Looking to buy a car tomorrow that's SORN

mashw

Going to look at a car tomorrow that's SORN, and I'm confused about the new road tax rules brought into effect.

How do I go about taxing the car in order to get it home if I decide to buy, is it as simple as going to the gov website and following the steps or is there something I'm missing because it's SORN?

Any thanks is appreciated.

Browntoa

does it have an MOT currently ?? in which case it won't let you tax it anyway

mashw

It has an MOT until July 2015, the tax ran out in September apparently.

Rolandtheroadie

Check if it's shown as taxed here.


https://www.vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk/


If it is, I'd just drive to a postoffice and tax it. If it isn't, I'd just drive to a post office and tax it.

forgotmyname

Doesnt matter if its taxed. The tax wont be valid after you buy the car so insure and tax it online before you drive home.

mashw

My main concern really is that I need the car to be showing up as insured on the database in order to get the tax, but I'm dubious whether or not the database will update there and then while I'm at the seller's house tomorrow evening. Does anyone know how long it takes to update on average?

jimjames

As this is a money saving site I guess I should mention that you'll be paying for tax for all Oct even though you're only using 4 days of it.

So if you wait till Sat you'll get an extra month to be able to use. Obviously if it's a long drive to get there then the cost of petrol will outweigh the tax saving.

AdrianC

mashw wrote: »

My main concern really is that I need the car to be showing up as insured on the database in order to get the tax

No, you don't. Not any more. Insurance hasn't been checked on tax purchases since last year.

mashw

AdrianC wrote: »

No, you don't. Not any more. Insurance hasn't been checked on tax purchases since last year.

I thought this just meant you don't need certificates to show at the post office etc. but you still need to be showing up on the askMID database?? Or am I wrong (and I hope I am wrong).

AdrianC

mashw wrote: »

I thought this just meant you don't need certificates to show at the post office etc. but you still need to be showing up on the askMID database?? Or am I wrong (and I hope I am wrong).

Continuous Insurance says that you must have insurance at all times the car is taxed. As such, it's pretty pointless explicitly checking for insurance at the time of purchase. Which is why that requirement was removed.

And, yes, there is some leeway. New policies have to go through to MID within 14 days, no faster. In practice, they often will, but it's very unlikely that there'd be any kind of prosecution based on the insurance not showing up quicker - and, if there was, just producing the paperwork would stop it dead.

mashw

So I should be able to tax the car tomorrow online on my phone as long as I have insured it first? Sorry if I'm being a bit slow.