Insuring a SORN'd car for say a day or a week in order to drive to local garage for MOT

lesley2020

After the hilarious Aviva experience now posting the salient question.

I am insured for my usual car but have an old reliable banger which has been garaged for ages. MOT passed in 2018 and only driven 100 miles since then but expired in 2019 so SORN'd (and obviously tax has run out).

I now want to sell the car so I want to go for a local MOT (which I expect it to pass). As far as I can see I do not need tax to do this as I will have a pre-booked MOT appointment but I do need insurance.

I've checked a few temporary insurance sites but got rejected (I assume due to SORN status).

Have given up on Aviva - anyone know of a decent and relatively cheap temporary insurer who can deal with SORN'd cars? There must be someone out there because otherwise it is a Catch-22 situation...

Thanks

molerat

Have you asked the  MOT garage if they can collect and deliver either on a trailer or with trade plates ?

Insurance will likely be best through a local broker, the majority of insurers are "mass market" and don't cover niche situations.

lesley2020

Thanks Molerat - a good  suggestion.

Luckily I decided to try one more site before giving up - tempcover.com

They take the reg and ask relatively few questions - and the cost has come back as £40 so shall go with them.

Hoepfully this should help anyone else with a SORN'd car needing an MOT. 

Rolandtheroadie

Check the T&Cs. Although (surprisingly) they allow taking a car to a pre booked MOT, they say it must be taxed (unless you're getting the insurance to get taxed, you've no MOT so that's a no) and the car can't have been declared SORN.

https://www.tempcover.com/temporary-car-insurance/one-day

Ectophile

The Tempcover web site doesn't make any sense.  In one place, under "To get daily car insurance cover, your car must", it says "Not be declared SORN".  But look in the FAQ under "When is daily car insurance the best option?" and one of the answers is "Taking a SORN vehicle for an MOT".

Bear in mind that they are a broker, not an insurer.  I don't think you can find out the exact wording of the policy until some way into the quotation process.

Bigwheels1111

I would ring the local garages and ask who can do a collect and return.
My mechanic does it all the time. He drives to your house and leaves his car for the day and returns your on way home.

lesley2020

Thanks all - Tempcover advised that insuring a SORN'd untaxed car to MOT station and back was ok - here is text:

"

Thank you for getting in touch.

 If you have a pre-booked MOT you can use our insurance to drive to the MOT station, providing your vehicle is safe to drive and you must tax the vehicle as soon as you are able, if you haven't already.

 I hope that helps!

 Thank you,

 Kind Regards,

(redacted)

 Customer Experience Rep

Vulnerable Customer Champion

"

and my original enquiry:

"I have a (car) which pased its previous MOT no problem in 2019. It has been driven 100 miles since then, then SORN’d when the MOT ran out (so is without tax but I assume will pass its next MOT).

 I obviously need to drive it to the MOT centre in order to get a new MOT, and it appears I do not need the car to be taxed for this.

 However it appears I do need insurance for the car, even if only for one day.

 Your site says it does not cover SORN’d vehicles. If this is correct do you know of another company or solution?

 Thanks

"

Car1980

Just unsorn it and get some quotes. Nobody is going to leap onto your drive and clamp your car tomorrow. 

Grumpy_chap

The OP can't unsorn the car without getting MOT first.

lesley2020

Hi - an update and correction to my original post - I did go with TempCover.com in the end but I think I made a mistake as thinking it through they did not explicitly confirm that my SORN'd car could be insured. Their reply said 'we could only look to insuring....' which ih my haste I assumed meant 'Yes go ahead'. So I may have actually been driving uninsured over the two days as the car was initially SORNd at the start until I MOT passed and taxed it later that day.

The firm I was getting confused with was DayInsure.com - who explicitly offer SORNd vehicle insurance for MOT purposes. These would be the people to try first rather than TempCover.com