Continuous Car Insurance - Started

spiro

Just seen this http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13493056

Hintza

Since this is seen as the panacea for dealing with uninsured drivers, we should be expecting a huge cut in our insurance premiums now that claims against uninsured drivers will drop and all the insurance dodgers will all now be insuring their cars increasing the pot size.

or

Will this government backed racket continue to fleece those of us who actually pay their extortionate premiums?

mikey72

I wonder how well thought out it is?

At the momemnt, if the car is taxed, you can't declare sorn.
So you have to send the tax back for a refund.
If you re-tax it within 21 days, you don't get a refund, so that's not going to happen.
So for short, term, such as selling a car, or like mine where the tax mot and insurance are all due close together, maybe you have a period of grace if you leave if a few days.
Directgov does say

"If a vehicle does not have insurance, the registered keeper of it could:

• receive a fixed penalty of £100
• have their vehicle wheel-clamped, impounded, or destroyed
• face a court prosecution, with a possible maximum penalty of £1000

An Insurance Advisory Letter (IAL) will be sent to inform the registered keeper of a vehicle that appears to have no insurance. It advises the keeper what actions to take to avoid receiving a Fixed Penalty Notice."

So the first thing they do is send out a letter, I wonder if it has an option to declare sorn then, or just a "provide details of the insurance at the time, or your fine is in the post"

pendulum

They mislead people by claiming its designed to combat uninsured drivers. Uninsured drivers who don't give a damn about the law will simply declare SORN and carry on driving. It will have no effect at all on them. The only thing it will do is catch innocent motorists out. In a few years time, don't be surprised if they charge you to declare SORN - I feel this is a run up to that.

This is another law that goes against the "innocent until proven guilty" foundation. Instead of having to prove you're driving without insurance, they've chosen the easy option, making it illegal to be innocent.

mikey72

I wouldn't be surprised.
I'm still trying to work out how you sell your car after buying a new one, as the old one should be declared sorn, and can't then be test driven, or driven away until the new owner has bought tax and insurance.
All we cars we have bought I've driven on DOC extension, paid cash, then me or my wife has driven them home there and then.
(Although even that's no longer possible as my cover now excludes my partners cars)

System

When changing your car, the insurance company has always told me that I am covered to drive both the old car that I am trading in and the new car that I have purchased, they give a limited grace period where both cars are covered, I think it is usually +/- a couple of hours around the time you inform the insurance company of the swap.

The problem has always been that insurance companies do not always update the MIB database (MID) in good time so the police could stop you for no insurance. If these new continuous insurance rules mean that the police are not going to stop people for "no insurance", leaving enforcement up to DVLA then it may be an improvement, but I cannot see the police stopping doing these insurance checks.

The DVLA are already poor at doing the tasks they are responsible for (Vehicle Registration, Vehicle Tax, Driver Licensing) so adding this additional responsibility to their workload is a really bad idea (in my opinion)

The insurance industry are not going to reduce premiums on the back of this new legislation, I understand that it is only a very small percentage of the insurance cost that is attributable to uninsured drivers.

mikey72

BAA1 wrote: »

When changing your car, the insurance company has always told me that I am covered to drive both the old car that I am trading in and the new car that I have purchased, they give a limited grace period where both cars are covered, I think it is usually +/- a couple of hours around the time you inform the insurance company of the swap.

Thet're always swopped mine on the minute, and never let them overlap.

BAA1 wrote: »

If these new continuous insurance rules mean that the police are not going to stop people for "no insurance", leaving enforcement up to DVLA then it may be an improvement, but I cannot see the police stopping doing these insurance checks.

The police will have you for driving on the road uninsured, then the DVLA will send you another fine for tax and insurance as well.
It'll be two totally separate offences.

Gloomendoom

This has been on the main site for the last few days...

Now you must have car insurance

Apparently, the new law came into effect last(?) Monday.

Strider590

BAA1 wrote: »

The problem has always been that insurance companies do not always update the MIB database (MID) in good time so the police could stop you for no insurance. If these new continuous insurance rules mean that the police are not going to stop people for "no insurance", leaving enforcement up to DVLA then it may be an improvement, but I cannot see the police stopping doing these insurance checks.

mikey72 wrote: »

The police will have you for driving on the road uninsured, then the DVLA will send you another fine for tax and insurance as well.
It'll be two totally separate offences.

And once the DVLA issue a fine, they don't let go..... Even if they're in the wrong, they still go away and find another reason to fine you.
I foresee lots of problems coming from this whole thing.

Uninsured drivers in unregistered or wrongly registered vehicles will still go unpunished though.

martin_54

if you go to the DVLA web site you will see that if the vehicle is on a SORN it does NOT have to be insured.

Sally_A

A quick update from a sneaky peek at an insurers internal memo:

There are 8000 letters going out this monday (20/6).

They have already u-turned and picked out the V5's that have been signed over to Motor Traders. Motor Traders now have 90 days of grace, after which period they must either SORN, or tax and insure - don't forget they can still SORN them and use a trade plate to test drive, but to SORN they will have to re-register the vehicle to the garage name.

There is another U-turn regarding classic cars that have been tax/sorn exempt but I think this dates back to pre-1998, must admit I didn't take it all in as Motor Trade is my everyday thing.

Yes, they will still cause grief and aggro, and put the onus of proving the reason to get out of the fine on to the car owner.

In DVLA's defence they were very good when I left my recently deceased father's car untaxed: but not so good when they tried to do hubby for not SORNing his motorbike, we SORN'd it, but they un-SORN'd it to give the previous owner a tax disc rebate and then promptly forgot to re-SORN it again on our behalf - most annoying was they don't put a phone number on their "fine" letter; at least the chappy in Swansea admitted it was a DVLA mess up and sort of apologised; but it does cause anxious moments.