How long before I get a fine?

[spaceship]

My 'new' car is currently off the road, uninsured and its road tax expires at the end of the month.

It has a valid MOT but i'm not wanting to swap over the insurance until my current car is gone, which will be at the beginning of next month. Therefore I can't apply for tax on it.

So, how much 'grace' time you get with the DVLA, if any, before they realise it's not been re-taxed or declared SORN and issue a penalty notice or whatever it is they do?

Cheers

[TheEnd]

You can just say it's SORN on the dvla website, it doesn't need any MOT or insurance for that, and all done in a second.

[motorizer]

Not very long at all since they went computerised..but when I forgot to tax mine they sent a warning through the post saying 'tax it or we'll fine you'

[ambuletz]

I've had mine parked on private land for a good 4 months befeore declaring it sorn. what they do is then charge you the equivalent monthly tax,for each month u didnt declare. but in reality, they never charged me. As long as you declare SORN within 1 month of the tax expiring, you should be fine.


but IMO, if i was you, if you can declare that now, in advance,then do so. making sure its off the road is the biggest concern

[ymwoods]

They ussually wait until midway through the month to start sending out the letters. They say its "grace" period but really I suspect it is to let their database catch up so they don't send millions to cars that have just been taxed.

However, don't risk it, just declare it SORN.

[anonymous-user]

IIRC you have 14 days to declare it SORN or tax it but you can't drive it in that time (obviously you won't be in this case).

ETA: Although not relevant in this case but might help someone, you can drive a car for up to 5 days after the previous tax disc has expired if you bought the new one online before the old one expired and you are waiting for it to come in the post.

Edited by MSTRBKR on Wednesday 8th September 00:47

[thinfourth2]

Just declare it sorn costs you nothing and takes not very long

I have sorned one of my cars for a week before

[entwisi]

Only issue with declaring SORN online is that you then can't tax it online/phone for a period whilst their database etc catches up, IIRC it was 14 days.

I fell foul of this and ended up having a 40 mile round trip and 2 hours sat in local DVLA office to get the thing taxed. ( also compounded due to idiot dealer using green slip to tax it but then not following up paperwork and DVLA's reluctance to accept a home printed Swift cover insurance doc but hey )

[wolf1]

entwisi said:

Only issue with declaring SORN online is that you then can't tax it online/phone for a period whilst their database etc catches up, IIRC it was 14 days.

I fell foul of this and ended up having a 40 mile round trip and 2 hours sat in local DVLA office to get the thing taxed. ( also compounded due to idiot dealer using green slip to tax it but then not following up paperwork and DVLA's reluctance to accept a home printed Swift cover insurance doc but hey )

Mine was sorn'd and all I did was walk to the local post office with the relevant paperwork and taxed it there and then. No need to go to DVLA offices etc.

[spaceship]

Thanks for the replies.

I will be taxing it as soon as I can, it just might be a few days after the existing tax runs out. It'll still be off the road until it gets taxed. I had considered SORN'ing it for a few days but had heard about it causing a delay when you do want to tax it, as others have said.