Vehicle with no Insurance

Lee1863

Hi,
My old car is awaiting to be repaired, so my wife can drive it. I bought a new car and changed the insurance from the old one to the new one. Therefore my old car does not have insurance on it,.
I have received a letter from MID saying that unless I insure the old car I will be fined,
I cannot drive the car at the moment as it is broken, it is taxed as I have no off road parking.
I do not want to pay an extra 250 pounds to insure the car, and do not see why I should as it is not drive able. Please can someone help me of what I can do?

neilmcl

You have no choice, it has to be insured to be on the road, that's the law. If you don't want to insure it then take it off the road and SORN it. Simple as that I'm afraid.

Herzlos

Where is it?

It must be insured if it's not registered as off road (SORN), and doing that means it actually must be off the road.

So if it's, say, at a garage long term waiting on parts you can declare it SORN, but in any other situation you need to insure it (even if it's just 3rd party).

If I remember correctly the fine for no insurance is about £1000, so you're much better off insuring it.

marlot

Lee1863 wrote: »

Hi,
My old car is awaiting to be repaired, so my wife can drive it. I bought a new car and changed the insurance from the old one to the new one. Therefore my old car does not have insurance on it,.
I have received a letter from MID saying that unless I insure the old car I will be fined,
I cannot drive the car at the moment as it is broken, it is taxed as I have no off road parking.
I do not want to pay an extra 250 pounds to insure the car, and do not see why I should as it is not drive able. Please can someone help me of what I can do?

Insurers will often let you insure a second car on your policy for a limited period.

As others have said, if your car is on the road (even just parked), it needs to be insured.

Quentin

There is a fixed penalty fine (£100) if you ignore that letter.


Worse in your case you face a much bigger penalty if the car is checked by the police - leaving a taxed car on the road without insurance means you face it being clamped/seized/disposed of as well as the fine (up to £1000) already mentioned!

Car_54

Quentin wrote: »

There is a fixed penalty fine (£100) if you ignore that letter.


Worse in your case you face a much bigger penalty if the car is checked by the police - leaving a taxed car on the road without insurance means you face it being clamped/seized/disposed of as well as the fine (up to £1000) already mentioned!

... and six points.

Strider590

It's called "continuous insurance enforcement", it was designed to tackle the problem in certain communities, of people insuring cars just long enough to get it taxed and then cancelling the insurance, because an untaxed vehicle used to be easy to spot by the average plod, it was harder to avoid the tax.

However it hasn't really had the desired effect and the abolishment of the tax disk is a big part of the reason why. So now it's used instead to make money from the honest tax payer who either forgets to sort out their MOT, tax and insurance, OR runs into issues doing so, OR falls ill, OR happens to go on holiday at that time, and is extremely easy to trace.

Johno100

Car_54 wrote: »

... and six points.

Nope, only if caught driving it.

Car_54

Johno100 wrote: »

Nope, only if caught driving it.

Nope. The offence is "using" the vehicle, not driving it. Road Traffic Act 1984 section 143(1(a)).

Aretnap

Car_54 wrote: »

Nope. The offence is "using" the vehicle, not driving it. Road Traffic Act 1984 section 143(1(a)).

And the case of Pumbien v Vines, which confirm that a vehicle can be being "used" even though its condition means that it cannot actually be driven.

(Practical advice: If it's not stored at the garage, do you have a friend with a driveway or garage who would let you store it there for a short period?)

Le_Kirk

Aretnap wrote: »

(Practical advice: If it's not stored at the garage, do you have a friend with a driveway or garage who would let you store it there for a short period?)

In the OP, the OP stated that the car is broken and it cannot be driven. Advice still valid though if he can trailer the car to a friend's driveway or garage.