No road tax and insurance

TooManyPoints

OK, call up your insurance and check with them, shouldn't be an issue then.

Particularly if they are familiar with Section 148 of the Road Traffic Act, 1988.

Aretnap

half_empty said:

Aretnap said:

half_empty said:

Edit. If it is illegal to be on the road with no tax, then struggling to see how the insurance will be valid/honoured in a bump.

It's also illegal to drive at 35mph in a built up area, to accelerate rather than brake when the light ahead turns amber, and to pull out of a junction without looking properly. Would you be surprised to learn that your insurance will be valid/honoured if you have a bump while doing one if those things?

And unlike not paying your VED all those things actually have the potential to be the cause of an accident. 

Erm, whatever. OK, call up your insurance and check with them, shouldn't be an issue then.

If you phone up your insurer there's a fair chance that you'll get through to someone who has no idea of the correct answer, but who offers you an answer anyway based on guesswork, or on something he read on the Internet.

Much better just to read the terms of your policy - you will find that they don't contain any requirement for the car to be taxed.

half_empty said:
 I know they can play silly games with small changes that also don't cause accidents.

They can't actually, this is largely an urban myth. 

The basic principle is that if you breach the terms of your policy, the insurance company can only refuse a claim if the claim was related to the breach. Section 11 of the Insurance Act 2015 covers this, though it has been part of industry regulations for much longer. 

So if your home insurance contained a clause which said that you had to lock your door when you left the house unoccupied, your insurer could refuse to pay out for a burglary which happened when you left the house unlocked. However they would not be able to refuse, say, a subsidence claim just because they found out that you didn't always lock your door when you went out.

Or if your car insurance policy said that your car had to be roadworthy and you had no working headlights, your insurer could refuse cover for an accident you caused by driving into something in the dark, but not for an accident that happened in daylight.

In the case of tax, there are no circumstances in which your failure to pay tax could cause an accident, so even if your policy did have a clause that said your vehicle had to be taxed, your insurer could never refuse to pay a claim because of it. Which in turn is why no insurer has a clause like that. It would be an entirely pointless clause that could never be enforced.

Possibly you're mixing up the consequences of breaching the terms of your policy *after* you take it out, with misrepresenting facts *before* you take out the policy. The two things are dealt with under entirely different principles, so yes if you (for example) lied about your drink driving conviction then your insurer could indeed void your policy from inception and refuse to pay out for any accident - even one that happened when you were sober. However that's not what the OP is asking about, and isn't relevant to his situation. 

jimjames

half_empty said:

Aretnap said:

half_empty said:

Edit. If it is illegal to be on the road with no tax, then struggling to see how the insurance will be valid/honoured in a bump.

It's also illegal to drive at 35mph in a built up area, to accelerate rather than brake when the light ahead turns amber, and to pull out of a junction without looking properly. Would you be surprised to learn that your insurance will be valid/honoured if you have a bump while doing one if those things?

And unlike not paying your VED all those things actually have the potential to be the cause of an accident. 

Erm, whatever. OK, call up your insurance and check with them, shouldn't be an issue then. I know they can play silly games with small changes that also don't cause accidents.

My concern would be someone un taxed causing an accident and the insurance saying nah, not happening. Don't really care if the untaxed driver ends up in court over it.

You might be surprised to know that it is entirely legal to drive your car on the road with no MOT and no tax and that your insurance cover is totally valid. Just because you think something is illegal doesn't mean that is so.

midge406 said:

I’ve checked online and the tax expired on 1 October. I don’t have a driveway so I have no off-road place to park. Aside from the insurance issues, I don’t know what my chances are of leaving it parked on the road and not getting fined/clamped if it does end up taking a few weeks for the V5. Argh what a mess!

I think this is more of an issue seeing the number of cars around that are clamped with no tax. I certainly wouldn't risk the car being parked on the road untaxed as you'll have a big bill and a lot of hassle to sort it out.

