Car not in use for a year

[CityGirl]

This summer (July time) I'm moving away for a year but don't want to sell my car. The insurance runs out in May and the tax in October. Can I insure my car come May for the tax disk to be renewed in October, then cancel my insurance and leave the car in a secure private garage until I return home so I don't have to go through the process of declaring the car off the road? Thanks for you help.

[Polotoo]

Hi Citygirl

I'm a little confused (and it doesn't take a lot!).

Theoratically I don't see why you couldn't do the above as when you take the insurance in they only check it's still valid (I think-although with computerisation you may get a fine). I think, but don't know, if the DVLA are informed you have no insurance they may think you are using the car, and will therefore issue a fine.

I don't understand why you wouldn't want to declare it as off road, there's no charge for it and its simple to re-tax it when you want to. As long as the car is stored off the public highway, you should be ok. We currently have 5 cars (don't ask!) on SORN declarations, and when we want to use them we take our details down to the post office and get the tax.

You can get the SORN forms off the DVLA website and its really easy to do!

Don't know if this has helped.....

Polotoo

[CityGirl]

Thanks for posting an answer

I thought the whole SORN declaration was a bit of a complicated thing to do, however the fact that you've done it with 5 of your cars (!) and can pop to the post office when you want to use one of them again makes the whole thing sound easy enough.

So in your opinion would it be best to renew my insurance in May (as I'll be using the car up until sometime in July) then when I leave declare the car off the road and cancel my insurance, which I'll get a refund for. Or I'm I still talking nonsense!

Thanks again!

[NORMANTHEDOG]

If you dont tax your car,you MUST (BY LAW) declare it SORN or you will get fined.

[Polotoo]

Hey Citygirl,

Personally I would think its better to insure until you go in July - you might be able to get insurance just for a a couple of months (Not too sure but think you might be able to!!), if not cancel the insurance.

Declare the car off the road using SORN, you can also claim back any complete months left on the tax disk until October (useful for some extra money when travelling!).

It is easy to do and like I say you can get both forms (SORN and Tax Refund) from the DVLA website - oh, hubbies now butting in to say that you can now declare SORN online if you have the V5 Logbook to hand-even easier!!

Hope this helps, happy travelling!

[CityGirl]

Fantastic!! Thanks Polotoo for all your help I really appreciate it!!