Getting road tax when buying cars at auction

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Fri 30 Oct 2009 14:54
Getting road tax when buying cars at auction - Pondlife
If I buy a car at auction as a private individual (no trade plates), what is the best way to get the car taxed so it's legal to drive home?

I can see there may be three things missing from a legal perspective:

1. Valid MOT, but I can phone a friendly garage and "book it in" so that's covered;
2. Insurance, I can get this arranged by phone; and
3. Road tax - not sure how to do this.

My guess is that most (or at least some) cars will not have a tax disc, as it will have been cashed in. And I think I need to show MOT, Insurance and V5 to get the road tax from the PO which would take a couple of days. I think BCA let you leave the car overnight, but I'm sure they want it gone pretty sharpish.

How do people normally sort this out?
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Sat 31 Oct 2009 17:48
Getting road tax when buying cars at auction - Dynamic Dave
Bump.

This was posted in the classifieds section, but now moved to the correct place.

DD.
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Sat 31 Oct 2009 18:07
Getting road tax when buying cars at auction - bathtub tom
Make sure it's insured.

Book an MOT.

It's perfectly legal to drive to and from an MOT without tax (as long as nothing dangerous is wrong with the car).
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Sat 31 Oct 2009 18:52
Getting road tax when buying cars at auction - Pondlife
It's perfectly legal to drive to and from an MOT without tax (as long as
nothing dangerous is wrong with the car).


If that's true, then I think I'm sorted. I knew that it was OK to drive to an MOT testing centre without MOT, but I didn't know this applied to road tax as well.

I want to make sure everything is legal, as I can imagine there must be many people who just take a chance, so just outside the BCA site on auction day might be rich pickings for the cops.
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Sat 31 Oct 2009 18:04
Getting road tax when buying cars at auction - Westpig
trailer?
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Sat 31 Oct 2009 18:31
Getting road tax when buying cars at auction - Pugugly
Make sure your MoT garage isn't too far from the auction site.
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Sat 31 Oct 2009 18:36
Getting road tax when buying cars at auction - Wurzel83
I was faced with this issue last year when I got my 5 year old Ex Network Rail Focus Estate.

BCA Allow you to take the vehicle on the day as long as you have paid for it. They will provide you with the V5 slip (if present). My MOT was not present but I took the No. from the top of the V5 to a Testing Station who did a duplicate certificate for £10. (you could do this straight after paying for the vehicle and before collecting it).

My problem was that the cover note from the insurance was predicted to take 2-3 working days to come and the Post Office do not accept "Faxes" or "print offs" so I could not drive the car home the day after as I innitially intended too.

I thought of it as follows: If it camre through the post 3 days after then I would collect it on day 4. BCA hold it for free for 24 hours so I would have paid 3*£24 = £72 for holding. Then I would have had to get a train from Bristol to Wallsall on the day of collection for £35. Total cost = £107 plus a days annual leave from work. I settled for BCA to deliver the car for £100 plus VAT.

Interesting point about the Pre-Booked MOT though - will consider that next time.

Edited by Wurzel83 on 31/10/2009 at 18:37

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Sat 31 Oct 2009 19:52
Getting road tax when buying cars at auction - Bill Payer
Be careful that the insurance covers the car - I don't know how widespread the term is but LV's policies specifically say that the car must have a valid MOT if needed.
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Sat 31 Oct 2009 20:10
Getting road tax when buying cars at auction - bathtub tom
>>Post Office do not accept "Faxes" or "print offs"

I've heard this before.

I had no problem when taxing my car after changing my insurance company to Swiftsure. They only issue electronic certificates, unless you opt to pay extra. My local PO accepted my printed copy without question (I'm too mean to pay the extra).
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Sat 31 Oct 2009 22:05
Getting road tax when buying cars at auction - martint123
Yes, I was told by one of my bike insurers I would not be covered going for an MOT if it had expired. I no longer use them!
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Sat 31 Oct 2009 22:23
Getting road tax when buying cars at auction - daveyK_UK
Dont worry about it.
Just drive it home via a route which the police or dvla spotters dont frequent.
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Sat 31 Oct 2009 22:33
Getting road tax when buying cars at auction - mcguyver
I thought of using one of those daily insurance companies to get tax for auction purchases but, apparently, this type of cover is unacceptable for obtaining a VED disc at a post office.

I bought my last auction car just before going on holiday for the weekend. When I got home the cover note had arrived so I taxed and collected it. I think Manheim are (or were) more generous with lot removal time limits.

One positive: the new tax rules mean that only the registered keeper can claim a refund, so more part-exchanges should be arriving at auction with a bit of tax left.

The last car I sold at auction was only T&T until the next day. The auctioneer said " Lot number 23, Vauxhall Astra with a full 12 hours tax and test."
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Sun 1 Nov 2009 06:53
Getting road tax when buying cars at auction - Jamesh266
The last time I bought a car at auction (2007) BCA delivered the car to my house (37 miles from the auction) for about £60. This made things much more convenient.
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