Road Tax question. SORN- De-SORN

4rchibald

I have bought new (to me) car which I want and need to test before selling my old one.
"New" car is SORNed now. I want to insure it for week or two on temporary basis (on my insurance) and get a Road Tax.
After those 2 weeks I have to SORN it again, but what happens with Tax?
Can I SORN it and keep the Disc and just inform DVLA that I will De-SORN it when my old car is sold and insurance is transferred?

Or do I have to send disc back after 2 weeks and get another one when insurance is transferred?
Thank you

TrickyWicky

No unfortunately DVLA don't do anything useful or even mildly helpful. They won't let you keep the disc (well you can keep it but they won't re-validate it as far as I know). In order to remove sorn you have to buy another disc.

Con isn't it.

sabretoothtigger

If its a new car and its insured then just use it minimally as you have planned. When you actually come to use it properly get it taxed.
There is some leeway given to new purchases even second hand, they wont prosecute but this is unofficial and you'll have to decide yourself

You cant buy tax for less then a month, if you do stop using the tax before month end you can cash in the remainder otherwise it all goes into the national kitty. Upto you how legit you want to be

wealdroam

Also remember that SORN is not transferable.

Doesn't apply in your scenario, but if a SORNed vehicle is purchased and needs to remain SORNed, then the new owner needs to send in a new SORN.

Rover_Driver

You may have a problem getting the tax if the details on your insurance certificate are for your existing car and not your new one.

4rchibald

TrickyWicky wrote: »

No unfortunately DVLA don't do anything useful or even mildly helpful. They won't let you keep the disc (well you can keep it but they won't re-validate it as far as I know). In order to remove sorn you have to buy another disc.

Con isn't it.

Who was driving without insurance/ TAX/ MOT is still doing it. Example? Make fake company details and buy a car privately as a trader. Seller sends yellow form with fake details and car is yours without taking ownership. Or buy a car from a trader (pay cash), give fake details, ask nicely for V5C and just don't send it. Voilà! Car is untraceable. I used to work with one dodgy guy and know that both scenarios work.
I am honest and want to do it legally...but have a major problem and have to pay twice or triple for the same thing.
This new law is to force people to buy cars through traders (not to have any hassle with tax) not to force them to drive without insurance.

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

If its a new car and its insured then just use it minimally as you have planned. When you actually come to use it properly get it taxed.
There is some leeway given to new purchases even second hand, they wont prosecute but this is unofficial and you'll have to decide yourself

To drive without the TAX? I know one pal who drove 0.5 mile when bought (SORNed) car. Got caught by the police and his car was seized. Another thing is that I don't know this car, so if it breaks in a middle of the road, I am in big trouble.

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

You cant buy tax for less then a month, if you do stop using the tax before month end you can cash in the remainder otherwise it all goes into the national kitty. Upto you how legit you want to be

Oh yes I know that. In this case it "only" £30 for 12 months so I have to get a full year. It's frustrating that if for example tax is purchased on 29, then it is paid backwards for a full month, but if I SORN it on 01, DVLA will take my money for the rest of the month and I have to send the disc to get money back for the rest of the year and 15-20 days later get another tax (lets say 27 the same month), and pay once again for this whole month... CRAZY!

Rover_Driver wrote: »

You may have a problem getting the tax if the details on your insurance certificate are for your existing car and not your new one.

My insurance company offers temporary insurance for second car, but it cost something like £40 for a week, so I will get a certificate with my details and detail of my new car.

wealdroam wrote: »

Also remember that SORN is not transferable.

I don't want to transfer SORN. I just want to TAX SORNed car for two weeks (to test is), SORN it again for another 2-3 weeks (to sell my car and not pay a fortune for second insurance) and put it back on the road when my old car is gone (and insurance is transferred).

wealdroam wrote: »

Doesn't apply in your scenario, but if a SORNed vehicle is purchased and needs to remain SORNed, then the new owner needs to send in a new SORN.

Oh yes, I've heard about people having to pay fines for not doing this after purchase.

Wig

Have you asked current insurer if they will insure BOTH cars for at least a month? They may do this for a reasonable fee.

Then you can tax both (once you have the new certificate showing the new cars reg).

If you SORN the car is off road and not taxed and can't be used on road...

The poster above was suggesting don't TAX the new one but don't SORN it either just drive it insured but untaxed, there is a obviously a risk involved but at least if caught you are not driving a SORN vehicle would be worse.

Personally I don't see the point, if the new one has insurance you might aswell buy tax for it. You should buy a 12 month disc, and insure/drive it for 1 month/4 weeks then if you SORN it you will get 11 months refund.

