Driving a hire car with out of date tax ..

tanith

This week my OH had an accident and the car was towed... now he eventually managed to get a courtesy car on Friday PM.. he drove it yesterday and then this morning when I went to get in I noticed the tax ran out on March 31st. OH rang the hire car firm and the woman said oh its not a problem , Head office will have the disc its fine for you to drive it.. Well OH decided that it certainly was not fine and if caught he would be the one to blame . They can't get the disc to us until at least Tuesday.. crazy people..
So can anyone confirm that is the case for us, as he is going to be without a usable car now till at least Tuesday. (will prob pinch mine)

Thanks

molerat

There shouldn't be a problem as all tickets will go to the registered keeper. The only problem would be if he is pulled for some other offence then he may get some grief but if the car has been taxed the police should be able to check.

tanith

I thought it was an offence to drive without displaying an in date tax disc and it was the drivers responsibility to check that the disc was in date?

loofer

You can apply for Road Tax online and as long as you buy before expiry, you can still use the vehicle on public roads for upto a maximum 5 working days.

Obviously you should be a little cautious about believing the hire company as to weather they applied for it online before expiry.

CHR15

I had a call from AVIS that my hire car tax disc had expired (I had no idea and I was driving!!).

They told me not to drive it again until they delivered the new Tax Disc to me. It was no good as I was over 500 miles away from where I had the car delivered.

They got the local AVIS office to deliver me a new car (and an upgraded one).

Even the AVIS guy didn't drive off in the untaxed one, they left it in the private car park we met in until they had the new disc sent up.

vikingaero

Even though the vehicle may be taxed, the user of the vehicle can be ticketed for failing to display a valid tax disc.

Treadway1

It is the drivers responsibility to ensure that the car is roadworthy and that all paperwork allowing him/her to drive it is in order. Also, there are two seperate offences with regards this, the first is not applying for a tax disc withi the prescribed time, and the other is not displaying one, regardless of whether the duty has been paid and you just havent put it in yet.

If you were to get a ticket left on YOUR car for the latter offence (Like I did by some poxy pcso a while ago) then you can generally write and tell them you had bought the tax, but had innocently forgotten to put it in, or it hadnt arrived yet, you would probably get away with it. However, in this case, i would be very dubious of moving it anywhere without written confirmation (At least) from the hire company that tax had been bought.

Also, and finally, Im pretty sure that they arent allowed to hire you a car that doesnt have all the paperwork in order, so Id stick a rocket up their jacksy and who knows, you might get a free upgrade.

Best of luck though.

flutterbyuk25

The law changed last year.

If the tax disc was purchased in advance of the expiry either online/by phone or by registered mail application then you can drive the vehicle for up to 5 working days after the expiry.

However, as it is over the 5 working days now, the vehicle should be kept off the public road until the valid tax disc is displayed.

It is the driver's responsibility to ensure that there is a valid tax disc displayed. The driver can be fined, along with the registered keeper.

x

tanith

Thanks all for your replies and it is as we thought.. OH will be putting a rocket up them but not till they reopen on Tuesday unfortunately... what a pain.. we even phoned the insurerers who will be claiming for the cost of the hire car from the driver who originally damaged our car and they weren't interested..
Thanks everyone

Chippy_Minton_2

molerat wrote: »

There shouldn't be a problem as all tickets will go to the registered keeper. The only problem would be if he is pulled for some other offence then he may get some grief but if the car has been taxed the police should be able to check.

How wrong you are. If the OPs OH is stopped he could be given a £30 ticket for failing to display the VEL.