Forgot to renew car insurance and quotation refused

sheramber

The fact that you  didn't renew could be taken as showing you are  irresponsible  or a bad payer so they decline to cover you.
 

TELLIT01

Aretnap said:

TELLIT01 said:

I think the law was changed comparatively recently and if a car has not been SORNed, it must be insured at all times.  I got this from Gov.uk  "You must keep your car off the road if it has a SORN. You can keep it on your driveway, garage or any private land you own. You cannot keep your car on a public road even if it has been declared not in use."  From that it would seem you can't leave it in a private car park as you don't own the land!

Edited to add: The RAC confirm that a SORN vehicle cannot be left in a carpark for the reason stated above.  It would seem you can't even park it on somebody else's driveway even with the land owner's permission.

Which would obviously be absurd, so unsurprisingly it isn't true. 

All I have done is quote from the Gov.uk site where is very clearly states "you own"  I'm not saying it makes any sense.  I've actually found another version of where you can legally park a SORN vehicle, also on Gov.uk which simply says it must be stored on private land.  Nothing to suggest it must be private land owned by the vehicle owner.

I'm not in the least surprised at the contradictory advice as I worked in the Civil Service for a few years and that situation was not just common it was virtually standard!

Aretnap

ToxicWomble said:

Surely even though it’s not a public road a car park is classed as a public space and therefore insurance is required for third party purposes

A car park might or might not be classed as a public place. It depends on the car park.

If it is open to and used by the general public, (eg a public car park in a town centre, or a supermarket car park) then it is a public place, and the provisions of the road traffic act apply, including the need for insurance, irrespective of the car's tax status. 

However if its use is restricted to a specific group of people (eg residents of a particular block of flats and their guests) and it is not open to the general public then it's not a public place. 

Jumblebumble

sheramber said:

The fact that you  didn't renew could be taken as showing you are  irresponsible  or a bad payer so they decline to cover you.
 

So all the people who are working from home or furloughed and do not need their cars at the moment are in some way irresponsible or does not pay their bills and insurance companies decline without asking why
Tesco may have taken exception to the fact that the car was not sorned which indicates that the OP is not a man who likes to comply with the rules albeit that the RAC really should know better than giving made up advice
I think there is more to this tale than we are being told and is possibly someone in the call centre misleading the OP. I do not recall ever being asked by an insurer if my car .was continuously insured.

Having said this there was another case cited last week somewhere in this forum with the same thing so perhaps it will become common. 

sheramber

  Furlough   has nothing to do with it.  Why would they  not keep it insured  ( It may be stolen ) /  sorn it?

kaMelo

In short, if you own a car one of two options must be in place at all times.   Either it's SORN'ed or Insured. Failure to do either will result in a fine. If SORN'ed then the car cannot reside on a public road or space. (a private car park is not a public road so would be okay).

As this has been going on since June I'm surprised you didn't receive anything from DVLA as they are pretty quick off the mark over this. I made a similar mistake once of taking a car I was no longer using off the road and had received a letter within three weeks explaining my obligations and consequences of not following those. 

Going forward, this will not on it's own cause a problem getting insurance. Many people will have SORN'ed their car and cancelled/paused their insurance over the last six months or so. If you cannot get insurance from anyone then there is more to this story than you're telling us.

Jumblebumble

Unless you are or know the OP you have no idea if what you say is true.
I assume you need help to understand.
The OP did not SORN because he foolishly  took notice of people on the internet stating as fact things that they did not know  by advising him that a residential car park was a public  place as far as SORN is concerned when it is not
Just to help your imagination
We have a second car which is probably worth £500 on a good day
If I was younger  and my insurance was £2000 and my excess was £500 and I did not need it because I was furloed why on earth would I even consider insuring it in case it gets stolen and why would any sane insurance company take exception to me doing this.

sheramber

Jumblebumble said:

Unless you are or know the OP you have no idea if what you say is true.
I assume you need help to understand.
The OP did not SORN because he foolishly  took notice of people on the internet stating as fact things that they did not know  by advising him that a residential car park was a public  place as far as SORN is concerned when it is not
Just to help your imagination
We have a second car which is probably worth £500 on a good day
If I was younger  and my insurance was £2000 and my excess was £500 and I did not need it because I was furloed why on earth would I even consider insuring it in case it gets stolen and why would any sane insurance company take exception to me doing this.

and you might then have the same problem as the OP in getting insurance when you wanted to use it again. 

John_

sheramber said:

The fact that you  didn't renew could be taken as showing you are  irresponsible  or a bad payer so they decline to cover you.
 

Rubbish. How on Earth is choosing not to renew insurance evidence that someone’s a bad layer?

You’re making this up, and not well.

DCFC79

OP try another insurer, forget using tesco, you have your proof of no claims so use that for the next insurer.