government to force you to insure your vehicle even if it is not on the road

pianeet

i see the government are drawing up plans where you have to have your vehicle insured even if you are not using it on the road http://www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/open/motor/letter

just another excuse to extort more money from us they reckon that if you own a vehicle and it is not on the insurance database you might drive it illegally

Throbbe

Or, you can SORN it, and then you are exempted. From the link you provided (and a minutes digging) ...

Exceptions for vehicles not used on a road or other public place
18. Section 144B(7)(a) of the Act authorises regulations for the purposes of prescribing documents to be furnished, or declarations to be made, by a keeper who is keeping the vehicle off road if s/he is to be excepted under Section 144B(5) from the Section 144A offence. Effectively, this Section deals with anyone claiming that s/he was not committing an offence because the vehicle was not being used or kept on a road or other public place at the relevant time.
The Department intends to make Regulations requiring anyone claiming this exception to have complied with the existing requirements for statutory off road notification (SORN) as specified in the Registration and Licensing Regulations.
The Department recognises that there are vehicles which do not currently fall within the requirements for SORN because they have not been used on the road and were last taxed before 31 January 1998, for example historic vehicles. We intend making provision for such vehicles to be excepted. They are not of course exempt from Section 143 of the Act which requires valid insurance to be in force if the vehicle is used on the road or other public place.

angel00079

Throbbe wrote: »

Or, you can SORN it, and then you are exempted. From the link you provided (and a minutes digging) ...

Thanks for that, I was wondering if they would implement a MOT SORN style policy when I heard the news on the radio that the government was propposing this scheme, but hadn't had chance to check.

Assuming that it is run in a similar vain (sp) where owners can declare their car as SORN then I think it is a good idea!

Lemonade_Pockets

I'm undecided, could turn out to be a ball ache for those with summer toys.

Massive discussion about all the pro's cons etc here if your interested.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&t=636793&hw=sorn&nmt=RE:%20Time%20Up%20for%20Uninsured%20Drivers

housesitter

Norway has a fantastic system where by you trot off to the local police station and you can purchase a stick on number plate which gives you tax and insurance for about 3 days. You can do this 3-4 times a year. Many people use this for summer toys.

Our current system excludes those people who have summer toys. The minimum realistic period is a month (based on the car tax, you can get day insurance here).

The UK govt isn't interested in helping people enjoy motoring.

POSSETTE

so you have a car on drive with no tax,and it is SORNed..with no insurance on it....who is going to whinge the most if it got nicked?? You are:o ...just because a car is off road does not mean its knackered, we had a relatives on ours for a while, whilst they were away for winter months,they got the tax back for 4 months and SORNed it. A BMW on drive that worked well, could be a temptation to nick.

housesitter

You can get lay up insurance. Specifically designed for cars which are not being driven.

TBH if I was parking a car of significant value on my driveway and not in my garage, the very least I'd do is remove the battery. If only so it doesn't discharge over time.
Also drain the fuel, as the octane rating will lower over time as it degrades.

ooo000ooo

housesitter wrote: »

Norway has a fantastic system where by you trot off to the local police station and you can purchase a stick on number plate which gives you tax and insurance for about 3 days. You can do this 3-4 times a year. Many people use this for summer toys.

Our current system excludes those people who have summer toys. The minimum realistic period is a month (based on the car tax, you can get day insurance here).

The UK govt isn't interested in helping people enjoy motoring.

IF you haven't got tax insurance etc. they also remove your number plate so you can't drive it about illegally.

housesitter

Yes. Many of the countries in Europe associate tax with the plate and you have historically had to put stickers on them or obtain the plate from a govt run outlet.

Norway does the same so they do take the plate away.


Our solution to that issue is ANPR. Apparently a better idea than plate based taxation....


They also insure the car, not the driver. So less likely to have people who are un-insured driving about.

Some states in the USA and in NZ too give the option of not having to have insurance. This tends to make it more competative on price.

Bob63

This will affect a lot of fair weather bikers who don't keep year-round insurance on their bikes and instead make use of monthly polices from the likes of eBikeInsurance. I have one bike I use all year round and then another which this year is off road and SORN through the winter - although it is insured as I have a multi-bike policy.

pogofish

I've had lay-up insurance in the past when I had more than one bike. I rode one machine all year & kept the precious/fragile one for the summer & simply reawakened the road insurance with a phone call.

It cost about a third of TPFT cover for the same machine.