Tax disc question...
Discussion
The DVLA website (www.dvla.gov.uk) states the following...
Fair enough - but what happens if I buy a car from a used car dealer on a Saturday afternoon, or on a sunday? The Post Office is closed, so you can't get a tax disc...
Thoughts?
7. Driving or keeping a vehicle on a road without a vehicle licence
All vehicles driven, parked or even left unused on a public road must be licensed. If it is not you may be fined as well as having to pay an additional penalty. Vehicles that are unlicensed and parked on the public road can be wheelclamped.
There are two separate offences: not displaying a current licence and using or keeping a vehicle on a public road without a current vehicle licence.
There is one exception, an unlicensed vehicle, provided it is insured, may be driven to and from a testing station for a pre-booked compulsory MOT test.
In law there is no 14 day period of grace. If a vehicle is used or kept on a public road it MUST be properly licensed.
Fair enough - but what happens if I buy a car from a used car dealer on a Saturday afternoon, or on a sunday? The Post Office is closed, so you can't get a tax disc...
Thoughts?
Sorry if I got that wrong chaps, I have search for the thread in the speeding section and could not find it, any chance you could point me in the right direction?
I'm not sure a dealer would let you take the documents away before you have actually paid and taken delivery of the car?
Nik
I'm not sure a dealer would let you take the documents away before you have actually paid and taken delivery of the car?
Nik
kevinday said: How often do you buy a car from a dealer and drive it away the same day?
Almost never. This means you use the time between contracting to buy the car and collection to arrange tax (and insurance).
Happened to a mate of mine... and I've NEARLY done it.. but granted - not an everyday thing!
tonybav said: Nikb you are wrong. Podie do a search on the Speeding and Plod link there is a long tread on this, including the only way to get round it. The only circumstances you can drive on the road with out a valid tax disk is driving to and from an MOT.
Or for SVA or if it is being taken for repairs for which an appointment has been made or if it is being taken for a DVLA inspection and no doubt there are other exceptions.
>> Edited by gnomesmith on Wednesday 19th February 15:21
You ask how often you buy a car and drive it away the same day and respond rarely. However there is a big 2nd hand dealership called Carland that allow you to do just this. They have depots at Thurrock, Staines, Manchester and a few others.
I bought a car there last Sunday and go to pick it up next weekend, and have been thinking about the tax situation. The car is in my fiancees name, and she is insuring it etc. We won't get the insurance documentation until tomorrow (after work as postie comes so late), so that doesn't really allow time to post it onto the dealer.
Therefore I'd be interested in the answer. I assume we'll pick up the car before the PO shuts so shouldn't be an acute problem.
Chris
I bought a car there last Sunday and go to pick it up next weekend, and have been thinking about the tax situation. The car is in my fiancees name, and she is insuring it etc. We won't get the insurance documentation until tomorrow (after work as postie comes so late), so that doesn't really allow time to post it onto the dealer.
Therefore I'd be interested in the answer. I assume we'll pick up the car before the PO shuts so shouldn't be an acute problem.
Chris
NikB said: I think this is OK because you should have proof that you could not get tax as the receipt from the dealer should state when you bought the car.
Most of the time you will have to back date the tax to the start of the month anyway.
doesnt the dealer have a "Duty of Care" to ensure the vehicle purchased is road legal before it leaves theyr premises?
They should insist on taxing the vehicle before you collect ( unless you stipulate you will collect with a transporter) and the car does not touch the black stuff
tonybav said: Nikb you are wrong. Podie do a search on the Speeding and Plod link there is a long tread on this, including the only way to get round it. The only circumstances you can drive on the road with out a valid tax disk is driving to and from an MOT.
The list of exemptions to having excise displayed is as follows.
1) vehicles used for Police, Fire and Ambulance purposes
2) Mines rescue and lifeboat haulage
3) Certain vehicles used for the carriage of disabled people
4) Electrically assisited pedal cycles
5) vehicles neither made or adapted to carry the driver or passengers
6) Some agricultural or forestry vehicles
7) Certain vehicles when being tested
8) Vehicles temporarily in the country or to be exported
Vehicles more than 25 years old may qualify as exempt provided they were constructed before 1st January 1973.
There is also a limited defence for the occasion where someone removes the licence at a post office to take away the old one and replace it with a new one (It would make sense to buy the new one first before removing the old one from the windscreen)
OK, so it sounds like you do need a tax disc, but how you get it I don't know!!?!?
I am not surprised that the dealer I bought from did this even if they are not supposed to - they were pants.
Madcop, if you got stopped on a Sunday after having just bought a car, without tax, would you get in trouble? Maybe you would get a producer?
Nik
I am not surprised that the dealer I bought from did this even if they are not supposed to - they were pants.
Madcop, if you got stopped on a Sunday after having just bought a car, without tax, would you get in trouble? Maybe you would get a producer?
