Road tax and insurance...

[theren_911]

I have recently been involved in a major accident on the day I purchased my new car.

I was under the impression that the vehicle had road tax till mid january, which infact ran out 12/05. Will this invalidate my insurance? I know a lack of MOT would do this, but I'm unsure on Road tax vs insurance...

[spaced]

it will have huge implications on you and your insurance. A vehicle is illegal to drive without insurance, MOT or tax, basically all 3 items valid together. You should have checked the tax disc properly, thats what the insurers and DVLA will tell you. You cant just assume that something is valid without checking it properly. Without tax, your car is not allowed to be on the road. Therefore your insurers are going to be asking major questions, and the lack of tax disc might make your insurarnce null and void in a claim. Also DVLA will possibly send you a fine, up to �1000.00. No excuses and no getting away from the system. Unless you had the accident within days of the expiry?

[spaced]

also, you would have received a tax reminder letter from the DVLA reminding you to tax the vehicle. Unless you have delayed the log book name change process? which again will be frowned upon by the DVLA.

[espookid]

I don't understand do you mean you crashed it on the day you bought it or is it a two car situation (the old and the new ) if you bought it from a dealer he has the responsibility for making sure the car is road legal as it leaves him --but only for that day

[theren_911]

In response to the questions. I had purchased the car on that day as a private sale. Phoned my insurer to transfer the policy etc etc before I drove off. My fault lies in not checking the tax disk, which I thought was upto date. This happened on 05/01/06. Tax expired 31/12/05. In my defence, I couldnt have purchased road tax even if I had known, because I didn't have updated policy docs from insurer, I wouldn't have recieved a V11 to remind me as I had purchased it that day and the V5 wasn't yet in my name.

The basic description of what happened that day is.

Bought new car

Insured new car

Drove new car into central reservation on motorway

Sunday: realised car has invalid tax disk

Monday: Posted here ;-P

[spaced]

ok, well you should have done this: -

1. CHECKED TAX

2. THEN BOUGHT CAR

Or before driving off with it you could have: -

1. GOT PREVIOUS OWNER TO TAX IT FOR YOU THEN PAY HIM

or

2. AMEND THE LOG WITH YOUR NEW DRIVER DETAILS

3. GO TO POST OFFICE AND HAND OVER YOUR LOG BOOK WITH A COMPLETED V10 FORM (WHICH ALLOWS YOU TAX AND VEHICLE WITHOUT THE REMINDER) AND A CHEQUE.....

Bobs your uncle mate! In return you would have had a lovely shiney new tax disc. Keep this for future reference

[dilligaf]

Personally I dont think the insurance company will bother to ask you about your road tax. It is more of a traffic offence rather than an insurance problem. Their main concern is was the car insured?
If the police were involved they will certainly want to see a current Mot and Tax disc as well as your insurance and licence. If you explain that you had just bought the car and was going to renew the tax when you arrived home and sorted out the documentation I really dont believe you will have any problems providing , and I repeat, you have a current Mot and insurance certificate.
I am afraid your main problem is going to be the cost of getting insured again

[theren_911]

Thanks for replying - but I still couldn't have taxed it. A simple "you're ******** pal" would have been sufficient. I didn't post here for you to try and belittle me spaced. I already feel stupid enough, so your efforts are wasted.

Also, I don't want to appear ungrateful for advice given to me, but everything said so far is looking like assumptions. (Assumprions which match my own initial thoughts) BUT - I can't find clarification anywhere - not on my policy, not on the DVLA site - not even on random web pages.

[dilligaf]

Have just spoken to a friend in motor insurance and he verified that it is very unlikely they will ask about road tax. If they do be quite open with them , althoughit is illegal not to display a current tax disc on a vehicle which is being used on the road , given the mitigating circumstances it very unlikely that an insurabce company will hold it against you.

PS If you need further advice try posting this question under Motoring.

[qapmoc]

It looks like a part of the list is missing there, are you sure that it is not -

Bought new car

Insured new car

'' Tried it out to see how fast it would go ''

Drove into central reservation on motorway

[qapmoc]

Hi theren, don't take it too personally, you can't expect to get only ''good'' replies to question here ! Many people take lots of time and trouble to make sure that they keep on the correct side of the law and if you didn't be just as carefull you will get adverse comments.

[theren_911]

qapmoc - you're the 1,000,000th person to say just that. At any other time it probably would have been true! BUT I was in the middle of a 300mile return journey and trying to conserve the petrol., so i was doing about 65-70 at the time, which didn't minimise the damage unfortunately.

[dilligaf]

You have asked for opinions on a situation you are involved in.
One can only assume on what the outcome will be.

The DVLA or your insurance will not say it's ok to drive without tax. It isn't, It's illegal.
The assumption is that for the couple of days your car was not taxed and considering you were not trying to evade paying tax, it would not be worth their while pursuing the matter. The DVLA have far more important matters to deal with.
The time and effort an insurance company would have to spend to prove this was not an oversight is just not cost effective.
Again this is an assumption. No one else can say otherwise.

[theren_911]

Sorry, I think I must have come across as rude and ungrateful, apologies all. I was just wondering if it is stated anywhere. As from past experience, assumption has been the mother of all **** up's!

I really do appreciate the responses from everyone. I was just hoping someone knew for definate, one way or the other, and could say look here "xxxx".

Good to know that your friend in the insurance co. was fairly positive tho, dilligaf.

[theren_911]

Just out of curiosity... Which insurance company? ...........

[dilligaf]

He desn't work for an insurance company. He works for the Motor Insurers Bureau, and I work for a government agency connected to the Department for Transport t, thats how I know him.

[buildersmate]

Sorry to hear of your predicament Theren.

Its not been covered above, but you CAN use Section 10 of the V5 - the New Keepers Supplement to get a new vehicle excise licence - it says so on the back. This is the bit of the paperwork the seller should have given to you. To mitigate the difficult situation why not run out of the PO today?

[Hammer]

In my experience of 4 claims in the past 5 years (don't ask!!) I have never been asked to prove that the car was taxed or MOT'd by the insurance company.

Fingers crossed they won't ask you either...

[theren_911]

I've thought about going and buying the tax, but if they did want to make an issue of it, It would be on reccord when I purchased it ;-)

I think I'm going to declare it SORN and try to get it onto my parents driveway! As I don't want to blow �95 on tax for a car I will never use ;-(

Thanks for info about the New keeper supplement, I'm may come in handy for the future ;-)

Sorry to hear about your crashes Hammer, I'll bet you can hear the insurer rubbing their hands together when you call for a quote!