Can I purchase car road tax with a 24hr car insurance cert?

Joe_Horner

No, the Police can't legally seize a vehicle if you show the evidence of insurance required by the Road Traffic Act. The certificate is the required evidence.

It doesn't matter if it doen't show on the MID, or even if they phone the insurers and get duff information (such as saying that your DOC only covers insured cars if that's not in the poliy).

If you've shown a certificate and they seize anyway then, assuming the certificate was valid, the seizure is illegal. Some Police still don't seem to understand this, but that doesn't change the legal situation.

spacey2012

Yes they can and they do every single day.
Your recourse is the civil courts.
Illegal is not Unlawful, they are different, you can reclaim your losses at best.
The police tend to work on the assumption you are lying, probably because people do show them fake certificates every day.

Joe_Horner

spacey2012 wrote: »

Yes they can and they do every single day.
Your recourse is the civil courts.
Illegal is not Unlawful, they are different, you can reclaim your losses at best.
The police tend to work on the assumption you are lying, probably because people do show them fake certificates every day.

Since there's well publicised Court of Appeal precedent on exactly this issue, they would be setting themselves up to be taken to the cleaners.

Granted, it may not stop them physically seizing the vehicle, but you'd be getting ALL your losses back (including inconvenience etc) and have excellent grounds for career-changing complaints against the officers concerned. And rightly so.

Joe_Horner

Iceweasel wrote: »

Despite all the comments about how easy it would be to great a false Insurance Certificate I still think that the fact that a car is not on the data base is not sufficient on its own to cause a vehicle to be seized.

It's not.

The Court of Appeal was quite clear in Pryor v Greater Manchester Police that, if you show a relevant certificate then there is no power of seizure. In fact, they went further and stated that, having been shown such a certificate, the question of whether or not the policeman believes it's valid (for any reason) makes no difference if it is, in fact, valid.

So, having been shown a certificate, going ahead with a seizure is outside their powers - even if a call to the insurers says it's not valid.

That doesn't prevent them making further enquiries and charging you with uninsured driving (and possibly a host of other more serious offences) if it later turns out the certificate was invalid, but it does prevent them (safely) seizing the car.

[Deleted User]

You don't need insurance or mot to tax car at post office. I taxed my current car at post office with just the new keepers slip then went home to arrange insurance.

Post office don't have access to MID or MOT databases.

j3251

So would it be fair to say I can go ahead and make the purchase,leave car where it is on a private driveway,pop into post office and produce a V5 new keepers supplement asking for car road tax?

Back in the day I remember you had to produce a valid mot,V5,Valid motor insurance certificate (Even though I'd make sure I have that prior to driving vehicle)

Joe_Horner

j3251 wrote: »

So would it be fair to say I can go ahead and make the purchase,leave car where it is on a private driveway,pop into post office and produce a V5 new keepers supplement asking for car road tax?

Back in the day I remember you had to produce a valid mot,V5,Valid motor insurance certificate (Even though I'd make sure I have that prior to driving vehicle)

Yes, the NK supplemenet will be enough. If the current owner trusts you (or there's a licencing PO close enough for you both to go) you can also take the whole V5 and save the postage on sending it - plus you can get a receipt from them for when DVLA say it never arrived

thenudeone

Iceweasel wrote: »

I was under the impression that if you were able to show a valid Insurance Certificate (or cover note) then they couldn't seize the car, no matter what the MID says.

That is legally correct. Every police officer is trained that the lack of a MID entry does not give a right of seizure, but it still happens.

The law covering seizure doesn't even mention the MID database.

If you present a valid certificate at the roadside, any seizure would be illegal and simply starts the clock ticking on an expensive claim against the police.

tberry6686

Can you really tax a car at the PO with no MOT or insurance cert.

My tax is due up at the end of the month and I can't find the MOT certificate.

In case anyone is wondering, MOT passed in January and car is insured.

[Deleted User]

tberry6686 wrote: »

Can you really tax a car at the PO with no MOT or insurance cert.

My tax is due up at the end of the month and I can't find the MOT certificate.

In case anyone is wondering, MOT passed in January and car is insured.

Yes, the law changed last December. Post Office will not look at insurance or MOT cert.

By all means take them with you, even take all your service books and service history like some of the bimbos that didn't have a clue what they were doing that were in the queue when I went to tax on the 31st March.