SORN'd car parked outside

Okell

Sometime last week somebody dumped parked a 54 plate Mazda on the street right in front of my house.

Just checked MOT status and it expires in May next year, but the car's tax status shows as SORN.

Am I right it should not be on a public road?

Grumpy_chap

Yes.

You are correct.

TooManyPoints

Use this:

Report an untaxed vehicle - GOV.UK

Eldi_Dos

As today is the first of the month the owners might have been waiting until today to tax the vehicle, I would give it a couple of days to see if it updates before reporting it, if still showing SORN.

Grumpy_chap

Reporting a dumped vehicle and getting the LA to accept it is dumped is quite an effort.

I know as, down the road from us, there is a Volvo S40 that has been in the same position since Christmas. Flat tyres, dented wing, smashed rear window where someone decided to enter the car in January.

Several people have reported it as dumped.

The initial reports were made in January and dismissed by the LA on the basis that the car has to be unmoved for "several" months to be dumped.

The reports at Easter time were rejected by the LA on the basis that the car has MoT and VED and therefore cannot be dumped. The LA will only consider the car as dumped if MoT and VED are both expired plus an adequate "grace period" has passed in case of error by the owner.

Bigphil1474

Grumpy - think you are taking about abandoned vehicles which is a bit different to the OP's problem. An abandoned vehicle basically has to have no identifiable owner and be clearly abandoned. If someone has put an MOT on it, or taxed it, or insured it, or even just recently cleaned it, it doesn't matter what state it is in, it isn't abandoned.

OP, if it's bothering you report it. Might get further sticking a dated note on the windscreen asking the owner to move it. See how long before the note disappears.

Mildly_Miffed

SORN = Statutory OFF-ROAD Notification

There's a clue in that.

Yes, it needs to be taxed if it's parked on the public road, and it needs to be off the road if it's untaxed. I suspect it's also uninsured.

https://www.gov.uk/make-a-sorn

facade

It might just be someone who is hard up for cash this month and has parked the car up until they can afford it, but doesn't understand how SORN works, or it could have been stolen off someone's drive and parked up for a few days on a quiet street to see if it has a tracker.

You could report it to the police non emergency number if you have a spare couple of hours to go on hold as suspected stolen since it is SORN, you might be doing someone a favour.

sheramber

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82019964#Comment_82019964

Reports of non taxed cars or sorned cars on a public road go to DVLA, not the police.

Okell

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82018770#Comment_82018770

I wondered about that. I'll check it again this afternoon to see if it's tax status has changed.

I've checked with all our neighbours and nobody knows whose car it is

Parking is an absolute nightmare on our street so if it's still untaxed this pm I'll report it to DVLA. My worry is that their agents will only clamp it and not remove it, and it'll stay here for weeks.

What I don't understand is that it's MOT'd up until 14 May 2027. And what looks like the MOT is on the passenger seat. Why MOT it and SORN it, but leave it on some random street?

I've just looked again and it's still showing as SORN'd

It failed its MOT on 05 May 2026 and then passed on 15 May 2026.

Prior to that the latest MOT was in March 2024 - so no MOT in 2025. What does that indicate? That it was SORN'd again last year?

[Edit: it's a 54 plate Mazda 5 with 100800 miles on the clock. Only done 3000 since March two years ago]

facade

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82020054#Comment_82020054

Yes, but who do you report suspicious cars to, so that stolen ones could be recovered and save me money if not the Police?

In The Real Olden Days, a parked stolen car would get spotted by a patrolling policeman, (now they have ANPR to ping if the 'plate matches with a reported TWOC so it isn't like they'd have to work any harder..) nowadays some streets never see any Police.

Maybe they couldn't care less any more about recovering stolen cars since I can just pay higher insurance premiums to cover it, but it would be a tiny positive statistic if they made a note and checked and found out that it was. ☺️