New Gov law, Sorn car insurance ??

Surely there should be a policy in force that you are allowed 2-3 weeks without the insurance when selling a car to allow for the processing of the V5, basically if they notice no insurance on a taxed vehicle but then a logbook arrives to change the keeper then they would be able to see the date the car changed hands and therefore after that date, despite the car still being registered in the old owners name there should be no fines issued. I don't see how they can implement the law if you cant have more than 1 insurance policy on a vehicle and its been sold. They clearly havent thought abouth these complications have they

plus I'm confident that if a case like this should arise, if taken to court, the court would see in favour of the motorist seeing as though they were no longer the owner of the car and therefore DVLA has more court costs to pay as well.

Does anyone know anyone who has actually been taken to court by the DVLA? I ask because I got done by them about 18 months ago having sold a car to a trader. I sent off the sold to trader slip from the V5C and heard nothing back. Then I got a tax reminder for the car, contacted them and they said that unless I could provide the details of the guy from the other end of the country tha I had sold the car to 5 months earlier, I was liable. I invited them to take me to court as I wouldn't be paying it and they instantly set the bailifs on me.

i swopped a vehicle with a guy i contacted through Gumtree and have had a fine for not SORNing my old one now its tax has run out, i sent them a letter explaining that i had sent the log book off and even said that they could find out his details by looking up the details on the car i swopped with (i no longer have that one either) and they still sent me a letter back saying i'm liable as they didnt get the log book.

I read somewhere that they lose a lot of post internally so how can they blame me for them not getting it? they could have lost it, as could the post office.

I'm really not a fan of this new law. It's a ridiculous attempt to drag more money out of us without having the headlines associated with putting up tax.

The thing I like about it least though, is that it's yet more beurocratic curse word that your average person has to keep up with to go through life keeping their nose clean. It's getting to the point now where it's near enough impossible to get through adult life without unintentionally braking the law. The trouble with this, is that once you're no longer squeaky clean, its all too easy to start letting other things slip.

I personally feel this type of thing causes a lot of trouble in modern society. If the law was plain, clear cut, well advertised and easy to follow, more people would make the effort to be decent law abiding citizens, and more who tried would succeed. Less government time and money would be spent on prosecuting well meaning people for silly things, and those resources could be used on useful stuff that improves the quality of life for the law abiding people, and getting the people who are knowingly, deliberately braking the law.

It's the same sort of thing that I feel about the motorway speed limit. Everyone knows it's OK to do 80 on the motorway in decent conditions, it's fine, it's perfectly safe, even the police and other authority's know this, and so do the public. The trouble is, that in a lot of peoples minds, if it's safe to do a bit over the limit on that occasion, it's probably fine to do it at other times. In some national speed limit roads, that's fine and dandy, but when people start doing 40 through a housing estate, because it's only a bit over the limit, kids get run over. In theory, if you stick the motorway limit up to 80, but are very strict about people doing more than 80, then people are less likely to think they can push it on the other roads by association.


I guess what I'm saying, is that I believe if there was less stupid little laws, and the existing ones were reasonable and easy to keep on the correct side of, then this would be a better place to live as a result.


PS, I don't really understand how this is supposed to cut down on uninsured drivers. If you drive a car with no insurance, you get a fine, your car impounded and some points on your licence. If you drive a car without insurance and without tax you get 2 fines, your car impounded and some points on your licence. How is a slightly larger fine going to put people off? Especially considering that there isn't actually a fixed fine for driving without insurance.


PS, sorry about the negative post. (although I do feel it's at least slightly constructive) have some cars that don't need to worry about tax from my photobucket as repayment:

Someone tells me that most insurance companies will keep your old car insured for a small fee until you sell it. I've never heard of this. Anyone know if its true?

I got a free months cover on my old car when I swapped the policy over to the new daily - its going to be down to each insurance company as to what (if anything) they offer you

There was a government minister talking about this on 5Live this morning. He admitted that it won't do anything about those people who don't bother with tax / insurance / MOT at all but that it was a step in the right direction and would cut some of the cars being driven uninsured.

Also said that if the computer picks up that someone has a car taxed but not insured then they won't get an immediate fine - they will first get a letter, if after a set period the registered keeper hasn't responded and the car is still taxed then a fixed penalty notice would be issued. So there will be a certain period of grace.

Also, both Churchill and Admiral gave me 14 days cover on my 'old' car when I had transferred the policy to my 'new' one whilst selling the 'old' one.

Ok guys quick question as I have a friend who thinks she will be badly affected by this law. She's got a car that she wants to learn to drive in. But due to commitments and riding her bike everywhere she'll only be doing a bit of driving every few months. Basically she was going to get some temporary learner driver insurance whenever she drives for a couple weeks at a time obviously because the car wont be used all the time with months in between use. Does this new law mean that when the temporary insurance runs out she has to surrender the tax disc and declare it SORN everytime she doesnt use it for a month or so. If so then its gonna be a royal PITA.

yeah as above. Insurance on a provisional as a learner is cheap as hell. Its only when you say your fully licenced that they sting ya.