MSE News: Warning over new compulsory car insurance rules

rogerblack wrote: »

If this was made live, then police could easily find uninsured drivers, as could ANPR cameras.

It would only find uninsured cars, not uninsured drivers. Just because the car has insurance, doesn't mean the driver is insured to drive it.

rogerblack wrote: »

I find the new rules most annoying.
I'm disabled, and don't use the car much - both for financial reasons, and the fact I'm not safe to drive much of the time.
Previously, I was able to tax the car, and keep it in a locked garage off-road.
I was able to insure it on a one-day policy, for the comparatively few days a year I used it.
This about halves the cost of the required insurance, though admittedly does not build up
no-claims discount.

The simple and easy way for the government to fix this was to compell the insurance
companies to make the motor insurance database live.

An insured vehicle would always be on the database - at the moment it's not, it takes
several days often.

If this was made live, then police could easily find uninsured drivers, as could ANPR cameras.

However, the cheaper option was to simply do a database search of the DVLA records and the
insurance database, then send out letters.

The fact it's not possible to declare SORN without voiding your tax disk means that you can't
avoid this by taxing the vehicle for short periods.

In effect, a 200 pound/year tax.

Depressing.
I do hope that some insurers begin to offer policies that cover cars locked in garages.

How do you manage to tax the car in the 1st place without having proper (ie non-day insurance) on it?

I suspect the V890 will be changed so you can use it to declare SORN without having to surrender the tax disc. After all, at the moment, it is pointless declaring SORN if you have a valid tax disc.

Plenty of insurers already provide "laid-up" insurance for unused cars.

Andy_L wrote: »

How do you manage to tax the car in the 1st place without having proper (ie non-day insurance) on it?

I don't recall that being a requirement.

I suspect the V890 will be changed so you can use it to declare SORN without having to surrender the tax disc. After all, at the moment, it is pointless declaring SORN if you have a valid tax disc.

I have a reply from the ministers office that there are no plans for such.

Plenty of insurers already provide "laid-up" insurance for unused cars.[/QUOTE]

However - these policies actually cover you for risk, which costs.
I do not want a policy that covers me for fire, theft, accidental damage, or acts of terrorism.

I want a policy that solely covers me for the risk of the vehicle being stolen from the locked garage, and left on the public highway, until I can recover it (at my own cost, after having arranged suitable insurance)

Me, for one.


I'm not claiming a large number of people are in my position, however, the government suddenly deciding I have to pay a couple of hundred pounds extra a year, with no benefit to anyone other than the insurance companies, stings a bit.

I am quite capable of maintaining my garage to make the chances of the roof falling in vanishingly small.

Someone stealing it is indeed a real possibility - from a locked garage in a low crime area, with a 1.0l car with an immobiliser.
If someone steals it, and causes an accident, they would not be covered by any insurance.
Insurance would only kick in once they get out of the vehicle, and if they've left it in a public place, I would indeed have committed an offence.

I find this to be vanishingly unlikely enough, that I'm quite happy to take the risk, as I do now.

This risk still applies to SORN'd cars, of course.

I will now be required, if I wish to use the car every couple of weeks, to get it continually insured.
I was previously able to get it insured on a day-day basis, at a considerable saving, with the car remaining in a locked garage in between periods of insurance.

A bit of googling finds: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2011/20/pdfs/uksiem_20110020_en.pdf - this is the explanatory note to the statutory instrument amending the road traffic act to get it into a state where the next instrument can bring those provisions into force by setting enforcement actions.

stolt wrote: »

I guess once it goes live, everyone is getting a £30.00 discount on there car insurance

People will still drive uninsured. This system won't solve any problem other than creating a nice cash flow.