taken from

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/Ownin...rance/DG_186696

Stay insured: new penalties for vehicles without motor insurance

From early 2011 a new scheme is being introduced to make sure that all vehicles stay insured or a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) is made. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB) are working together to reduce the number of uninsured drivers.

The fight against uninsured vehicles

Latest public estimates are that around 1.5 million of all UK motorists drive uninsured. These drivers cost the UK about £500 million annually, which adds up to an average cost of an extra £30 per car insurance policy.

The police already seize about 500 uninsured vehicles every day. To help combat uninsured driving even further, when the new law is introduced it will result in:

* fines

* prosecutions

* clamping of uninsured vehicles that have not declared Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN)

Records held by DVLA will be compared with those on the Motor Insurance Database (MID).

From early 2011, if it appears from the database comparison that a vehicle has no insurance or no SORN, a letter will be sent to the registered keeper.

If the keeper takes no action, the keeper faces:

* a fixed penalty fine of £100

* court prosecution and be fined up to £1,000

* having the vehicle clamped, seized and destroyed

What to do as a vehicle keeper

If you are not insured and use your vehicle on the road you are already committing an offence – get insured immediately.

If you are keeping your vehicle off the road, make sure that you have submitted a SORN declaration to DVLA. If the vehicle is taxed you need to return the disc (including nil value discs) to DVLA using a V14 form. You can make a SORN declaration at the same time as returning the disc on the V14.

* Download 'Apply for a vehicle licence refund (form V14)' (PDF, 170K)

When you insure your vehicle, make a point of checking the MID to see if your vehicle is recorded correctly. Please allow up to a week for this to update.

* Check the Motor Insurance Database

If your record does not appear on the MID then you should contact your insurance provider to get the MID updated immediately.This will avoid the inconvenience of you being unnecessarily contacted by MIB and DVLA, or being stopped by the police.

* How to make a SORN (Statutory Off Road Notification)

this is a pain for the legal motorists, as many people buy a new car and swap thier existing policy onto the new vehicle. the new legislations means you cannot keep the car taxed, and uninsured. meaning prospective new buyers cant just get dayinsure and drive the car home.

also the same for a track or hobby car rarely used and usually safely stored off-road cant stay taxed and just dayinsured for the purposes of driving to the track/or weekend

surely the anpr cameras on nearly all motorways and a-roads should be able to capture the registrations of cars, and send letters to cars not on the MID and those not taxed or mot'ed!

Edited 1 January, 201115 yr by grungeisdead

I fucking loathe this country's attitude towards its people.

i can understand what there saying but i really dont agree with the way there going about it funny thing is with every cost that comes to motoring the less people that will drive thus making less money for those shit head thieves in parliment

Not sure if this is law yet but as with the SORN system it boils my piss as you are basically guilty until proved innocent

How hard would it be for the powers that be park at the top of a street where there is an untaxed car registered at a certain address and find out if it is used and fine the driver accordingly instead of innocent people for not filling in a form

caravans on the road without tax and possibly without insurance

anything to keep uninsured cars off the road is a good thing imo.

caravans don't need to have tax or insurance.

anything to keep uninsured cars off the road is a good thing imo.

totally aggree but fining people for taking there car of the road without insurance will not keep uninsured drivers off the road

caravans don't need to have tax or insurance.

I know but would it not be a better way of raising revenue than prosecuteing someone for taking thier car off the road

Consider the scenario

car broke down 2days insurance 29days tax left

between getting to work and sorting repairs

you forget to inform dvla and cancel tax----remember you can only claim full months tax back so you dont bother cancelling tax

car/finaces take longer to organise than expected

still cant drive car and it is parked off road-----remember you have spent your hard earned to buy the thing---you are going to be taxed at 20%VAT on top of the cost of the parts and labour

And then The government want's to fine you for not filling in a form for a car you can't drive

All this while the uninsured driver is still driving without insurance!!

