Confusion over SORN - please help

[Hardcore Til I Die]

I'm getting a new car after work tomorrow and haven't got around to scrapping my current car yet.

I'm changing my insurance over to my new car, so my old car won't be insured from 5pm tomorrow.

The Directgov website (http://www.direct.go...hicle/dg_069727) says:

"You must make a SORN if one of the following applies:

• if you don?t renew your vehicle tax and you are keeping the vehicle off the road
  
• if you are applying for a refund of vehicle tax and keeping the vehicle off the road
  
• if you buy an untaxed vehicle and do not tax it
  
• if the vehicle has no valid insurance in place
  
• if you are cancelling the insurance and keeping the vehicle off the road
  
• every 12 months if you continue to keep your vehicle off the road
  
• in advance if your vehicle is to be kept off the road in the UK when you are abroad"
  

Clearly the no valid insurance one will apply to my car. But then later it states:

"

You can make a SORN from the fifth day of the month in which the current tax disc or SORN is due to expire. SORN cannot be backdated."

My tax disc doesn't expire until November, so does that mean that I can't declare my car off the road until November? Does that mean it's legal to keep my car on a public road with no insurance and without declaring it until 5th November?

I'll be scrapping it in a day or two anyway, just don't want to risk being caught and getting points - I'm allowed only six as I've been driving less than two years.

TIA :)

[Kami-]

If you don't have valid insurance on the car, you can't drive the car on the road. If you declare it SORN you'll have to have it towed to be scrapped as again you can't drive it.

One thing to note, driving without insurance won't just get you points as you've only had your license under the 2 year provision, it'll likely revoke your license & earn you a driving ban of 12-18months.

[Hardcore Til I Die]

If you don't have valid insurance on the car, you can't drive the car on the road. If you declare it SORN you'll have to have it towed to be scrapped as again you can't drive it.

One thing to note, driving without insurance won't just get you points as you've only had your license under the 2 year provision, it'll likely revoke your license & earn you a driving ban of 12-18months.

I wasn't planning on driving it without insurance, just keeping it on the road for a couple of days until I could have it towed to a scrapyard.

The Directgov website says you have to declare something as off the road when it doesn't have insurance, but it says I can't declare it off the road until the 5th day of the month that my tax expires? That's the bit that's confusing me... I have no intention to drive without insurance :)

[Crisp]

Have you not got a drive way / parking space to keep it in? If you have it on your property then no one is going to know it has no insurance. Just don't have it on a public road.

[n_K]

You can send in your old tax disc and get a refund on the months you haven't used and have it declared off-road at the same time.

If you're storing on private land, you do not need insurance or road tax if it's declared off-road.

if you're storing on public land/road parking bays you need a valid MOT, insurance and tax.

If you're having it scrapped, look at the 'transfer owner' document, there's a section that the scrapyard will fill in and send off to the DVLA to say it's been destroyed/taken out of use permanently.

[Hardcore Til I Die]

Have you not got a drive way / parking space to keep it in? If you have it on your property then no one is going to know it has no insurance. Just don't have it on a public road.

No, it's on a public road. :(

You can send in your old tax disc and get a refund on the months you haven't used and have it declared off-road at the same time.

If you're storing on private land, you do not need insurance or road tax if it's declared off-road.

if you're storing on public land/road parking bays you need a valid MOT, insurance and tax.

If you're having it scrapped, look at the 'transfer owner' document, there's a section that the scrapyard will fill in and send off to the DVLA to say it's been destroyed/taken out of use permanently.

I'm going to try and scrap it tomorrow, it's my only option really.. just a bit of a rush as I'll have to do it in my lunch hour.

I still don't understand this part though:

"You can make a SORN from the fifth day of the month in which the current tax disc or SORN is due to expire. SORN cannot be backdated."

It's not the 5th November (my tax expires in November), so from the way I interpret that I couldn't declare it off the road yet anyway?

[Liquidfox]

It's a bit late now, but this is what you needed to do:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/motoring/owningavehicle/howtotaxyourvehicle/dg_10012526

By filling in this form:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/@motor/documents/digitalasset/dg_065248.pdf

You apply for a refund of your tax disc once you scrap the car :)

[Hardcore Til I Die]

Forgot to post back here. I scrapped it, took out the tax disc and applied for a refund.