Insurance Dilemma

[andrew_ww]

Hi,

I’m after a bit of advice regarding insurance. I have a car at the moment which is insured for another couple of months. Due to pick up my new FR this week.

What I want is get a new policy on my new car and add my old car to it for a couple of weeks until I can sell it. Doesn’t sound too complicated does it, however proving almost impossible to sort.

Can anybody record the cheapest way to accomplish this (before I lose the will to live …)?
TIA

 

[kevscupra]

I had the same problem earlier on this year. In the end I took out a days insurance to tax my new car and drive it to my girlfriend's Mums house and parked it in the garage till I sold my old car. It cost me about £40 for the day. I done it that way round so I could take people out for a ride in my old car who were interested in buying it.
But I couldn't wait to sell it so I could get my new car out.

 

[skidpan]

In the end I took out a days insurance to tax my new car and drive it to my girlfriend's Mums house and parked it in the garage till I sold my old car.

Afraid you broke the law. Under the recent Continuous Insurance Requirements Legislation if a car is taxed it must by law be insured. To comply, when the insurance ran out you should have SORN'd the car. The above applies even if the car is not kept or used on a public highway. The car could have been seized and you fined.

Here is the info.

http://www.mib.org.uk/Motor+Insurance+Database/en/Continuous+Insurance+Enforcement/default.htm

You were lucky.

 

[kevscupra]

I never knew about that. Even the garage I bought the car from never said anything to me, after I told them what I was doing after turning there offer down on my old car. Suppose it's not their problem once the car is signed for and driven away.

 

[andrew_ww]

So I could use the 7 days free seat insurance to cover me when I collect the car, get it home, declare it SORN, stick it in the garage and then re-tax it once I've sold my current car.

Can you reverse a SORN at any time? Hate to wait a year to drive my new car...

 

[TIMBUCK2]

So I could use the 7 days free seat insurance to cover me when I collect the car, get it home, declare it SORN, stick it in the garage and then re-tax it once I've sold my current car.

Can you reverse a SORN at any time? Hate to wait a year to drive my new car...

Hi Andrew,

By the sound of it we did both order and get our cars delivered at the same time, mine was available to be delivered to me by the dealer from tomorrow but I've put them off until Saturday. Approx. 10 weeks from first contacting DTD all told so pretty chuffed really.

Regarding your SORN issue, you wouldn't be re-taxing your FR, you'd be re-insuring it once the SEAT complimentary 7 day insurance expired (assuming that you hadn't sold your current car by then). I think I'm correct in saying that the process of insuring (or taxing) your car automatically cancels the SORN, but I'm sure others will correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm in a similar situation actually but just hoping that I sell my current car in the next 11 days, before my complimentary 7 day insurance which starts this Saturday expires.

 

[skidpan]

Hi Andrew,

Regarding your SORN issue, you wouldn't be re-taxing your FR, you'd be re-insuring it once the SEAT complimentary 7 day insurance expired (assuming that you hadn't sold your current car by then). I think I'm correct in saying that the process of insuring (or taxing) your car automatically cancels the SORN, but I'm sure others will correct me if I'm wrong.

SORN is the DVLA, insurance is your insurance company. Insuring your car does not cancel SORN, only re taxing the car does that. In truth SORN never gets cancelled, it lasts a year once declared and if the car is still off the road you must renew it,it is free. I SORN'd a car late last October and retaxed it in May this year. I will get a SORN reminder from the DVLA in October despite the car being taxed, I will simply ignore it.

As I said above you can re-tax your car anytime after declaring SORN, just get a form from the Post Office and pay them the correct rate of duty.

 

[dw911]

Afraid you broke the law. Under the recent Continuous Insurance Requirements Legislation if a car is taxed it must by law be insured. To comply, when the insurance ran out you should have SORN'd the car. The above applies even if the car is not kept or used on a public highway. The car could have been seized and you fined.

Here is the info.

http://www.mib.org.uk/Motor+Insurance+Database/en/Continuous+Insurance+Enforcement/default.htm

You were lucky.

That is correct, another example of ill thought out legislation that penalizes law abiding car owners and turns them into criminals.
Why on earth should you have to insure your car just to keep it in the garage
Makes me very angry, as I have to re tax the car everytime I want to use it in the summer or pay insurance for the 350 days it sits in the garage

Anyway back to the op, I would let the policy run on my old car till its sold and take out a new policy on the new car bit of a pain having to have two policies running but probably the simplest way of doing it

 

[skidpan]

That is correct, another example of ill thought out legislation that penalizes law abiding car owners and turns them into criminals.

The intent of the legislation was to link insurance and tax thus enabling modern computer systems to identify vehicles that were not legally being used. The theory was if a car is taxed the owner clearly had a possible intent to use it thus if not insured it would be on the road illegally. Same with insurance, if insured but no tax and the car was used on the road the law would be broken.

No idea if it works in practice but if you are law abiding it will in no way penalize you.

I can speak about this through personal experience. I normally tax my "classic" in March or April depending on the weather, come the end of October I send the disk back and declare SORN, costs nothing. I keep the car insured all year round, if it was stolen etc I would be many thousands out of pocket, by cancelling my insurance I would probably get a £50 refund. But if you want to cancel your insurance providing there is SORN on the car it is perfectly legal to do that.

If you use your car on the road with no tax or no insurance you are breaking the law and are a criminal.

