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DOC Insurance for Test Driving Uninsured Car
Comments
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Inacative - so what is the law that says this (I am not saying you're wrong, I'd just like to know the legal basis of this)?
It still seems contradictory to me: if the car was already taxed and MOT was fine, and then my own insurance lapsed during the time when the tax and MOT was still valid, I think from what some people have said here someone with DOC could still drive it legally (as long as tax and MOT were still there and as long as their DOC policy allowed it). Therefore, if this it ehc ase, it is not illegal to drive a car which is not otherwise insured.
So why is it illegal to purchase road tax without insuring the car?0 -
I'm sorry to push the point, but what regulations? Can a government agency have "regulations" that are not law? It is either a legal requirement, or the DVLA are overstepping their legal bounds by refusing me the right to tax my vehicle without purchasing a commercial product of which I have no need and which is not legally required? Do you see my point?0
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If you want to keep the car on the road, you need tax and insurance. There is no other purpose to road tax, other than to allow you to be on the road. So by doing this the DVLA reduced the numbers of uninsured cars on the road.I'm sorry to push the point, but what regulations? Can a government agency have "regulations" that are not law? It is either a legal requirement, or the DVLA are overstepping their legal bounds by refusing me the right to tax my vehicle without purchasing a commercial product of which I have no need and which is not legally required? Do you see my point?
To 'use' the tax disc you also need insurance.0 -
But I don't want to "keep" the car on the road. i want to allow someone else to drive it for a short time.
You say "There is no other purpose to road tax, other than to allow you to be on the road" - sure there is: to allow someone to test drive the car to see if they want to buy it. I accept the car needs to be taxed for this, but I don't have to be insured as long as they are. I still don't feel this answers my question!0 -
OK - I have now received a reply from the DVLA. As follows:
"Section 156 of the 1988 Road Traffic Act (RTA) and Regulation 9 of the Motor Vehicle (Third Party Risks) Regulations 1972 require a 'person applying' for a tax disc to produce a certificate of insurance, indicating that the cover will be in force when the tax disc comes into force, and which complies with the requirements of the RTA. The insurance cover must be in relation to the 'use of the vehicle' by the applicant or by other persons on his/her order or with his/her permission."
So this clears up the question: it IS actually a law that you must have purchased insurance to buy road tax.
This still seems like a bad law. I understand that in the vast majority of cases people want to buy tax to drive the vehicle and thus need insurance - but obviously not in my case and others like me who want to sell a car but not drive it or keep it on the road, but at least the situation seems clearer.
This is what I think we've concluded:
Can you drive an uninsured, taxed car with a DOC policy? Yes.
Can you tax a car in order for someone to drive it on a one-off, temporary basis with a DOC policy? No.0 -
Re the taxing of the car, my understanding is, that you cannot get Road Tax without a valid policy for the car covering at the very least the day you are buying the tax (and i've heard of some post offices etc refusing if you've got less than a week of cover/short term note).
Not quite. the insurance and MOT (where necessary) must be valid on the day that the new tax disk becomes due.What goes around - comes around0 -
This is what I think we've concluded:
Can you drive an uninsured, taxed car with a DOC policy? [strike]Yes.[/strike] NOT ALWAYS
Can you tax a car in order for someone to drive it on a one-off, temporary basis with a DOC policy? No.
You can get motor insurance online with any one of a number of insurers who have no admin fee and a full refund, if you cancel within 14days.
You will recieve your certificate after about 1 week which gives you 1 week to tax it and phone them up to cancel your policy. Check the policy details because some of them charge a hefty admin fee for cancellations within 14 days. Hint,... look at the supermarkets and banking institution policies to find the fee free ones
Don't let anyone drive your car until you see their policy document and their certificate of motor insurance, and you have phoned up their insurer to check the policy is still valid (or at least done a check on askmid). Why? Because you are liable under law for allowing someone to drive your vehicle - they MUST be insured.
Read the policy section "liabilities to third parties" Where you will find the restrictions imposed by that insurer for driving other cars. One common one is that their own car must not be in a "write off" condition so it would be best if they arrived in their insured car.
VERY FEW policies require your car to be insured for them to drive it on their DOC cover, but it does happen.0 -
So this clears up the question: it IS actually a law that you must have purchased insurance to buy road tax.
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I don't think anyone ever said that it wasn't, you asked if it was illegal to purchase road tax without insurance etc.
It isn't illegal, it just simply isn't possible under present regulations.0 -
Inactive - well, what I meant is that it's more than 'regulations'. It's law. I guess I should have said not that it is "illegal" to buy road tax without insurance, but rather "the law prohibits you buying road tax without insurance." I guess it can't be illegal as you can't actually do it. But in any case it's more than a 'regulation', it's on the statute book as a legal prohibition. Maybe I'm just being picky about terms...
Wig - yes you're right to correct my statement. As we came to earlier in the thread, you can drive on an uninsured car with a DOC policy only if your DOC policy allows you to do so.
But in terms of the owner of the car, your insurance cover for the car doesn't make any difference in regards to letting someone else drive it, unless their DOC policy required it. Is that correct?
More generally, I'm still a bit perplexed about the law. I obviously understand that most people who want to tax a car do so to drive it, and because you need third party insurance to be on the road, making sure you have this cover when you buy the tax is a way of enforcing the law. But there are clearly cases - like mine - where this doesn't apply. Or think about an old person who taxed their car just in case their neighbour needed to drive them to the hospital in an emergency. Again, not likely but not impossible.
And obviously the law seems to be ineffective precisely because of the way that people here have suggested you can get around it - as long as you have insurance for the one day you renew your (at least six month) road tax, it's all fine. So it doesn't do anything to stop people driving without insurance if that's what they wanted, all they need is one day of insurance and then they'd have another 364 days without it (not recommended to do, of course!)
I'm just puzzled as to the inconsitency on this point. I guess it's just one of those odd laws that isn't quite as good as it could be....0
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