Uninsured and off the road for 2 days - auto fine?

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
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Sat 27 Mar 2021 19:19
Uninsured and off the road for 2 days - auto fine? - MazzaGee

I just bought a used car privately. Bought one day insurance Friday to bring it home.

Saw a good deal for annual insurance with Aviva, but the Aviva site is throwing an error and saying I need to call up on Monday.

As I've already taxed the car, I don't want to SORN it for a day or two and have to pay for the remaining 3 days of March twice!

So a taxed car kept off the road - how quickly will the insurance bureau issue a fine?

I assume it's mostly automated, but I have no idea how sharp they are with one or two days between policies for example. I'm totally fine with buying my insurance just want to get this particular deal I've already filled out but can't until Monday at the earliest!

If there were a 'temporary' SORN that didn't cancel and refund the tax paid that would be an option - but I'm not aware of that option. Any ideas?

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Sat 27 Mar 2021 20:33
Uninsured and off the road for 2 days - auto fine? - _

I=Did you have a car before the one you just bought, No problem as insurance companies know this happens. If it was genuinely parked off road no problem either.

No insurance bureau will issue a fine.

They will either insure you or they won't.

Just be totally honest.

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Sat 27 Mar 2021 22:11
Uninsured and off the road for 2 days - auto fine? - chris87
Better safe than sorry, insurance is one of those things you do NOT mess with, regardless. Get temporary cover for another 2 days, it won’t be more than £50...

Veygo is a good one!
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Sun 28 Mar 2021 00:10
Uninsured and off the road for 2 days - auto fine? - Galaxy

Do also bear in mind that should something happen like the car was stolen or caught fire then with no insurance cover in place you wouldn't receive any compensation.

Best not to leave the car uninsured, even for just a day or two.

Edited by Galaxy on 28/03/2021 at 00:11

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Sun 28 Mar 2021 06:33
Uninsured and off the road for 2 days - auto fine? - catsdad

Do you need to stick with Aviva? There are many companies that work weekends and will insure you annually on the spot. Any day rate insurance you take out meantime will eat into the good deal Aviva were offering.

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Sun 28 Mar 2021 08:29
Uninsured and off the road for 2 days - auto fine? - John F

If it's off the road you do not have to insure it. If it is unlikely to catch fire or be stolen during the next 72 hrs, I would wait till 1st April or whenever you want to drive it again, whichever is later. Have you had a quote from LV=?

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Sun 28 Mar 2021 08:34
Uninsured and off the road for 2 days - auto fine? - RT

If it's off the road you do not have to insure it. If it is unlikely to catch fire or be stolen during the next 72 hrs, I would wait till 1st April or whenever you want to drive it again, whichever is later. Have you had a quote from LV=?

You can only avoid insuring it if it's SORN'd, otherwise it must be insured even if parked off-road and unused.

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Sun 28 Mar 2021 09:36
Uninsured and off the road for 2 days - auto fine? - Big John

If it's off the road you do not have to insure it.

Legally if you have a car registered in your name it has to be taxed/insured or on SORN - even if it's off the road.

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Sun 28 Mar 2021 10:02
Uninsured and off the road for 2 days - auto fine? - pd

You can never be sure but the DVLA do not seem that hot. I very much doubt you'll ever hear anything over 2 days. Even if they do, they normally issue a warning first.

I wouldn't worry too much about it myself.

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Sun 28 Mar 2021 12:27
Uninsured and off the road for 2 days - auto fine? - John F

If it's off the road you do not have to insure it.

Legally if you have a car registered in your name it has to be taxed/insured or on SORN - even if it's off the road.

Good gracious - how ridiculous. I stand corrected........but I'd still wait till April 1st. De minimis non curat lex.

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Sun 28 Mar 2021 12:37
Uninsured and off the road for 2 days - auto fine? - skidpan

If it's off the road you do not have to insure it.

