Check your insurance details carefully!

[lynda]

I've just had an email from my Dad about his insurance. He took out his Footman James policy in March. He tried to get new tax discs for both his cars (on same policy) online, but it kept saying he didn't have insurance cover.

He's now rechecked the policy - his cover starts in March 2009 and expires in 2010! He's going to call them today and get it sorted out, it's very lucky he didn't need to make a claim

[Furrtiv]

It was probably just a clerical error, I hope he gets it sorted soon. He should, if he's already paid them for the insurance. On a side note, you don't need to tax your vehicle immediately the old tax runs out, for up to fourteen days after, BUT you cannot use it on the roads until you get it properly taxed, so if he has another fully taxed car to use in the meantime, he should be okay keeping the Moggies somewhere safe off the road until this is sorted and they can be taxed.

[bigginger]

On a side note, you don't need to tax your vehicle immediately the old tax runs out, for up to fourteen days after

A very debatable point, that. My understanding is that it USED to be something of a grey area, but not any more - no tax = towed and possibly crushed these days.

[Matt]

I know people who have been caught without tax, (one had all the required docs and a cheque to the DVLA for the correct amount as he was going to renew) and they were hit with extremely heavy fines. (in the order of £1000 i think)

If you arn't going to use the car on the road don't worry too much for the 1st fortnight!

My morris was taxed until the end of Nov, and was of the road. I thought the tax ran out at the end of Dec, and on the 27th I realised it didn't... and had run out of MoT. Got to an MoT on 31st and failed. I sorn'd online and it backdated to 1/12... I havent heard anything from the ministry yet

[kennatt]

The 14 day grace was a fallacy the reason the 14 days grace mith started was that before the dvla and police computers were linked if you were stopped by the police or your car was seen and it was noted that the tax had expired the police or traffic warden sent a form (CLE26) off to the dvla informing them that there was a car no ........ on the road without a valid licence.This form took about a week to get to the dvla and about a week for them to look at the records,Therefore if you paid for your tax on the 13 or 14 of the month,and backdated it to start straight after the old one,the dvla were satisfied that the vehcle was taxed and took no action.The police could report you for failing to display a valid tax disc during that 14 days but never worth the trouble because all you would get would be a letter of caution from the superintendent not worth taking to court you see. The situation is very different now,the dvla assume that a vehicle is being used on the road,and its up to you to show that it's not,hence sorn notification,if you don't declare sorn believe me you will be fined through the post they don't even need to see the vehicle on the road anymore,If they do,then the fine gets bigger and the car could be removed and scrapped.One thing for certain,if you declare sorn and the car is still on the road and one of the roadside cameras pick it up(They are all over the place)you will be in deep s.........I think these checks are the best thing since it also checks mot and insurance,I have always paid for mine before putting a car on the road If they get just one uninsured driver off the road then they benifit every other driver

[aupickup]

well said kennet could not agree more

[paulhumphries]

Our main familly car insurance is with Tesco.
A couple of years ago the renewal came, with new certificate, and said that no need to do anything as automatic renewal.
I rang to see if third party fire & theft was going to be any cheaper than fully comp but as it only made £5 difference I told them that I'd leave it alone and stay with fully comp.
A couple of months later we changed cars so I rang them to swop over cover.
According to their records I didn't renew and no valid policy in force.
That meant we had been driving without any insurance despite having an certificate
I'll be honest and admit I don't check bank statements so didn't realsie no premium had been debited.
In the end Tesco admited it was their fault. They had reviewed the copy of the telephone conversation I had when enquring about lowering the level of cover and confirmed that at no time did I say anything about not renewing with them so in the even of an accident they would have still paid out.
All very worrying when you trust these companies - and have call centre operatives who are probably overseas !

A couple of years prior to that we had another problem with Tesco.
The car windscreen had a chip so we went to Autoglass to get it repaired.
The company checked our insurance policy (fully comp) and did the chip repair saying they would send the bill direct to insurers as policy said they covered that without excess.
A while later I got a bill form Autoglass for about £70 saying that Tesco had refused to paid for repair as we only had third party cover.
Needless to say I rang to see what was going on for some reason computer changed cover to only third party - but we paid fully comp premium.
Again they admitted error on their part and paid Autoglass bill / said they would have honoured any fully comp claim.

I would love to change insurers but again Tesco messed things up for us.
Someone reversed out of a parking space (on a Tesco car park) into the path of my wife. They admitted their fault as blinded by sun, no witnesses, no damage to our car and cosmetic scuff on bumper of theirs.
We thought that was the end of it but seem they noted out reg and put a claim in to thier own insurers who then decided to try it on with Tesco.
I gave full fact and said under no circumstances were they to pay out.
Needless to say they did anyway and we lost part of our no claims.
Tesco's argument was we had protected no claims so it didn't make any difference to us (other then unable ot get full no claims with another company if we changed insurers). I said wasn't that why I paid legal protection to fight such claims but was told they weight up costs and cheaper to pay out that pay a legal fight

I'm not knocking Tesco insurance but simply pointing out any company can mess up and check your policy carefully as what is said on the phone isn't always reflected correctly on the records.

Paul Humphries

[8009STEVE]

If they get just one uninsured driver off the road then they benifit every other driver

Not sure if it is DVLA or Police, but it is said that one in four cars on the road are NOT insured.

[Peetee]

I said wasn't that why I paid legal protection to fight such claims but was told they weight up costs and cheaper to pay out that pay a legal fight

Exactly the situation I found myself in. It seems that the willingness of insured parties to apportion and even admit blame is worth nothing when insurers repeatedly take the middle ground and settle 'knock for knock'. I can quite believe that there is a unwritten gentlemans agreement that all claims are split evenly between insurers even when blame is apportioned so that then next time when the boot is on the other foot the costs even out and everyone has gained because wrangling and paperwork has been drastically reduced.

[bmcecosse]

I seriuosly doubt that '1 in 4' cars are not insured - Cop cars have automatic reg plate readers these days which check for tax/mot and insurance. So - it would only work if using false plates - which would need to be for a fully legal car!

[8009STEVE]

- which would need to be for a fully legal car!

Or a cloned car.

[bmcecosse]

Which is what I meant - the plates would need to be for a car that was taxed/MOTd and insured, same make and colour - ie a clone !

[rayofleamington]

lies, damn lies and statistics...
They also used to say that there were a million cars driving around untaxed. If so then every street would have had a few - I looked and they seemed to be invisible ;-)

I'm very much in favour of the tax, MOT and insurance databases - as long as they are correct. I've suffered as a result of faulty info in the insurance database and it can be darn frustrating.

as for the 14 days - I also think it never really existed. With the current system you can tax up to 30 days late (as long as the car is off road) as you can back date the tax to beginning of the month. When there is no (backdated) break in the tax I've not bothered to do SORN, and never had an issue.