So if you comply with law (which in this case cost you nothing) you will not be penalized.

 

[dw911]

The intent of the legislation was to link insurance and tax thus enabling modern computer systems to identify vehicles that were not legally being used. The theory was if a car is taxed the owner clearly had a possible intent to use it thus if not insured it would be on the road illegally. Same with insurance, if insured but no tax and the car was used on the road the law would be broken.

No idea if it works in practice but if you are law abiding it will in no way penalize you.

I can speak about this through personal experience. I normally tax my "classic" in March or April depending on the weather, come the end of October I send the disk back and declare SORN, costs nothing. I keep the car insured all year round, if it was stolen etc I would be many thousands out of pocket, by cancelling my insurance I would probably get a £50 refund. But if you want to cancel your insurance providing there is SORN on the car it is perfectly legal to do that.

If you use your car on the road with no tax or no insurance you are breaking the law and are a criminal.

So if you comply with law (which in this case cost you nothing) you will not be penalized.

So the government is saying in theory the classic car owner who used to tax the car for the whole year and who used to then insure their car on the days they use it is likly a criminal or someone who has criminal tendencies
I used to leave my car taxed all year and insure it for the days I use it in the summer. Now I either have to tax it get insurance for the days I want to use it then a few days later I have to sorn it apply for a tax disc refund, then go through the same again a couple of weeks later when I want to use it again, each time I loose money as you can only get full months refunded on the tax disc
Or I have to insure it for a whole year,to use it for a handful of days through the summer

So it does cost me money and penalize me, not to mention the time involved and the inconvenience

So in theory it seems a good idea, in practice like many government initiatives it does nothing to stop un insured drivers as they are hardly likely to have even bothered to register the cars to themselves

Just another way to make life difficult for the motorist as the many complaints from the classic car and other car scenes testifies

 

[skidpan]

So the government is saying in theory the classic car owner who used to tax the car for the whole year and who used to then insure their car on the days they use it is likly a criminal or someone who has criminal tendencies

If you keep you car taxed all year and only insure it for the days when you use it you would be breaking the law but I have in truth never heard of anyone doing that. The admin costs involved with insuring and cancelling your insurance continuously would be enormous and the hassle of keep sorting it out would be mind blowing.

Most of us just do like I do and stay within the law with no costs.

The people with pre 73 cars are even luckier, free road tax. If my car fell within that class since it is insured all year round I would simply have to visit the Post office every year with my docs and get another free tax disk, no need to SORN.

Anyone who has a valuable asset like a classic (or any car for that matter) and does not insure it is heading for a big loss if fire or theft strikes.

Considering how cheap limited mileage agreed value Classic Car insurance is its crazy not to insure it.

 

[dw911]

If you keep you car taxed all year and only insure it for the days when you use it you would be breaking the law but I have in truth never heard of anyone doing that. The admin costs involved with insuring and cancelling your insurance continuously would be enormous and the hassle of keep sorting it out would be mind blowing.

Most of us just do like I do and stay within the law with no costs.

The people with pre 73 cars are even luckier, free road tax. If my car fell within that class since it is insured all year round I would simply have to visit the Post office every year with my docs and get another free tax disk, no need to SORN.

Anyone who has a valuable asset like a classic (or any car for that matter) and does not insure it is heading for a big loss if fire or theft strikes.

Considering how cheap limited mileage agreed value Classic Car insurance is its crazy not to insure it.

Your missing the point, this new law treats law abiding motorists as children/criminals who can't be trusted not to drive their cars without insurance
It does nothing to get the real menace of uninsured drivers off our roads

Some people may do it as u do, which is fine

But many do it the other way too and had done for many years without issue untill now

As for insurance, I used to phone up my insurance company and I used to add on whichever car I wanted to use that day, they had a list of the cars I own and would cover me from that point untill I informed them otherwise
Lots of classic companies will do that
Due to this law I and other can no longer do that
You can also phone one of the many companies that do short term cover and often that worked out cheaper than a full years insurance if u only use the the car a handful of days a year

Anyway, I hope the op gets his insurance issues sorted out

 

[rasco]

update your current policy so that it covers your new car, and add the car you're trying to sell as a "temporary car" to the same policy - use of both cars count towards the same mileage restriction on the policy (your existing one), which is fine, as you'll only use one car at a time. Worth noting that your NCB will only count towards one car (your new one, not the old one which is now a "temporary car").

This way you also don't lose a year's NCB by switching policies mid year etc. Just talk to your insurer, they'll sort it easily (but you'll have to part with some extra cash)

 

[andrew_ww]

Cheers everybody, fourth time lucky with my insurance company, quite amazing how you can get so many different responses from the same place. Anyway eventually shifted the new car on to my existing policy then added my old car as temp cover for two weeks - for a price that I didn't feel like I was being robbed. I'm reliability informed that I can do this again should I need to.

Its also strange that if I wanted to cancel my policy and start a fresh one (existing one only has 2 months left) most insurance companies would only give me quote for temporary cover after I'd taken out the full policy, this would have required a giant leap of faith...

I do agree that no good dead goes unpunished - why is it so hard to do the right thing


Tim - I'm starting to think our cars must have been back to back on the production line... I'm collecting mine on Friday all being well

Now next job, sell mine. What's a realistic price for a 2002 1.8 SE 85K miles, pretty good condition 1 years MOT, 6 months tax, is a grand too optimistic?