Selling car but insurance about to run out - SORN, test drives etc

ruperts

Hi all

I'm about to put my car up for sale but my insurance runs out next week and I don't want to renew it because I'm selling the car. I've looked at temporary insurance but it's quite expensive so I'd like to avoid that if possible.

From what I gather I'll need to SORN the car and keep it off road before the insurance runs out. What happens then if somebody wants to test drive the car? If they are covered to drive other cars will they be able to test drive my car even though it is SORN, or does that mean nobody can drive it regardless of their insurance?

If the latter, are there any inexpensive ways around this, as I'd really like to avoid having to spend £100ish on temporary insurance just to facilitate a test drive on a car that's only worth £2k. I don't need to drive the car at all myself as I already have a replacement which is insured by my employer.

Many thanks for your thoughts.

wongataa

If your car is SORN then no-one can drive it on the road. It needs to be taxed to be allowed on the road, which of course also means you need to have it insured.

The simplest thing to do is sell it to webuyanycar or similar but you probably won't get as much money as you would like but you will be rid of it very quickly.

ruperts

Thanks Wongataa. Webuyanycar have quoted me £1,200 so that's £800 less than I think I'll get for it privately, so I'd be better off taking the hit on temporary insurance.

What if I asked a family member to add the car to their insurance for a couple of weeks, would that be cheaper than buying my own temporary insurance do you think? I wouldn't be able to drive it but that's fine because I don't think I'll need to, as long as the potential test driver is insured.

neilmcl

The simplest thing to do would be to take out another years insurance (get the cheapest, no frills policy you can get) then cancel this when you sell the car. Will be much cheaper than any temporary insurance.

Fat_Walt

neilmcl wrote: »

The simplest thing to do would be to take out another years insurance (get the cheapest, no frills policy you can get) then cancel this when you sell the car. Will be much cheaper than any temporary insurance.

I agree but do your home wot on the admin and cancellation fees.

ruperts

Thanks for your responses.


I've been quoted £250 for 28 days insurance and it looks as though it will cost a similar amount to buy an annual policy and then cancel it once fees and less than 100% refunds are taken into account.


Another possibility I've been thinking about would be to SORN the car, but then if somebody wants a test drive I could re-tax the car and insure it for one day. This would cost £30 for the car tax (11/12th's of which would be refunded after I SORN the car again once the test drive has finished) and around £35 for a day's insurance. So as long as the car sells to one of the first 6 or 7 test drivers I'll be better off.


Are there any flaws in this plan apart from the hassle of having to re-tax and then re-SORN the car within a single day? Does tax apply immediately as soon as you've paid?


Must admit to feeling slightly hard done to in this situation. I've already paid for 12 month's tax. While it's not insured I can't legally drive it anyway, so why can't I just keep it off road but have it taxed ready for when I do have insurance or for when someone else who is already insured wants to test drive it? Seems unnecessary to force people into cancelling their tax just because they don't have insurance?

victor2

Insure it for a year as cheaply as possible, as already suggested, and renew the vehicle tax on monthly direct debit payments. It will be cancelled as soon as you sell the vehicle and will save you worrying about that. Could be tricky getting another family member to add it to their insurance as policies usually require that the vehicle covered is owned by the person taking out the policy (or their partner). Plus many have requirements about where it is kept.

shaun_from_Africa

Instead of taking out temporary insurance, have you considered contacting your insurers and seeing if it's possible to extend your current policy by a couple of weeks?
They may well be able to arrange this for far less than a new short term policy would cost.

ruperts

Victor - I've been researching and it seems that most car insurers will charge a cancellation fee and on top of that they won't refund you 100% of the premium. It's not clear exactly how much refund can be expected even from looking at insurer's standard T&C's, but generally I've read that they'll keep back at least two month's pro-rated of the annual premium. So on top of the cancellation fee (say £50) that adds at least three pro rated month's of the premium (about £120), so that's a cost of £170.


If I pay monthly will they not just add the value of the premium they wouldn't have refunded onto the cancellation fee? Or does paying monthly mean I can cancel and only have to pay the cancellation fee and nothing else?


Shaun - When I called my current insurer to cancel my auto-renewal I asked if they do temporary insurance and the rep said no. Might be worth trying again though, thanks.

shaun_from_Africa

ruperts wrote: »

Shaun - When I called my current insurer to cancel my auto-renewal I asked if they do temporary insurance and the rep said no. Might be worth trying again though, thanks.

If you call them again, make sure that they realise that you don't want a new short term policy but you simply want to delay the expiry date of your current policy.

victor2

Or just tell your insurers the situation and under "annual estimated mileage", you can say zero. That might bring the price down a bit.
I was only thinking of paying the vehicle tax monthly. If you pay the insurance monthly, they will calculate what you owe when you cancel, as if it were an annual policy cancelled before its completion, and just deduct what you've already paid from that total.