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Car insurance on unused cars now compulsory in the UK

PostPosted: Wed Sep 16, 2009 2:25 pm
by zeteclotus
A friend of mine and I remember seeing something on the news the other day was said that all cars must now be insured even if kept unused off the road?

Is this true? has any one else heard about this?

I have quite a few project cars that are sorned and not insured?

Re: Car insurance on unused cars now compulsory in the UK

PostPosted: Wed Sep 16, 2009 2:42 pm
by paddy
If the car is SORNed there is no need for insurance:

http://www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/arc ... 169?page=2

The idea is just that cars that are "on the road" are required to have insurance, and it is no longer necessary for the authorities to catch you in the act of driving it.

Paddy

Re: Car insurance on unused cars now compulsory in the UK

PostPosted: Wed Sep 16, 2009 4:29 pm
by rcraven
Paddy, your link is to a consultation paper proposing that there should be such legislation. The consultation has ended and it looks as though the legislation will be brought into force though I don't think that's yet been done: see the links on this page http://www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/closed/motor/

Re: Car insurance on unused cars now compulsory in the UK

PostPosted: Wed Sep 16, 2009 4:39 pm
by stuartgb100
According to an Automobile Association spokesperson on the radio this afternoon,
ANY vehicle whether on the road or private property must have insurance. He also
said that the only way to avoid this requirement is to register the vehicle as being
sor ned.

Naturally the police will monitor the insurers collective database !
Cars can be clamped and the max fine is ?1000

Should make major inroads into our national debt !
What's next ?

Regards,
Stuart.

Re: Car insurance on unused cars now compulsory in the UK

PostPosted: Wed Sep 16, 2009 5:10 pm
by tdafforn
Are the police allowed to trespass in order to clamp?
Tim

Re: Car insurance on unused cars now compulsory in the UK

PostPosted: Wed Sep 16, 2009 6:32 pm
by paddy
rcraven wrote:Paddy, your link is to a consultation paper proposing that there should be such legislation.


OK, this looks to be current:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/Ow ... /DG_067639

It says the legislation is expected to come into force in 2011.

Paddy

Re: Car insurance on unused cars now compulsory in the UK

PostPosted: Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:19 pm
by atthelimit
The proposed legislation should not be a problem.
If the car is off the road it will be on SORN, if not, then it should be insured.

It got so bad at one point that it was estimated that 1 in 5 cars in some areas were not insured and if they then run into your car your insurance company will pay the bill but your insurance premium will rise.

Cars, bits of metal and fibreglass however much loved can be replaced or rebuilt, but when some one is injured and left in a wheelchair or unable to work, well thats another matter. There is a compensation scheme for injuries sustained as a result of uninsured drivers but to be frank the awards are capped and whilst better than nothing they are no where near what you would get if proper insurance was in place. This compensation fund is in fact a "piggy bank" which all insurers pay into using money from your premium. A cost that could be done away with or certainly reduced if 99% of cars were properly insured when they should be.

Lets get uninsured cars/drivers off the road, it costs us all in the long run.
I pay my insurance so why should anyone else getaway with not doing so.

Sorry, rant over, but as a working insurance broker we see loads and loads of claims where our clients are inocent victims of this sort of thing and its very sad and unfair when this happens to people.

Kim
Abbot Insurance Brokers from the vendors page.

Re: Car insurance on unused cars now compulsory in the UK

PostPosted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 10:54 am
by adigra
On face value, I can't say I see a problem with this. It's easy enough to SORN a vehicle if I won't be driving it for a while. But classic insurance is affordable enough it would never cross my mind to cancel it even if the car will be off the road for months (besides, the parts taken off it are also insured while garaged). I don't think this legislation has much to do with any of us at all unless you tend to drive uninsured...

My only question is: what stops the people who drive uninsured and avoid detection today to keep on doing it in SORN-ed vehicles?

