I want to renew my tax but my Insurance certificate has not arrived yet.

poodledoodledoo

Hi guys. My car has just had a SORN and now it is ready to go on the road again. I need it for Sunday but I cannot tax it at the post office as my insurance cetificate is not with me yet. If I use the online service to get my tax can I still drive the car whislt waiting for the disc to arrive?

catflea

Technically NO. You can be done for not displaying a valid disk. However you would be very unlucky for it to happen. I would, and have, taken the risk on that one (but equally, my car is only ever on private land when not in use)

Why not ask the insurance company to fax a cover note to you? (post offices can't actually accept faxes, but if you cut the fax header off the top you should be OK - I've used that trick before)

catflea

Arrested for what?

catflea

Producing a copy is a Criminal Offence? :eek:

catflea

Not going to look that up now, but that would be forgery, correct?

catflea

No, its a cover note!

Surely the whole point of a cover note is to demonstrate that there is insurance cover on the car - which it does! Does the fact that the insurance company have faxed it remove that it indicates you are insured?

Fax/photocopy I can't see why it should make any difference as long as its not tampered with (which, I expect is where the problem lies)

catflea

Point being, you take a photocopy of a document or recieve a fax, does it say anything different?

Technically they aren't allowed to accept documents you've printed yourself either and a number of ins companies issue docs by email now.....

titanflux

The online tax disc service checks your insurance against a database which is constantly updated by insurers - you can check if your car is on the insurance database at: http://www.askmid.com/ownvehicle/

The Post Office or your local DVLA office need an 'original' cover note or insurance certificate. In this day and age they are laser printed and won;t be any different ot a perfect copy. I believe the Post Office now check against the above database as a result of this. Get the insurance company to email you the cover note or certificate and print it out on a laser printer.

If iyour car is on the databse above, then just get your disc online - usually comes within 2 days. Because your car isn't already taxed and it's therefore not a renewal you wouldn't qualify for the 5 days' grace allowed on internet renewals as far as I am aware.

The police these days check car MOTs, insurance etc. using the Police National Computer system, so that's less of a risk. However there is a still a possible £200 fine for not displaying a current tax disc. If the police ask for your actual insurance documents you have 7 days to produce at a Police station of your choice anyway.

A bigger risk might be a fine or report from a parking warden - it;s a condition of most parking places/car parks that a valid tax disc is displayed.

titanflux

Officer_Dibble wrote: »

£60 ticket.

The legislation states £200 fine by DVLA, but I guess that if it's dealt with as a fixed penalty by a bobby rather than prosecution it's less.

andy2004

catflea wrote: »

Point being, you take a photocopy of a document or recieve a fax, does it say anything different?

Technically they aren't allowed to accept documents you've printed yourself either and a number of ins companies issue docs by email now.....

well if your not allowed to take a printed copy as your insurer doesn't send you a proper document then how in hell are you suppose to get your tax disc.
I recently changed my insurance supplier from CIS to that one on tv with izzy, the one with got it in 60secs, due to changing my car and they wanted double just because it was .2 litre bigger engine, aka i went from a 1.6 to a 1.8 and has GTI on it. And they dont supply a document they email you with one, I ordered my tax disc online the first time due to fact you cant use credit cards in the post office, but you could online.
As more and more insurers are doing this to save money and as DVLA except it as they can check online, why arent the post office doing the same thing. This is britain going bellyup. i can see people taking their print outs to the post office 2 days before the expire date of their current tax disc, and then being told sorry not acceptable you have to do it online and then not being able to get to work because they cant drive their car as their waiting for the disc.
SO question whos at fault. Postoffic, or insurers

Someone mentioned laser printer. I only have a INK-JET and not going out to buy a laser printer just to print that out on it. and before anyone says it, NO I DONT KNOW ANYONE WITH A LASER PRINTER

catflea

andy2004 wrote: »

well if your not allowed to take a printed copy as your insurer doesn't send you a proper document then how in hell are you suppose to get your tax disc.

My Point entirely.

Its all a little bit silly IMHO