Question about notifying DVLA of death

bunnygo

sorry for your loss.

been there; using tellusonce with the DVLA means the car then has no keeper and also cancels the tax. You may or may not get  a refund of the tax. Nothing else happens automatically.

Transfer it to a new keeper and re-tax it before driving it or even keeping it on the road. And just as importantly - death of the policyholder invalidates the insurance including that for named drivers. The bereavement department of the insurers should give you 30 days breathing space while you work out what to do, this gives time to shop around for a new policy if you want. Incidentally insurance is always cheaper if you add a second driver, even if they never actually drive it.

the owner is not the same as the keeper, the new owner will be whoever it is left to under the will. BTW a car is a 'chattel' so can be sold without awaiting probate should that be the plan.

As I said - been there.

Savvy_Sue

bunnygo said:

 Incidentally insurance is always cheaper if you add a second driver, even if they never actually drive it.

As long as the second driver isn't a 17 yo learner, or someone with points on their licence or recent claims of their own ...

waveyjane

bunnygo said:

sorry for your loss.

been there; using tellusonce with the DVLA means the car then has no keeper and also cancels the tax. You may or may not get  a refund of the tax. Nothing else happens automatically.

Transfer it to a new keeper and re-tax it before driving it or even keeping it on the road. And just as importantly - death of the policyholder invalidates the insurance including that for named drivers. The bereavement department of the insurers should give you 30 days breathing space while you work out what to do, this gives time to shop around for a new policy if you want. Incidentally insurance is always cheaper if you add a second driver, even if they never actually drive it.

the owner is not the same as the keeper, the new owner will be whoever it is left to under the will. BTW a car is a 'chattel' so can be sold without awaiting probate should that be the plan.

As I said - been there.

Thanks - can you clarify the "car then has no keeper" and "the owner is not the same as the keeper"? I'm confused about what that means exactly. Do you mean, for example, that owner might be my mother (since she inherits the car), but that I might be the keeper (insuring and taxing it)? Does that distinction concern the DVLA? If so, how?

Sarahspangles

The DVLA need to know whose details to supply initially when there’s a speeding ticket/bus lane penalty etc!

user1977

waveyjane said:

bunnygo said:

sorry for your loss.

been there; using tellusonce with the DVLA means the car then has no keeper and also cancels the tax. You may or may not get  a refund of the tax. Nothing else happens automatically.

Transfer it to a new keeper and re-tax it before driving it or even keeping it on the road. And just as importantly - death of the policyholder invalidates the insurance including that for named drivers. The bereavement department of the insurers should give you 30 days breathing space while you work out what to do, this gives time to shop around for a new policy if you want. Incidentally insurance is always cheaper if you add a second driver, even if they never actually drive it.

the owner is not the same as the keeper, the new owner will be whoever it is left to under the will. BTW a car is a 'chattel' so can be sold without awaiting probate should that be the plan.

As I said - been there.

Thanks - can you clarify the "car then has no keeper" and "the owner is not the same as the keeper"? I'm confused about what that means exactly. Do you mean, for example, that owner might be my mother (since she inherits the car), but that I might be the keeper (insuring and taxing it)? Does that distinction concern the DVLA? If so, how?

Yes, the owner and the registered keeper can be different things (a typical example being where it's on finance, with the vehicle still owned by the finance company, but the person who actually runs the car is registered as the keeper). The DVLA doesn't keep a record of who the owner is, just the keeper whom they contact about tax, tickets etc.

waveyjane

"The DVLA doesn't keep a record of who the owner is, just the keeper whom they contact about tax, tickets etc."

OK so "owner" is academic in this case. My mother will automatically own the vehicle, but needs to register as its new keeper with the DVLC.

For a moment there, I thought you meant there were two separate processes to transfer two different things.