road tax question

colin13

my son is going to see a car tonight with intention of buying it,,his first car,,it is about 15 miles away,,can he legally drive it back ome,,althoug it is still road taxed,,is it not that when car changes owner road tax stops,,he has got insurance nearly ready,,at a click of button,,or can u get tax online all the time

gardner1

colin13 wrote: »

my son is going to see a car tonight with intention of buying it,,his first car,,it is about 15 miles away,,can he legally drive it back ome,,althoug it is still road taxed,,is it not that when car changes owner road tax stops,,he has got insurance nearly ready,,at a click of button,,or can u get tax online all the time

as long as its insured he will be ok because the tax wont end till DVLA have got the V5 document and change details......some will say different but at the end of the day if car was checked by police it will show as insured/taxed/mot

dannyrst

gardner1 wrote: »

as long as its insured he will be ok because the tax wont end till DVLA have got the V5 document and change details......some will say different but at the end of the day if car was checked by police it will show as insured/taxed/mot

Depends if this is a garage or private sale. The garage would have informed the DVLA that the car no longer belongs to the previous owner and tax would have stopped.

wongataa

colin13 wrote: »

my son is going to see a car tonight with intention of buying it,,his first car,,it is about 15 miles away,,can he legally drive it back ome,,althoug it is still road taxed,,is it not that when car changes owner road tax stops,,he has got insurance nearly ready,,at a click of button,,or can u get tax online all the time

You can get the tax online all the time using the details on the new keepers section of the V5.

facade

As he is going to need to tax it anyway to drive it, he might as well just get the tax online when he buys it, he does this with the number on the small green slip from page 3 of the V5 that he wrote his address on, NOT the number on the front page.

BeenThroughItAll

gardner1 wrote: »

as long as its insured he will be ok because the tax wont end till DVLA have got the V5 document and change details......some will say different but at the end of the day if car was checked by police it will show as insured/taxed/mot

True, but the question was 'can he legally drive it home?', and whether or not the car shows as taxed, it technically isn't; ergo the new owner can't legally drive it.


I'm not saying it makes sense or that I personally would worry about it, I'm just answering the question.

s_b

no you cant legally drive it home because to be insured you need to be the owner of the vehicle thus the road tax would need to be in your name
also its easy now to update new keeper and cancel the road tax through the govt porthole
https://www.gov.uk/sold-bought-vehicle

jimjames

facade wrote: »

As he is going to need to tax it anyway to drive it, he might as well just get the tax online when he buys it, he does this with the number on the small green slip from page 3 of the V5 that he wrote his address on, NOT the number on the front page.

Bear in mind that not all V5 slips have the correct number. Some older ones have the wrong number of digits so cannot be taxed online.

Richard53

I don't want to sound like a Luddite here, but does this mean that there needs to be an internet connection at the time and place of sale for the new owner to legally drive home? If you're buying privately, this effectively means you must have a smartphone, or beg the seller to borrow his PC for five minutes - or have I missed something? No problem at a dealership, I would have thought, but what about buying a car privately, in the evening, in an area with poor signal? Or people who don't have smartphones?


In the past, when I sold a car or bike, I would always leave the tax on if it was a few months, just to make the process easier for the buyer.

jimjames

If you are buying from a private seller who has taxed the car then the car will show as taxed until they send the V5 off to the DVLA. There should be no issue with you driving home and taxing the car when you get home that evening as there is nothing that shows the time of sale on the paperwork.

Richard53

jimjames wrote: »

If you are buying from a private seller who has taxed the car then the car will show as taxed until they send the V5 off to the DVLA. There should be no issue with you driving home and taxing the car when you get home that evening as there is nothing that shows the time of sale on the paperwork.

That's understood. The last car I bought (from a dealer, untaxed) I drove 5 minutes to a car park near the Post Office and it was taxed 10 minutes later. I like to live dangerously . But, as said above, technically the car is in the hands of a new owner and therefore the previous tax is no longer valid. The fact that is will show up as taxed in any enquiry is true, and you would be highly unlikely to be stopped for it, but strictly you are driving without tax from the moment you take possession, unless you tax it at the point of sale. Is that correct?