Buying a SORN used car
Discussion
Trevor555 said:
Insurance is the one you really need to worry about.
Last thing you want is an IN10 on your licence, will affect your next premium badly.
You can tax it, but the refund will go to the current registered keeper.
In theory you could book it in for an MOT and avoid the need for Road tax.
That could work.Last thing you want is an IN10 on your licence, will affect your next premium badly.
You can tax it, but the refund will go to the current registered keeper.
In theory you could book it in for an MOT and avoid the need for Road tax.
Tax it online while with the car if I want to test drive it once seen.
Cancel the tax after the test drive if I don't want to buy.
Seller agrees to refund the refund (I know where he lives, have video of the agreement on my phone etc.).
If I buy, it's taxed and ready to go.
I'll arrange 24hr comp insurance to get it back home anyway.
If you cancel tax after 1hr do you get all the money back?
You're making this far more difficult than it needs to be.
If the car has a valid MOT (which it sounds as though it does from your post), just insure it and take it for a quick spin round the block and then if you decide to buy it you can sort the tax in your name after the V5 has been signed off online. I've bought / sold SORN cars this way, so have others i know without issue, and unless the seller is in an area swamped with TrafPol / ANPR monitoring it's highly unlikely to be seen on a quick test run around the block.
Bear in mind that with your current plan you described above, at the least you're going to lose the cost of the month (May) that you've just taxed the car in whether you buy the car or not. Assuming you did buy the car, and sign the V5 off online before you leave the seller, then the tax you've just paid for earlier (before the test drive) is getting cancelled in the eyes of the DVLA and you're then going to end up having to re-organise tax / SORN as the new registered owner. And that's before all the faff of asking the seller to pinky promise you to refund the road tax that you just bought in their name if / when that cheque turns up in the post from the DVLA x amount of weeks later.
The other issue you'll likely run into is that if you decide not to buy the car then the seller is going to have to redeclare their car SORN to cancel the tax that you've just put on the vehicle - as you've only just paid for the tax online it's unlikely they're going to be able to do that for at least a couple of days.
If you really want the car taxed, either ask the seller to do it themselves, and that way any refunds go back to them directly, or if you really are determined to pay for tax on the sellers behalf just for a test drive, then i'd suggest setting it up as a monthly DD rather than a 6 / 12 month one off payment - as that way you can cancel the DD and sacrifice one month of tax and there's no need to be dealing with refunds from the DVLA to the seller, etc.
If the car has a valid MOT (which it sounds as though it does from your post), just insure it and take it for a quick spin round the block and then if you decide to buy it you can sort the tax in your name after the V5 has been signed off online. I've bought / sold SORN cars this way, so have others i know without issue, and unless the seller is in an area swamped with TrafPol / ANPR monitoring it's highly unlikely to be seen on a quick test run around the block.
Bear in mind that with your current plan you described above, at the least you're going to lose the cost of the month (May) that you've just taxed the car in whether you buy the car or not. Assuming you did buy the car, and sign the V5 off online before you leave the seller, then the tax you've just paid for earlier (before the test drive) is getting cancelled in the eyes of the DVLA and you're then going to end up having to re-organise tax / SORN as the new registered owner. And that's before all the faff of asking the seller to pinky promise you to refund the road tax that you just bought in their name if / when that cheque turns up in the post from the DVLA x amount of weeks later.
The other issue you'll likely run into is that if you decide not to buy the car then the seller is going to have to redeclare their car SORN to cancel the tax that you've just put on the vehicle - as you've only just paid for the tax online it's unlikely they're going to be able to do that for at least a couple of days.
If you really want the car taxed, either ask the seller to do it themselves, and that way any refunds go back to them directly, or if you really are determined to pay for tax on the sellers behalf just for a test drive, then i'd suggest setting it up as a monthly DD rather than a 6 / 12 month one off payment - as that way you can cancel the DD and sacrifice one month of tax and there's no need to be dealing with refunds from the DVLA to the seller, etc.
Edited by AlexRS2782 on Saturday 14th May 18:46
lord trumpton said:
How about something like this OP?
"Hey, I'd really like to buy the car but I need a test drive to confirm all is fine - how about taxing it to facilitate your wish to sell it?"
Yes, you'd think that the seller would have the car taxed and ready to go."Hey, I'd really like to buy the car but I need a test drive to confirm all is fine - how about taxing it to facilitate your wish to sell it?"
Sadly, this guy seems to be a muppet.
It's £25 a month to tax it by dd, so he really should have that in place.
He got shirty with me after I said that I would need to see underneath and do a test drive, so I reckon it's time to declare that ammmmmmmm ooot.
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