test driving a sorn car

Captaincodpiece

davetrousers wrote: »

The OP never mentioned SORN in their original post. Tax is not the query, insurance is.

Sorry the title test driving a sorn car threw me.

colino

Your so right, imagine people reading, "He's transferring his insurance to his new car & putting the car on the drive"; and assuming its SORN. If he hasn't declared it what's he going to do with the CIE fine?

megthedog

Instead of negative replies (obviously SORN is alien to me) has anyone got anything useful to suggest please, as obviously I'm trying to do everything legally & above board.

Lungboy

davetrousers wrote: »

The OP never mentioned SORN in their original post. Tax is not the query, insurance is.

As said, the title of this thread included SORN.

megthedog wrote: »

Instead of negative replies (obviously SORN is alien to me) has anyone got anything useful to suggest please?

You need to clarify what the actual issue is. Is it a tax issue, which is where SORN is involved, or an insurance issue, which has nothing to do with SORN.

edit: actually, it's pretty simple either way. To be legally driven on the road, the car must be taxed and insured. If it's SORNed, then it can't be driven on the road (apart from to an MOT) until you re-tax it. If you have insurance on another car that lets you drive any car as a 3rd party, then that will cover the test drives with no problem. The buyer would need their own insurance if they want to actually drive the car themselves though.

Rover_Driver

megthedog wrote: »

Instead of negative replies (obviously SORN is alien to me) has anyone got anything useful to suggest please, as obviously I'm trying to do everything legally & above board.

As in post 9, it must be licensed and insured or SORN.


If it is SORN, it cannot be driven on the road for a test drive.

Rover_Driver

Lungboy wrote: »

You need to clarify what the actual issue is. Is it a tax issue, which is where SORN is involved, or an insurance issue, which has nothing to do with SORN.

The car is required to be insured, or if off the road, SORN in place of insurance (and licence).
If it is SORN, it cannot be driven on the road for a test drive.

megthedog

Thanks so much lungboy. The car is taxed until September but researching on the Internet it says if it's not insured it has to be sorned and the tax handed in. As we all have insurance which covers us third party on other vehicles I just wondered whether this would be sufficient

Aretnap

megthedog wrote: »

Car is fully taxed. We all have insurance on other vehicles would this cover us on test drives

Driving other cars cover almost always excludes driving vehicles that you own. Depending on the small print of your policy it may also exclude driving cars owned by a member of your household, or cars which aren't covered by a policy of their own.

Unfortunately the law makes this sort of situation a bit of a pain. Some options include

(1) Speak to your son's insurers and see if they'll be willing to cover both vehicles for a limited period. Some of the better insurers will give you a week or two's grace period when changing cars, where they'll keep insuring the old one for free or for a small fee. Price it to make sure it sells within the grace period.

(2) If someone wants to test drive it you can unSORN it, pay the tax and get a one day insurance policy - it's up to you and the buyer to decide whether this is at the buyer's expense or at yours.

(3) Find someone willing to buy it without test driving it, or just driving it up and down your driveway.

(4) Take a chance and hope you don't get caught (not recommended, especially with insurance)

Rover_Driver

megthedog wrote: »

As we all have insurance which covers us third party on other vehicles I just wondered whether this would be sufficient

Check your policies, most only give third party cover when actually using or driving the car, the rest of the time the car would be uninsured. Which is an offence unless it is SORN.

jaydeeuk1

Look. Car is taxed. It therefore needs its own insurance. You having 3rd party insurance cover from your own insurance won't cover it.

Otherwise, do what I'm doing for a mate and find a private area (I'm using my works car park), declare it sorn and park it there and let people test drive it around the car park. I'd take a deposit in cash up front in case they crash it though.