How can you report an uninsured vehicle if you're not allowed to check?

Conrad3000

Hi all.

The MID database says you're only allowed to check your own car, not anyone else's.

I also spoke to my local Police on 101 live chat and they said to report it to the DVLA?!

How can that be right when it's against the law to park an uninsured vehicle on the public highway?

Surely it's the Police's job to sort it out?

Thanks.

kinger101

How do you know it's uninsured?

Presume the police are asking you to report so DVLA can action if it isn't.

A parked uninsured vehicle might not be the police's top priority.

TooManyPoints

The DVLA usually handle fixed penalties or prosecutions under s144a of the RTA (Keeping an uninsured vehicle),

Ms_Chocaholic

You can use this website to check if any vehicle is insured, or not, no mention of having to be the owner.

https://www.gov.uk/check-vehicle-tax

Car_54

Ms_Chocaholic said:

You can use this website to check if any vehicle is insured, or not, no mention of having to be the owner.

https://www.gov.uk/check-vehicle-tax

No, you can’t.

Ms_Chocaholic

Car_54 said:

Ms_Chocaholic said:

You can use this website to check if any vehicle is insured, or not, no mention of having to be the owner.

https://www.gov.uk/check-vehicle-tax

No, you can’t.

It doesn't state anywhere on the page that you have to be the owner of the vehicle to check, in fact it states:

Find out if a vehicle has up-to-date vehicle tax or has been registered as off the road (SORN).

Ms_Chocaholic

and this page states:

If you see an untaxed vehicle on a road, you can report it. Your report is anonymous and will be investigated.

https://www.gov.uk/report-untaxed-vehicle

Steps to report a vehicle as untaxed

1. Check if the vehicle is taxed before you report it - this is a free service.

eschaton

Ms_Chocaholic said:

You can use this website to check if any vehicle is insured, or not, no mention of having to be the owner.

https://www.gov.uk/check-vehicle-tax

How does that tell you a car isn’t insured. 

There’s a big difference between tax and insurance. The main difference being that they are entirely different things. 

kinger101

Ms_Chocaholic said:

You can use this website to check if any vehicle is insured, or not, no mention of having to be the owner.

https://www.gov.uk/check-vehicle-tax

Thars taxed. Not insured 

MyRealNameToo

Conrad3000 said:

Hi all.

The MID database says you're only allowed to check your own car, not anyone else's.

I also spoke to my local Police on 101 live chat and they said to report it to the DVLA?!

How can that be right when it's against the law to park an uninsured vehicle on the public highway?

Surely it's the Police's job to sort it out?

Thanks.

Arguably there is no need to check as the DVLA knows which vehicles are SORNed and it has full access to the MID to see which vehicles are insured. So anything thats not insured and not SORNed is committing an offence and the DVLA will automatically deal with them. The one thing this process can't deal with is vehicles that are SORNed but are on the road anyway which is a separate offence as you can insurer a SORNed vehicle.

Having an uninsured vehicle however is a lesser offence to driving an uninsured vehicle. The later is normally dealt with by the police rather than the DVLA

akm2018

Conrad3000 said:

Hi all.

The MID database says you're only allowed to check your own car, not anyone else's.

Do you imagine that anyone is going to come after you if you check that checkbox even if it's not your car?