Not sure how many it affects but you now must have continuous insurance or declare SORN. You can't have a car locked away without insurance and taxed.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring...LA=DM&CRE=Furl

 

Sorry whats different now ?

If the car is off the road, Sorn it and then no need for insurance ?

 

currently it can sit on the road (or drive) with valid Tax, but no insurance

not now

 

I guess it's just those folks who have a car stored for the winter with some tax left they have to cancel tax or insure the car..

 

Yes, get a refund on the road tax, keep the car off the road.

 

This will be worthwhile if it gets implemented.

At the moment, everyone seems to have online details of the RoadTax status, and the MoT status, but NOT the insurance status..
About time SOMEONE took insurance seriously.

 

I am not sure you do

I have a 1969 Mini Cooper awaiting restoration (as well as my 1964 Cooper S)

I have never needed to SORN it, but it exists on DVLA database

 

If a vehicle was offroad before the Sorn legislation was introduced, then your ok,

once you go onto the sytem Sorning stuff, theyve got you , and the usualk rules apply

how do you insure a pile of parts? for that matter how do you sorn it?


Mart

 

even if SORNed my car and my bikes are still always insured. Even if I'm not currently using them, some ****** could still try and nick them

 

I must be having a thick moment. I thought that had always been the case.
My old quattro is in the garage on two flat tyres and a flat battery and has been sorn for years.

 

It wouldn't surprise me in the least, that in the near future, the govt will require you to MOT, tax and insure EVERY car in the household, REGARDLESS of whether it's off the road unused!

This IS the "we will *** rape the easy to target motorists for all you're worth"-UK we're talking about, after all....

 

Christ that website is worded badly, after re-reading it a few times, i've managed to translate it all into eight words: To be legal, Insure it, OR SORN it.

In other words, if its SORN'd already, no worries. But if its not SORN'd and the insurance runs out, you need to SORN it, even if its still taxed.

Still won't sort the pikeys though.

 

Grey area. I do know for a fact if you become a new keeper on a vehicle already off the road, you need to declare SORN from that point onwards. I ended up doing this with my Landy when I purchased it in 2001 (it had been off the road since 1989).

Careful though, if it has a fancy plate the DVLA will assume its been scrapped and can try to auction off the reg number.

 

They can bugger orf

 

No doubt they'll "tax" you an admin charge on the SORN sooner or later.

I'll "export" my cars/bikes when that happens - then "import" them when they go back on the road

 

Irrelevant I know, but I read that as 'a pile of farts'I laughed

 

Since we dont have any significant number of traffic police any more, it is the only effective way to make sure a vehicle is insured if it is used when it legally should not be. The problem of untaxed and ininsured cars is very much worse than it ever used to be, especially with immigrants ignoring the laws.

I think it is unfair to expect you to insure an unused car and I think the numbers of traffic police should be increased to at least the numbers we used to have, they used to pick up cars being illegally driven very effectively and the roads would be considerably safer too.

Les

 

If it goes anyway toward making it harder to have an uninsured car on the road, then it's a good move.

 

Our vehicles here are insured permenently, the policy is automaticaly renewed every year so you don't have to worry about it unless you want to change companies. It is not possible to not have insurance and have a vehicle on the road. The only way you can cancel your insurance without renewing it with another company is to deregister the car. When you do this you have to surrender the plates back to the Landratsamt where they will remove the county sticker from them and either bin them or if you want you can have them back, however they are no longer valid and can be seen at a glance. Your paperwork is also marked as being deregistered. Not sure what happens then as the car technically does not exist on the computer, unless they have the previous owner listed until it is registered by someone else or by another Landratsamt. I suppose if you drive it with the old plates and get caught you will be in a whole world of ****. It seems an easy way to do things as you can not get false plates made and you also do not have to worry about forgetting to tax and insure your vehicle each year as it is all done automatically and via direct debit.

 

What are the insurance costs there like compared to the U.K?

 

Les, you don't need to insure an unused car. You just need to SORN it. That is all.

The website's wording is terrible.

 

It's a no brainer anyway isn't it? Who would want to SORN a car and then leave it on a public highway ready to be nicked, driven into etc

And on the other hand, I can't see making a bit of difference in regards hardcore uninsured drivers, they will do what Ali said and 'export' the car, then go on autotrader and find the same model/colour and copy the plates.

 

I think they are slightly cheeper than yours but it is complicated over here and as usual you get shafted somehow.

MY MY00 is around the 400 euro mark for TPFT + small furry animals etc
Can't honestly remember.