ANOTHER stealth tax on the way !

dzug1

moonrakerz wrote: »

Since when have you had to insure a vehicle which you keep on your own property and do not take onto the public highway ? This is now a tax on owning a vehicle.

Tax it certainly is - Insurance Premium Tax. Plus the fine of course for not complying.

Simple - another stealth tax.

Come on folks - wake up !

I'd forgotten the IPT...

but I still don't see the stealth part

And SORN - the answer - is still free.

TonyMMM

Comstock wrote: »

A friend of mine currently can't afford to insure his car. He wouldn't dream of driving it at the moment, but under these laws he wouldn't even be able to keep it on the street (he has no garage).

Your friend is already committing a "No Insurance" offence if the vehicle is parked on the road ....there is nothing new in these rules that would change that.

Chippy_Minton_2

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers! wrote: »

...and if you don't have anywhere 'off the road' to store it, you'll either have to buy insurance, or be fined.

and if you have no where to store it off road, you will have tax and you need insurance to get that. So what's new?

Chippy_Minton_2

moonrakerz wrote: »

Since when have you had to insure a vehicle which you keep on your own property and do not take onto the public highway ? This is now a tax on owning a vehicle.

Tax it certainly is - Insurance Premium Tax. Plus the fine of course for not complying.

Simple - another stealth tax.

Come on folks - wake up !

Just fill in the SORN, you'd have to do that for the VEL anyway.

Nilrem

Comstock wrote: »

If you can't afford to renew for a short time and don't have off street parking.

You would be committing an offence under current regulations as I understand it - a vehicle on the road needs tax and some form of insurance at all times (I beleive even skips sat on the road require basic insurance).

The insurance may not even have to cover damage to the vehicle itself, but just cover damage it may cause (if say the hand brake fails, develops a wiring problem etc).

As I understand the new proposal it's basically bringing insurance under the same sort of system as Tax in terms of it being dealt with - you get a short period of grace (I beleive the article mentioned 21 days to get it sorted) before they take action.

Gordon861

Personally I see no problem with this plan, esp as they will send you a notice and give you a month before actually fining you.

I expect part of the reasoning behind this is to allow them to hit uninsured people that still use their cars. This is much easier than having to stake out the car and actually catch them driving it, just hit them with this fine and then eventually impound the vehicle.

More uninsured people and vehicles off the road is a good thing.

Lemonade_Pockets

Must be a slow newsday at the telegraph this was first brought up months ago.

Caused a mini disturbance on PH amongst a lot of bike/weekend car owners who couldn't be bothered constantly sorning/retaxing vehicles constantly. I.e they had something which was kept locked away 95% of time off the road and they arranged temporary cover as and when they had a track day or similar to go to, or when it needed taxing.

For the vast majority of users its simple: If you own a car and its on the road moving or stationary it needs to be taxed insured and if appropiate MOT'd. Simples.
If this new measure helps the police clamp down on uninsured drivers then i'm all for it.....i might be getting giddy but it may even help reduce insurance premiums.

(I appreciate there will be a rare exception to this) But those that can't afford insurance, hard lines i'm afraid....it maybe a generalisation but these are generally the same people that can't afford to replace deffective tyres etc etc. I.e if you can't afford it sell the dam thing and get a bus or something you can afford.

FuzzyMoose

Nilrem wrote: »

I suspect if this does go through you may see some sort of "third party" insurance where there is no driver, but it's covered just for being parked on the road whilst taxed (in which case the rate will most likely be very small).

I agree, I would be very surprised if some enterprising insurance company did not come up with a product like this.

£50 / year - minimal risk for the insurer - job done

rev_henry

FuzzyMoose wrote: »

I agree, I would be very surprised if some enterprising insurance company did not come up with a product like this.

£50 / year - minimal risk for the insurer - job done

I also thought the same as I read the actual paper article earlier. I suppose to people who only use their cars occasionally over the summer/track days etc as someone said, the only extra they have to deal with is the extra SORN and unSORN paperwork every so often. I did think you'd loose out on your tax but you can get a refund on this as well can't you?

I don't quite see how this hits uninsured drivers anymore than current legislation. If an ANPR police car goes past an uninsured car they stop it, seize it and give the driver 6 points and a fine. What else is this legislation going to do to eradicate the problem of uninsured drivers? The types who don't insure their cars won't respond to DVLA letters anyway, so will eventually the DVLA send the details on to the police so they can seize the car? Taking the cars off the road is the only way of dealing with this. Uninsured drivers won't care how many points they get on their licences (if they have a licence at all) and won't pay fines because they can't/won't afford them.
And this doesn't even touch on the problem of runabouts used by drug dealers and the like with 'no registered owner/keeper', or is just driving a car without a registered owner an offence now as well?

Gordon861

rev_henry wrote: »

I don't quite see how this hits uninsured drivers anymore than current legislation. If an ANPR police car goes past an uninsured car they stop it, seize it and give the driver 6 points and a fine. What else is this legislation going to do to eradicate the problem of uninsured drivers?

Part of this new law does include the ability to clamp and remove the uninsured vehicle on or off the road.

Currently they need to actually see the car on the road.