question about S O R N on a car

gasmick2 · 9 Sep 2011

My son has recently bought a car with mot and tax until Nov 2011.The lady he bought it from had to transfer her insurance to a new vehicle but now under the new laws all cars have to be insured even if they are on your property.She was told to S O R N it to make it legal.

According to the law if you sell the car the SORN is cancelled. Does that mean the car is still taxed until Nov ? I believe you have to write to dvla and have the tax disc reactivated which can take up to 3 weeks

D V L A have told my son not to drive it But it has a current tax disc no refund has ever paid has anyone done the same thing or come across the problem
what are you thoughts on this i am sure as time goes on with the new insurance law it will happen to someone else i thing it needs clarifying
somehow from the police or the DVLA

Bahco · 9 Sep 2011

gasmick2 said:
According to the law if you sell the car the SORN is cancelled so now does that mean that the car is now taxed until Nov ?????? you

I believe the tax disc has to be surrendered when declaring SORN

merlin50 · 9 Sep 2011

Vehicles with a valid Sorn will not need to be insured.
if it has a tax disc it is not Sorn

gasmick2 · 9 Sep 2011

hi both just to clarify, the lady my son bought the car from cancelled the insurance, and was told that she had to sorn it to stop he being prosecuted for no insurance, but she did not surrender the tax disc, that stayed on the car, so now she has sold it the sorn is no longer valid, but the tax is still paid for until Nov 2011 mick

EngStudent · 9 Sep 2011

First of all we need to get some facts right.

You don't need to have the vehicle insured if it's on private land.
When the tax is due for renewal, they'll send you a form. This form also includes the relevant details for registering the car as SORN. I think you can do it by post, otherwise you can (like I did) do it online. It takes 2 minutes.

Personally I'd just wait until the renewal comes through and cancel it then.

gasmick2 · 9 Sep 2011

well i have been told by a policeman that if a car does not have insurance even on private property then it has to be sorned.
Nobody seems to be reading my post properley
all i was saying was that the lady sorned the car that my son bought even though the tax did not run out until November, but dvla has told him the tax is now not valid even though its paid for till Nov

merlin50 · 9 Sep 2011

EngStudent said:
First of all we need to get some facts right.

You don't need to have the vehicle insured if it's on private land.

YOU DO NOW if it's not Sorn

merlin50 · 9 Sep 2011

She was told to S O R N it to make it legal

she wes told wrong

merlin50 · 9 Sep 2011

are you sure you have the right documents to own the car

joinerjohn · 9 Sep 2011

The new rules on SORN were brought out in an attempt to stop these uninsured drivers we read about in the news everyday. Even if the vehicle is on private property, it has to be insured, unless a SORN is in effect. If the private property happens to be your own driveway and the vehicle is up on 4 bricks with the engine out, if it's not subject to a SORN then the authorities can seize the vehicle and have it crushed. A real body blow for those car restoration folks who only show their vehicles a couple of times a year at car shows up and down the country.(some only used to insure it during the summer months so it could be driven to vintage car shows and now have to insure it for a whole year)
I don't know the rules or procedures to un-Sorn a vehicle, but would have thought a simple form filling in would take care of it.

merlin50 · 9 Sep 2011

i had my old van SORN for a few weeks and a police car checked every day to make sure it was parked in the garden, scraped it in the end as i was getting fed up with the police turning up every day.

merlin50 · 9 Sep 2011

If you're the registered keeper of a vehicle, it must be insured at all times.

The exceptions are:

if you have made a SORN for the vehicle
if your vehicle has been kept off-road since before SORN came into force on 31 January 1998 – unless it was brought back into use
if your vehicle is recorded as stolen, passed or sold to the motor trade or between registered keepers
if your vehicle is recorded scrapped or permanently exported by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing (DVLA)

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicle/Motorinsurance/DG_186696

wreckedit · 9 Sep 2011

I have several vehicles only one is insured the others are sorn. That's all you need do. No insurance if stored off road. You have to read carefully what it says about sorn to understand it.
That copper didn't, but what do they know about the law anyway.
When a car is sold with the tax disc the tax it is valid because it does not matter who pays for it. The woman was misinformed. Somehow you may be able to get her to write to the tax office and say she has allowed the tax to continue on that car. Write the letter for her and she can sign it.
In order to cancel tax or get money back you have to send the tax disc back. Think about it.
When ever I've bought a car and it has tax on it I drive it around knowing that it has current tax on it. That is all that matters to the police etc. The duty is paid.

I had a motorbike that wasn't declared sorn for 3 years and wrote a nice letter and they declared it sorn for me. No insurance, No sorn but ok now.

geraint · 9 Sep 2011

you do not need insurance to sorn a vehicle....

And to un sorn....tax it... simple

nickso · 9 Sep 2011

merlin50 said:
are you sure you have the right documents to own the car

Which documents would that be? And don't say V5c.

The SORN/insurance thing is flawed anyway, it's pretty much useless and only creates more work for the DVLA and the car owner.

question about S O R N on a car

gasmick2

Bahco

merlin50

gasmick2

EngStudent

gasmick2

merlin50

merlin50

merlin50

joinerjohn

merlin50

merlin50

wreckedit

geraint

nickso

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