When you SORN you always have to return the disc so whether it is 2 weeks or 4 weeks you will have paid for 1 month tax and get 11 months refund.

Hence why I said you might aswell work on the basis of insuring it for 4 weeks/1month through your insurers.......

Just read you previous post.....then you might aswell insure for 2 weeks and lose the 2 weeks tax, which is only £2.15 per month so no big deal.
No other way around this.

paddedjohn

If after taxing the new car you decide you like it,rather than declaring it sorn straight away just keep it off the road for a couple of weeks while you sell the other car. The dvla will not catch you out in this short term

Wig

I agree with padded john, there really is no need to declare SORN again, just drop the insurance and keep it off road. The new law will mean DVLA will only contact you after the end of the month and when they do contact I think they give you some time to either SORN or insure so no need to panic.

Joe_Horner

DVLA do seem to be transferring SORN now, at least in some cases (although they don't tell you they have). Our new Daf 66 was on SORN with the old owner and when the new V5C came through we went online to re-SORN only to find that they have the date of liability as 01/01/13 - which is when his old SORN would run out - and won't let us make a further declaration until then. I'm still half expecting them to send a fine through but that'll be dealt with if / when it happens

As for insurance SORN and tax, it's a bit of an odd area because the law doesn't say you have to return existing tax if you're declaring SORN for insurance - an insurance SORN declaration is in accordance with an entirely different statutory provision to a tax one and the only thing they have in common is that both are saying you won't have the car on the road until the situation you've made the declaration for changes. So a tax SORN says "I won't have this on road until I have new tax" and an insurance SORN says "I won't have this on a road until I've got more insurance"

DVLA initially insisted that the two were the same and that you had to surrender the tax in order to declare "insurance" SORN but it appears to be another case of "we interpret it as xxx because that's convenient to us" - all their systems were only set up with a single "type" of SORN so the law creating another one would be a bit of a headache.

Not sure if they've budged from that line but, when I SORNED one of ours recently, they allowed it to be done online and the only mention of the tax was a message that "you may wish to apply or a refund" (my bold). That's not really in keeping with their usual attitude of "you must under pain of excruciating death" so they might have amended their systems quietly?

4rchibald

Wig wrote: »

Have you asked current insurer if they will insure BOTH cars for at least a month? They may do this for a reasonable fee.

Then you can tax both (once you have the new certificate showing the new cars reg).

Yes, additional cover for a temporary car. I was thinking about adding it for a month, but it cost £88 for 30 days so I have to keep it to a minimum.

Wig wrote: »

If you SORN the car is off road and not taxed and can't be used on road...

I had to SORN it as car is mine, there is no insurance so DLVA would automatically fine me for keeping car with TAX and no insurance. Tax expired yesterday.

Wig wrote: »

The poster above was suggesting don't TAX the new one but don't SORN it either just drive it insured but untaxed, there is a obviously a risk involved but at least if caught you are not driving a SORN vehicle would be worse.

I got a leaflet from DVLA saying that they now automatically check cars and if it's not SORN it needs to have tax and insurance. Otherwise they will fine owner.

Wig wrote: »

Personally I don't see the point, if the new one has insurance you might aswell buy tax for it. You should buy a 12 month disc, and insure/drive it for 1 month/4 weeks then if you SORN it you will get 11 months refund.

Yes, want to get a temporary insurance and tax for new car, but I am concerned what to do when insurance runs out. Once I am happy with this car and temporary insurance runs out I need to sell my old one which takes 2-3 weeks. Do I have to SORN new car again just for a sake of 3 weeks or can I just keep it off the road, don't tell DVLA and put it back once old one is sold and insurance is transferred?

Wig wrote: »

When you SORN you always have to return the disc so whether it is 2 weeks or 4 weeks you will have paid for 1 month tax and get 11 months refund.

It's just the hassle to get tax for 2 weeks, send it back after two weeks just to get new disc again three weeks later.

Wig wrote: »

Hence why I said you might aswell work on the basis of insuring it for 4 weeks/1month through your insurers.......

Just read you previous post.....then you might aswell insure for 2 weeks and lose the 2 weeks tax, which is only £2.15 per month so no big deal.
No other way around this.

It looks like good option. It's just hassle.

Wig wrote: »

I agree with padded john, there really is no need to declare SORN again, just drop the insurance and keep it off road. The new law will mean DVLA will only contact you after the end of the month and when they do contact I think they give you some time to either SORN or insure so no need to panic.

I might not be able to try new car and sell old one within one month. I just think if DVLA will find out and will fine me...