Buying a car without tax
Discussion
On Saturday I am potentially buying a used car privately, however the vehicle is SORN'd and the reg is not on the motor insurance database so the current owner is unable to tax it. What's the best way around this? I was thinking of doing a HPI check + 7 days driveaway insurance (from http://www.hpicheck.com) and then using the cover note + new keeper supplement to tax the vehicle, would this be possible?
Edited by Janesy B on Thursday 24th March 10:31
p4cks said:
You need the original Certificate of Insurance to show the Post Office. They will not accept a photocopy, cover note or even a letter from your Mam saying that she will let you play out.
They should now accept faxed, emailed/printed or other similar cover notes. The DVLA offices certainly do. This is a relatively recent change.Does it have an MOT?
I bought my last car without tax. I bought it, insured it, then drove it directly to my drive (less than 5 miles). I then waited a day for the certificate to come in the post (a day) and went in to the post office and bought tax.
It was a bit of a pain, and strictly speaking I was driving without tax, but had insurance and MOT in place limiting the damage if I was caught by a particularly unfunny copper to £40.
I'd say get everything else in place, drive it to an off road parking place, then sort everything out in your own sweet time. As above, post offices won't accept email prints, temporary certificates or anything like that.
Oh, and haggle hard because of the hassle it causes you! I'll never understand people trying to sell untaxed MOT-less cars unless they're total classics or only fit for the scrap yard.
I bought my last car without tax. I bought it, insured it, then drove it directly to my drive (less than 5 miles). I then waited a day for the certificate to come in the post (a day) and went in to the post office and bought tax.
It was a bit of a pain, and strictly speaking I was driving without tax, but had insurance and MOT in place limiting the damage if I was caught by a particularly unfunny copper to £40.
I'd say get everything else in place, drive it to an off road parking place, then sort everything out in your own sweet time. As above, post offices won't accept email prints, temporary certificates or anything like that.
Oh, and haggle hard because of the hassle it causes you! I'll never understand people trying to sell untaxed MOT-less cars unless they're total classics or only fit for the scrap yard.
The car has 9 months MOT remaining, it wasn't taxed and is sitting around due to the owner having a new car. I don't want to risk driving with no tax as the car is right by Heathrow airport and I suspect I would have at least 1000 cameras watching me. Definitely going to beat the owner down on price due to all this hassle.
The other option of course is to leave it on his drive for a couple of days while you get it sorted, although I'd want to be very sure I had all the keys in my possession!
Could you leave it there and immobilise it in some way?
I think I'd take the risk and drive it away, it's £40 at worst if you get caught provided you have all other paperwork in order. Get him to write a reciept with time and date on it to help explain your position.
Could you leave it there and immobilise it in some way?
I think I'd take the risk and drive it away, it's £40 at worst if you get caught provided you have all other paperwork in order. Get him to write a reciept with time and date on it to help explain your position.
Get the car insured, then go online to the DVLA website and tax it there. You won't get ANPR hits for failing to display because the car is taxed and you're waiting for the DVLA to post it. The Police allow up to fourteen days for this. Failing that your only other option is to either transporter or trailer the car with all four wheels off the road.
WeirdNeville said:
The other option of course is to leave it on his drive for a couple of days while you get it sorted, although I'd want to be very sure I had all the keys in my possession!
Could you leave it there and immobilise it in some way?
I think I'd take the risk and drive it away, it's £40 at worst if you get caught provided you have all other paperwork in order. Get him to write a reciept with time and date on it to help explain your position.
That's what I was planning on doing, well more a case of leaving a deposit, sorting the insurance and then coming back to collect it with the full amount and then popping over the road to tax it with the new keeper's supplement and driving home.Could you leave it there and immobilise it in some way?
I think I'd take the risk and drive it away, it's £40 at worst if you get caught provided you have all other paperwork in order. Get him to write a reciept with time and date on it to help explain your position.
Liquid Knight said:
Get the car insured, then go online to the DVLA website and tax it there. You won't get ANPR hits for failing to display because the car is taxed and you're waiting for the DVLA to post it. The Police allow up to fourteen days for this. Failing that your only other option is to either transporter or trailer the car with all four wheels off the road.
How long will it take for the insurance database to update so I can tax online?Edited by Janesy B on Thursday 24th March 09:25
If you tax online when you have just purchased a car the tax disc will be sent to the LAST owner. It will not be sent to you.
Can't your insurance company email or fax a cover note? If they can, get them to do this and just pop to the local post office with the docs as you buy the car.
Can't your insurance company email or fax a cover note? If they can, get them to do this and just pop to the local post office with the docs as you buy the car.
Janesy B said:
It looks like my only option is to view the car, leave a deposit if I want it and sort all the paperwork ready to collect + tax it. A pain in the bum but hopefully a good haggling point. Thanks for all the responses.
don't see how it's a haggling point if it's advertised as not tax???? JKust because it's causing you ballache why is that the sellers fault?????Safest, most legal way would be to trailer it.
Janesy B said:
Well I hope that they'll accept a printout as Adrian Flux are cheapskates and email the PDF of the cert...
Quick word of warning if you've only got a pdf'd copy of the insurance certificate - some Police force's do not class a copy as acceptable if you have to produce. I was stopped in a works car, and given a producer. Company wouldn't let me have the original insurance cert, so I downloaded a copy off the intraweb. Took it to Colchester Police Station, and received a caution (including the whole "you do not have to say anything but anything you say...") for failing to produce an ORIGINAL certificate of insurance. When I laughed and suggested the desk officer was joking, he told me that whilst he sympathised, it was Essex's rules. (I should say that there was no question of me being insured or not, the issue was the fact the certificate was a copy).So Essex Police don't accept copies, but strangely Suffolk do. Just a heads up.
Stuey145 said:
don't see how it's a haggling point if it's advertised as not tax???? JKust because it's causing you ballache why is that the sellers fault?????
Safest, most legal way would be to trailer it.
It wasn't advertised, it was something he mentioned on the phone. It's a haggling point because it makes things awkward - I can't just turn up with temp insurance and drive away. Plus, anything is a haggling point for me Safest, most legal way would be to trailer it.
cuprabob said:
Just ask the previous owner to tax it and add it to the agreed price or negotiate down, job done
It's on his drive on a SORN + no insurance...Opulent said:
Quick word of warning if you've only got a pdf'd copy of the insurance certificate - some Police force's do not class a copy as acceptable if you have to produce. I was stopped in a works car, and given a producer. Company wouldn't let me have the original insurance cert, so I downloaded a copy off the intraweb. Took it to Colchester Police Station, and received a caution (including the whole "you do not have to say anything but anything you say...") for failing to produce an ORIGINAL certificate of insurance. When I laughed and suggested the desk officer was joking, he told me that whilst he sympathised, it was Essex's rules. (I should say that there was no question of me being insured or not, the issue was the fact the certificate was a copy).
So Essex Police don't accept copies, but strangely Suffolk do. Just a heads up.
Thanks for that, I will ask for the PDF so I can tax it + a hard copy if I get a difficult copper.So Essex Police don't accept copies, but strangely Suffolk do. Just a heads up.
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