend. But it may be that the change of keeper (which occurs immediately) trumped this and left the bike 'untaxed,' which would be the VED status after a change of registered keeper.