Nik
madcop said:Vehicles more than 25 years old may qualify as exempt provided they were constructed before 1st January 1973.
IIRC they still have to apply for and display a valid tax disc at a charge of £0.00, so this is still no defence!
{edited to add:} I guess this is to enable better enforcement of the MOT...
>> Edited by pdv6 on Wednesday 19th February 16:54
NikB said: OK, so it sounds like you do need a tax disc, but how you get it I don't know!!?!?
This gets worse, as the rules have now changed. You have to have the V5 in order to apply for a tax disc without the reminder form that the DVLA sends you, so I guess the only thing you can do is either buy the car on a weekday, get a lift to the PO to collect the disc or buy the car at a weekend, leave it at the dealer and come back to collect on Monday, after purchasing the disc!
I would suggest (Madcop would you agree?) that most Policemen would allow you the leeway to be taking the vehicle straight home after purchasing it.
I would get the dealer to put a time on the receipt as well as a date (there was a thread about someone who's being done for no insurance as the time on his "producer" is before his insurance came into force BUT he is convinced it is also timed before he actually collected the car). This would give you the benefit of the doubt over having the chance to tax it. I would also go straight home and put the car off the road until you can tax it on the Monday. If you did get stopped you would normally be given a producer and when you get to the police station later in the week you would have a valid tax disk that covers you for the whole month it was purhased in (even if the issue date is after the ticket date).
Worst case would be that you pickup the car on a Saturday and Monday is the following month. This means that if you get a producer you won't be able to provide a valid tax disk for when you were stopped. Whether the CPS would prosecute is also another matter.
At the end of the day it is at your own risk. If you get a copper on a bad day you may just get stuffed.
I would get the dealer to put a time on the receipt as well as a date (there was a thread about someone who's being done for no insurance as the time on his "producer" is before his insurance came into force BUT he is convinced it is also timed before he actually collected the car). This would give you the benefit of the doubt over having the chance to tax it. I would also go straight home and put the car off the road until you can tax it on the Monday. If you did get stopped you would normally be given a producer and when you get to the police station later in the week you would have a valid tax disk that covers you for the whole month it was purhased in (even if the issue date is after the ticket date).
Worst case would be that you pickup the car on a Saturday and Monday is the following month. This means that if you get a producer you won't be able to provide a valid tax disk for when you were stopped. Whether the CPS would prosecute is also another matter.
At the end of the day it is at your own risk. If you get a copper on a bad day you may just get stuffed.
but what happens if I buy a car from a used car dealer on a Saturday afternoon, or on a sunday? The Post Office is closed, so you can't get a tax disc...
Thoughts?
i bought my car on a saturday afternoon privately, by the time i had got it home no post offices were open, and the tax was 2 years out of date!!!
so i had to drive it until monday with no tax, then went to tax it monday having been told it'll cost me £80 for 6 months to find i am £8 short... so off i have to drive into bedford to get another tenner...
by the time i get back the fooking post office is shut for lunch!!! so i wait around for an hour, then finally tax my car...
all this effort and i end up loosing 2 or 3 weeks from the month anyway!!! grrr.
kevinday said: How often do you buy a car from a dealer and drive it away the same day?
Almost never. This means you use the time between contracting to buy the car and collection to arrange tax (and insurance).
Are we talking small car dealer or big garage??, every car I have bought from a small dealer I have taken the cash with me and taken it away same day!!!!. As for the Sunday thing I would not be too concerned about it as long as you have the recipt saying you have just bought it, I have been stopped twice before like this and both times they have had no problem with it and have said that the DVLA would check the details when it was bought and as long as it was Taxed ASAP and from the start of that month there would be no problem!!
madcop said: The list of exemptions to having excise displayed is as follows.
1) vehicles used for Police, Fire and Ambulance purposes
2) Mines rescue and lifeboat haulage
3) Certain vehicles used for the carriage of disabled people
4) Electrically assisited pedal cycles
5) vehicles neither made or adapted to carry the driver or passengers
6) Some agricultural or forestry vehicles
7) Certain vehicles when being tested
8) Vehicles temporarily in the country or to be exported
I used to work for an agency of the Inland Revenue. Our pool car had a crown exemption disc where the tax disc usually was.
On one highly amusing day the pool car was stopped by the Police, who were very puzzled by the Crown exemption tax disc, especially as they stopped the car for a defective rear light. Weren't sure if they could do the driver for no tax, and a defective light, a defective light only, or neither due to crown exemption. To make it even better the driver was carrying someone who had been sent by the DETR to spend the day with us, to see what the Agency did. He was looking forward to reporting back that we spent ages talking to the police.
The other amusing occasion was when someone had to visit a rather dodgy industrial estate. They parked the car and went to the unit they had come to visit. They then saw someone wander over to the car look at the tax disc. This person went back to his unit, and suddenly loads of people came out the unit and leapt in their cars and vans and drove off. Wonder why!
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