JJ_Egan

OP have you recently tried to tax it online >>I just had a similar problem .

midge406

JJ_Egan said:

OP have you recently tried to tax it online >>I just had a similar problem .

I did but there’s no way to without the 11 digit number from the v5. The garage I bought it from are saying don’t worry it’ll be fine but I contacted dvla who said I need to register it as SORN/off-road and wait 6-8 weeks for v5. Whole thing is a nightmare.

Car_54

jimjames said:

half_empty said:

Aretnap said:

half_empty said:

Edit. If it is illegal to be on the road with no tax, then struggling to see how the insurance will be valid/honoured in a bump.

It's also illegal to drive at 35mph in a built up area, to accelerate rather than brake when the light ahead turns amber, and to pull out of a junction without looking properly. Would you be surprised to learn that your insurance will be valid/honoured if you have a bump while doing one if those things?

And unlike not paying your VED all those things actually have the potential to be the cause of an accident. 

Erm, whatever. OK, call up your insurance and check with them, shouldn't be an issue then. I know they can play silly games with small changes that also don't cause accidents.

My concern would be someone un taxed causing an accident and the insurance saying nah, not happening. Don't really care if the untaxed driver ends up in court over it.

You might be surprised to know that it is entirely legal to drive your car on the road with no MOT and no tax 

Yes, I am surprised. Please explain.

Grey_Critic

You can drive a vehicle to a MOT Test station for a pre-booked MOT but it must be insured.

jimjames

Car_54 said:

jimjames said:

half_empty said:

Aretnap said:

half_empty said:

Edit. If it is illegal to be on the road with no tax, then struggling to see how the insurance will be valid/honoured in a bump.

It's also illegal to drive at 35mph in a built up area, to accelerate rather than brake when the light ahead turns amber, and to pull out of a junction without looking properly. Would you be surprised to learn that your insurance will be valid/honoured if you have a bump while doing one if those things?

And unlike not paying your VED all those things actually have the potential to be the cause of an accident. 

Erm, whatever. OK, call up your insurance and check with them, shouldn't be an issue then. I know they can play silly games with small changes that also don't cause accidents.

My concern would be someone un taxed causing an accident and the insurance saying nah, not happening. Don't really care if the untaxed driver ends up in court over it.

You might be surprised to know that it is entirely legal to drive your car on the road with no MOT and no tax 

Yes, I am surprised. Please explain.

Several scenarios, one already outlined. Cars up to 3 years old have no MOT either.

Car_54

jimjames said:

Car_54 said:

jimjames said:

half_empty said:

Aretnap said:

half_empty said:

Edit. If it is illegal to be on the road with no tax, then struggling to see how the insurance will be valid/honoured in a bump.

It's also illegal to drive at 35mph in a built up area, to accelerate rather than brake when the light ahead turns amber, and to pull out of a junction without looking properly. Would you be surprised to learn that your insurance will be valid/honoured if you have a bump while doing one if those things?

And unlike not paying your VED all those things actually have the potential to be the cause of an accident. 

Erm, whatever. OK, call up your insurance and check with them, shouldn't be an issue then. I know they can play silly games with small changes that also don't cause accidents.

My concern would be someone un taxed causing an accident and the insurance saying nah, not happening. Don't really care if the untaxed driver ends up in court over it.

You might be surprised to know that it is entirely legal to drive your car on the road with no MOT and no tax 

Yes, I am surprised. Please explain.

Several scenarios, one already outlined. Cars up to 3 years old have no MOT either.

My car is two years old, and so doesn't need an MOT. How can I legally drive it untaxed?

Merlin139

If that was me I would reject the car and tell the dealer that you want your money returned to you.

Tell the dealer to come a collect the vehicle. I wonder why he would have taken the vehicle without a V5 in the first place? If you do this then you don't have to worry about driving it without tax.

He lied to you when he said that the V5 had been sent off.