Breakdown cover and road tax

shinytop

A warning.  A 'friend' recently went away and forgot to renew his road tax before he went.   He had to call on his RAC breakdown cover because of a flat tyre/no spare wheel incident.  The RAC would not cover his untaxed car and asked him to pay a minimum £160 plus vat for a call out.  Fortunately he was able to get someone to go to his house and send him the tax renewal number from the reminder he'd forgotten about so he could tax his car online. 

The car ended up being taken 30 miles to the nearest supplier with a tyre to fit so it could have been expensive. Lesson learned, he'll be more careful in the future. 

BTW I'm not complaining about the RAC's policy; I think it's fair enough.   

prowla

I don't think it's the RAC's business whether the car is taxed.

Car_54

prowla said:

I don't think it's the RAC's business whether the car is taxed.

It is if they have to tow it.

Aretnap

Car_54 said:

prowla said:

I don't think it's the RAC's business whether the car is taxed.

It is if they have to tow it.

If the concern is that that it would be illegal to tow an untaxed car, it's not obvious to me why they can't do it as part of your policy, but they could do it if you bung them an extra £160.

OTOH if the concern is simply that the policy terms require the car to be taxed, it's not clear how they could use a breach of that term to refuse a claim unless the lack of tax somehow caused the breakdown, which of course it didn't. (Insurance Act. ICBOS etc).

shinytop

prowla said:

I don't think it's the RAC's business whether the car is taxed.

If I read the small print I'm sure it will say that for a car to be covered it has to be taxed, and probably MOT'd too.  If so it's their decision and their business.    

Aretnap

shinytop said:

prowla said:

I don't think it's the RAC's business whether the car is taxed.

If I read the small print I'm sure it will say that for a car to be covered it has to be taxed, and probably MOT'd too.  If so it's their decision and their business.    

The principle that you can put any term you damn well like in a consumer contract and it's nobody's business but your own went out at about the same time as the dinosaurs.

There is a general principle that if you breach the terms of your insurance policy, the insurer can only use that as a reason to refuse a claim if the breach was relevant to the claim. See the Insurance Act 2015, though the principle has been part of industry regulations and codes of practice since we'll before 2015.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/4/section/11/enacted

So if your home insurance had a bit of small print that said you had to lock your doors while the house was unoccupied, your insurer could refuse to pay for a burglary that happened when you left the house unlocked. However they couldn't turn down a subsidence claim just because they found out that you didn't always lock your doors when you went out. Because, of course they couldn't.

Or if your car insurance said that your car had to be roadworthy and you had no working headlights they could decline a claim 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 road tax, there are no circumstances in which the failure to pay tax can cause your car to break down, so on the face of it, it is indeed no business of the RAC's whether your car is taxed, whatever your policy says. Though I suppose if the lack of tax meant that your car had to be trailered on a flatbed rather than a standard tow truck (not sure if that's the case without looking it up) then they might be able to charge you for the extra costs which resulted.

forgotmyname

Not illegal but maybe they had a case in the past where they dropped someones untaxed car off and it got towed
away for no tax?

Car_54

This is an issue that used to come up from time to time in the recovery industry. There were concerns among mechanics that towing an untaxed car was illegal (probably not), or even that simply fixing it would be aiding and abetting (complete nonsense).

However, that was in the days when tax discs made the vehicle's status obvious. The OP's account suggests that the RAC routinely check tax online for every breakdown. Can that be true?

Stubod

..why does charging an extra £160 then make it OK for them to come out?

sheramber

It is a condition of the breakdown policy 

All vehicles must be insured and hold valid tax and MOT (unless exempt).

Nothing to do with whether legal to tow or not.

£160 will be their normal call out charge if you are not a member.

As it is a condition of the policy I expect they do check each call out.

lisyloo

Car_54 said:

This is an issue that used to come up from time to time in the recovery industry. There were concerns among mechanics that towing an untaxed car was illegal (probably not), or even that simply fixing it would be aiding and abetting (complete nonsense).

However, that was in the days when tax discs made the vehicle's status obvious. The OP's account suggests that the RAC routinely check tax online for every breakdown. Can that be true?

Last time I called autoaid they said they wouldn’t recover me as their database said I had no MOT.
I faced a delay whilst I got my partner to find the paperwork, take a photo and then emailed it to them.
so yes companies do check.
I got £80 back due to the delay.