Insure or SORN?

[Pimp my Vit]

Right looks like I messed up, keen to take advantage of the new MOT rules in May I taxed my car from 1st June. It wasn't on SORN because it had been off the road since the eighty's so it didn't need to be.

Today 23 Aug I got a letter fro MID informing me it was not insured, its not insured because its still in the garage where its been for the past 30 years, I was not aware it had to be Insured unless I was going to use it on the road.

So the letter states Insure it or SORN it, I can do either but will either of them invoke the fixed penalty fine? Can I Insure or SORN it back dated to June? If I Insure or SORN it from today will I still get a fine? The letter states act now to prevent a fine, but will I automatically get the fixed penalty once they realise it was uninsured/not SORN for three months.

Anyone any experience of this?

[Adrian Cooper]

The SORN rule was introduced while mine was off the road and there was no fine when I realised it applied to my car and I filled in the form. But why not insure it too if you've spent lots of money on it?

Adrian

[JohnD]

If it's registered it has to be insured: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/dvla-reminds-motorists-of-new-motor-insurance-law Quote, " Published 14 February 2011".

If you aren't planning to drive it, then get it SORNed.      You should get back the registration costs of remaining months.  See: https://www.gov.uk/sorn-statutory-off-road-notification

You can imagine why this rule is in place.   It's too easy for Dodgy Derek to swear on stack of bibles that his car was in the garage, even if there is ANPR evidence that he's driving it.    

JOhn

 

[dougbgt6]

Although you no longer have to produce insurance documents to get road tax your car still has to be insured. I think they're telling you if you want road tax you've got to do one thing or the other and insure it. As things stand your back to square one, car in garage, untaxed and uninsured.

My car was also garaged before SORN was introduced, I wrote to them and they wrote back "That's fine, SORN not required".  As I worked on the car and spent money it occurred to me insurance would be a good idea. So I did it.  Fire, theft, criminal damage can still happen without driving on the road.

Doug

[Pimp my Vit]

OK I have just Insured it with PJ Insurance with cover starting from today (you can't back date), my point being was the MID letter just a reminder to SORN or Insure the vehicle or will it mean I will recieve a fixed penalty fine, bearing in mind I had neither SORN or Insurance from 1st June when I first taxed it.

The letter states 'Act now to avoid a penalty' so is it a just a reminder letter or will enforcement be taken if I had neither at the time of taxing the car (June 18)

Thanks for comments...

[dougbgt6]

PmV,

I think you'll be OK. John's link was published in 2011 and we all should have been insured or SORN'd since then. However, I had no SORN and got my car insured in 2013 (?), then MOT and tax. Nobody said anything. I think they're just telling you to get it sorted.

db