Adi

Re: Car insurance on unused cars now compulsory in the UK

PostPosted: Sun Sep 20, 2009 7:46 pm
by zeteclotus
Thanks for clarifying that,

SORN is fine with me I keep my project cars off the road. i can see the day when we have to pay ownership tax/ insurance for our own good like we do with houses workshops (council tax permission to fix a window tax, permission to fix the electrics tax etc etc

Re: Car insurance on unused cars now compulsory in the UK

PostPosted: Sat Oct 16, 2010 5:08 am
by sheetal2010
I'm always up for a thoughtful discussion of semantics. Thank you for bringing a well thought out and reasoned comment to the discussion.


Buy Car Insurance

Re: Car insurance on unused cars now compulsory in the UK

PostPosted: Sat Oct 16, 2010 8:25 am
by john.p.clegg
Shouldn't the last posting be in the for sale section...

John :wink:

Re: Car insurance on unused cars now compulsory in the UK

PostPosted: Sat Oct 16, 2010 5:32 pm
by elj221c
[quote="atthelimit"]The proposed legislation should not be a problem.
If the car is off the road it will be on SORN, if not, then it should be insured. quote]

So, my Elan has been off the road since '89. There is, as far as I know, no requirement for me to SORN it as it hasn't been on the road since then. It seems that the DVLA hasn't looked at all possibilities here. (what a suprise!)

Of course, I agree that no one should drive uninsured but I do consider it to be my risk for my vehicle to be uninsured when off the road. There are plenty of cameras and foot patrols to catch those who transgress. A local road has at least two vehicles clamped awaiting further action on this count.

Roy
'65 S2

Re: Car insurance on unused cars now compulsory in the UK

PostPosted: Sat Oct 16, 2010 7:13 pm
by SADLOTUS
so....

If your insurance runs out in (say) September, but your tax (free anyway to some) runs out the following March, you are obliged to SORN your car regardles of whether you'll be using it for the next six months.

Then retax (deSORN?) it in March (or earlier) when you decide you want to drive it again.



Bet the insurance companies are skipping round the room doing high fives.

Re: Car insurance on unused cars now compulsory in the UK

PostPosted: Sat Oct 16, 2010 7:33 pm
by atthelimit
elj221c wrote:
atthelimit wrote:The proposed legislation should not be a problem.
If the car is off the road it will be on SORN, if not, then it should be insured. quote]

So, my Elan has been off the road since '89. There is, as far as I know, no requirement for me to SORN it as it hasn't been on the road since then. It seems that the DVLA hasn't looked at all possibilities here. (what a suprise!)

Of course, I agree that no one should drive uninsured but I do consider it to be my risk for my vehicle to be uninsured when off the road. There are plenty of cameras and foot patrols to catch those who transgress. A local road has at least two vehicles clamped awaiting further action on this count.

Roy
'65 S2


This is not quite what was meant. There are lots of cars tucked away in garages that are to be the subject of ?restoration or recommissioning when I can get around to it?

When SORN was introduced and it was not made clear at the time that you should be declaring all those project cars, that does not mean they now have to be insured as it can be proven that they were off the road before SORN was introduced and that no tax disc after sorn came into operation has been issued. So no one is going to come into garages and check the obvious "barn find" etc.

It is for this reason that cars that fall into this group cannot have there number plates transferred to other vehicles, so if your project had the reg number ACE 1 then unfortunately it will have to stay with that car and you could not sell the plate to make a small fortune.

Cars that do come back onto the road that fall into this group must retain that plate and there is a procedure to follow in terms of road tax that you have to go through in order to get the vehicle back on the road and it is not quite as simple as turning up with an old log book, an application form and the fee, there is s bit more work to do.

I am all in favour of getting uninsured untaxed road users prosecuted, what does need tightening up is the way in which the MID information is updated as there are occasions when genuinely innocent motorist get their cars seized even when it does have tax and proper insurance. But that?s another topic??.