Legally if you have a car registered in your name it has to be taxed/insured or on SORN - even if it's off the road.

Good gracious - how ridiculous. I stand corrected........but I'd still wait till April 1st. De minimis non curat lex.

Been like that for a number of years now, its called the "continuous insurance enforcement"

See here www.gov.uk/vehicle-insurance/uninsured-vehicles

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Sun 28 Mar 2021 12:37
Uninsured and off the road for 2 days - auto fine? - pd

I honestly don't think the DVLA system can cope with day to day changes,

Not all MID updates from all insurers are real time anyway so can take 2-3 days for a car to show as insured with the DVLA.

It is only if you let it go on for months it seems to (sometimes) flag up.

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Sun 28 Mar 2021 13:06
Uninsured and off the road for 2 days - auto fine? - Bromptonaut

I honestly don't think the DVLA system can cope with day to day changes,

There's bound to be a daily 'churn' as insurance expires and people renew late or with another company and MID notifications lag a bit. Even if DVLA had the resources to chase people over very short periods the catch in terms of evaders would be pretty small.

I think they run a process at on a monthly or thereabouts basis.

Obviously, if the car is driven, or even left on the road, then the odds are radically different.

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Mon 29 Mar 2021 03:07
Uninsured and off the road for 2 days - auto fine? - edlithgow

Obviously, if the car is driven, or even left on the road, then the odds are radically different.

Hows that then? I know the UK is Pervasive Surveillance City, but that seems a bit of a stretch.

I suppose if driving you might be scanned by multiple CCTV, but parked on a suburban street?

Drones?

Low Earth Orbit Platforms?

Neighbourhood Watch Stazi?

The last lot of course could and did dob one in for tax disk expiry, though probably these days that's fully automated. This happened on the dot to my Lada, which seemed appropriately totalitarian (cue sinister Ipcress File style Balalaika backing), but they hopefully wouldn't have access to insurance details.

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Mon 29 Mar 2021 06:38
Uninsured and off the road for 2 days - auto fine? - catsdad

We live in a quiet estate in a market town with low crime. Every couple of years they have a clamp down with cars and vans being stopped for tax, fuel (and Mot?) checks. More relevant to the OP they also run checks on parked cars, perhaps using number plate recognition and a car was done in the next street to us. I saw the paperwork on the windscreen. A bit like TV licensing then authorities make a big fuss in the papers about the numbers caught as a deterrent. Statistically remote but a risk.

The problem the OP might have faced is in doing a quick SORN and then reversing it in a couple of days. I did that once and the system didn’t like it. I can’t recall the details but I do remember there were a few days when it wasn’t clear to all parts of the system what state of SORN the car was in.

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Mon 29 Mar 2021 09:27
Uninsured and off the road for 2 days - auto fine? - John F

In the old days one could drive an untaxed car undetected for quite some time. One day, a police motorcyclist abruptly did a U turn, sped up behind me and stopped me. I indignantly refuted his accusation that my car was untaxed. Unfortunately, a few weeks ago I had absentmindedly affixed the new tax disc to my wife's car. Thankfully I was let off - after a mouthful of humble pie I complimented him on his perceptive observation of my 'wrong coloured' out of date tax disc. New young drivers will have no idea what the 'wrong colour' means!

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Mon 29 Mar 2021 09:16
Uninsured and off the road for 2 days - auto fine? - Andrew-T

<< I suppose if driving you might be scanned by multiple CCTV, but parked on a suburban street? >>

I guess the idea is you might pass an ANPR camera. Quite possible now.

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Mon 29 Mar 2021 09:48
Uninsured and off the road for 2 days - auto fine? - bathtub tom

<< I suppose if driving you might be scanned by multiple CCTV, but parked on a suburban street? >>

Police cars have ANPR cameras. Watch any police documentary and you can hear the pings as they detect untaxed, unlicensed and uninsured vehicles. It seems they only bother about insurance lapses, unless they're bored and run out of doughnuts.

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