Motoring conviction only a few days after car insurance renewal

Smegreg · 21 January 2018 at 4:52PM

Hi all,

I'm after advice.

I stupidly got myself a TS10 (traffic light offence) on my licence last year.

My insurance is due for renewal on the 18th Feb
The TS10 was issued on the 26th Feb

So if I renew my insurance on the 18th, the cost is, for arguments sake £500
If I were to take out my insurance on the 27th, the cost goes down to £400

Presumably because the anniversary of the offence has passed so it falls into a new risk bracket.

How should I proceed?

Should I take out insurance on the renewal date, then cancel it a week later and set up again?
(Is there a cancellation period standard on insurance policies where I wouldn't get penalised for doing this?)

Can I just leave my car on the drive uninsured for that period (still got tax obviously) and take it out for the 27th?

I'd be grateful for any ideas.

System · 21 January 2018 at 5:09PM

I could be wrong but i thought insurance companies ask if theres been a conviction in the past 5 yrs .If thats the case you will have to declare it.

glider3560 · 21 January 2018 at 5:14PM

You could take out a short term policy for the 18th to 27th, then buy the full policy to start from 27th.

CHRISSYG wrote: »

I could be wrong but i thought insurance companies ask if theres been a conviction in the past 5 yrs .If thats the case you will have to declare it.

The OP will still declare it, just the price changes as the offence was over a year ago.

Quentin · 21 January 2018 at 5:15PM

Smegreg wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm after advice.

I stupidly got myself a TS10 (traffic light offence) on my licence last year.

My insurance is due for renewal on the 18th Feb
The TS10 was issued on the 26th Feb

So if I renew my insurance on the 18th, the cost is, for arguments sake £500
If I were to take out my insurance on the 27th, the cost goes down to £400

Presumably because the anniversary of the offence has passed so it falls into a new risk bracket.

How should I proceed?

Should I take out insurance on the renewal date, then cancel it a week later and set up again?
(Is there a cancellation period standard on insurance policies where I wouldn't get penalised for doing this?)

Can I just leave my car on the drive uninsured for that period (still got tax obviously) and take it out for the 27th?

I'd be grateful for any ideas.

Assuming you are disclosing the conviction in both applications, then going uninsured for 9 days off the road shouldn't be an issue

Under the continuous insurance procedure you first get a letter advising you to insure, and only if you ignore that letter do you get a fixed penalty

Aretnap · 21 January 2018 at 5:17PM

You can leave it on your drive for a week uninsured if you like. Under the continuous insurance regulations you should really SORN it while it is uninsured, but if you don't it is unlikely that you will get into trouble over a few days - the first step in the enforcement process is a letter that says "insure it pronto or else" and only if it remains uninsured would further action be taken. Obviously no insurance means no cover for fire theft or vandalism do that's something you would need to be comfortable with.

Or you could cancel and ensure - but the large majority of policies will come with a cancellation fee of £50 or more so check the terms carefully. There are some misconceptions about a 14 day cooling off period but this does not give you a right to cancel for free - the insurer is still entitled to charge a fee to reflect the costs of seeing up and shutting down the policy.

Smegreg · 21 January 2018 at 5:26PM

Aretnap wrote: »

You can leave it on your drive for a week uninsured if you like. Under the continuous insurance regulations you should really SORN it while it is uninsured, but if you don't it is unlikely that you will get into trouble over a few days - the first step in the enforcement process is a letter that says "insure it pronto or else" and only if it remains uninsured would further action be taken. Obviously no insurance means no cover for fire theft or vandalism do that's something you would need to be comfortable with.

I didn't know anything about 'continuous insurance regulations' before. I assume SORN costs money also?

Aretnap wrote: »

Or you could cancel and ensure - but the large majority of policies will come with a cancellation fee of £50 or more so check the terms carefully. There are some misconceptions about a 14 day cooling off period but this does not give you a right to cancel for free - the insurer is still entitled to charge a fee to reflect the costs of seeing up and shutting down the policy.

It was this 14 day cooling off period that I was thinking about. I was probably guilty of the misconceptions!

Thanks for the advice. Looks like I should research the actual cost of both options.

Quentin · 21 January 2018 at 5:30PM

SORN costs you only in terms of road tax.

If you sorned your car on Feb 18 and then unsorned it on say Feb 27th you'd have to pay tax twice for the month of February

But really not necessary to SORN for such a short period uninsured (though going uninsured does have its risks - any loss incurred eg fire/theft/unidentified third party damage is at your risk)

Motoring conviction only a few days after car insurance renewal

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