God help us all :(

i have got to sorn a tax exempt vehicle figure that one out .but i agree with all cars should be insured on or of the road

Consider the scenario

car broke down 2days insurance 29days tax left

between getting to work and sorting repairs

you forget to inform dvla and cancel tax----remember you can only claim full months tax back so you dont bother cancelling tax

car/finaces take longer to organise than expected

still cant drive car and it is parked off road-----remember you have spent your hard earned to buy the thing---you are going to be taxed at 20%VAT on top of the cost of the parts and labour

And then The government want's to fine you for not filling in a form for a car you can't drive

All this while the uninsured driver is still driving without insurance!!

This is the bit that they're really bumming you on!

Edited 3 January, 201115 yr by randombadger69

i have got to sorn a tax exempt vehicle figure that one out .but i agree with all cars should be insured on or of the road

I have 2 motorcycles that are tax exempt and have to Sorn 1 has been sorned every year since the law came in and never been on the road

Prey tell enlighten me as to your reason for insurance while off road, I allready know and understand about a classic valuable car while off road but consider a £200 car you are looking for an engine for

Or are we to really believe there are loads of little Herbie's out there going for moonlight drives or in the huff because you have not used thier favourite oil at the last oil change and should be insured

from what i can see you have to have insurance or a sorn not both are required

Question is why should you have either (sorn or insurance) if it is stored and not used on the public highway

i know its a bit shit but the government want to crack down on uninsured cars and the penalty for driving a car on sorn is a lot tougher (i think you can actually get time in prison for it) so will act as more of a deterrent.

I'm 17 and have two cars, as i already get fuckin raped on insurance i obviostly cant afford to insure both at the same time, i tend to swap my insurance over weekly and drive each car for a week each. does this mean i will not be able to do this anymore, will they both have to be insured all the time ?? I'm a bit confused.

i know its a bit shit but the government want to crack down on uninsured cars and the penalty for driving a car on sorn is a lot tougher (i think you can actually get time in prison for it) so will act as more of a deterrent.

Only to law abiding citizens

i have got to sorn a tax exempt vehicle figure that one out .but i agree with all cars should be insured on or of the road

I have 2 motorcycles that are tax exempt and have to Sorn 1 has been sorned every year since the law came in and never been on the road

Prey tell enlighten me as to your reason for insurance while off road, I allready know and understand about a classic valuable car while off road but consider a £200 car you are looking for an engine for

Or are we to really believe there are loads of little Herbie's out there going for moonlight drives or in the huff because you have not used thier favourite oil at the last oil change and should be insured

is your bike covered on your house insurance ? or work shop insurance ? i know my car isnt

No the bikes are not covered by house workshop insurance, they are very well chained and in varying states of repair so i take the gamble I dont have a fire, my choice

I can appreciate your willingness to insure your classic while of road but it suits you, it is probably a cheap classic policy, you will have the car well secured preverably drive it on good days and generally have it well maintained so there is little or no risk to the insurance company. Even if youhad an accident for say £200 you would probably not claim for fear of looseing your no claims

Even the SORN I can remember people who would pinch a month and take the chance of not renewing thier road tax but since then (30 years) they have introduces number plate recognition cameras so I think it a waste of time to try and pinch a months tax. So why are they doing this other than to persecute the law abiding motorist. Thieves, drugies, rapists, rustlers devorced men will all just see it as another fine to pay, that they cant afford so again its the people who do pay prop up the scam of a system

thing i dont get is with all the anpr systems and cameras on the roads, streets, motorways etc, whey they cant automatically catch tax/mot/insurance evaders, without the needs for these measures.

its just fuck ups from our own transport ministers that lead to serious action being taken, with no forethought of how it effects the legal motorist.

this wont stop the illegal driver from buying a 100 pound shitter and not caring if it gets crushed when they get caught!

^^ I totally aggree.. ANPR does all this.

I can understand the reasoning for doign it but this just doesn't work.

I have my 328 on my drive and its taxed but not insured. If I need to use it I wack on some short term insurance. But I will no longer beable to do that. Because according to this I'll have to SORN the car and If I want to use it again I'll have to get propper full insurance (as the PO can't take short term policys as proof of insurance) and then cancel the insurance when I don't need the car and send the tax back for a refund and SORN. ANd Repeat the process when I need to use it again. These people really don't get it do they...??!??!

the problem with this is, you may get a tax rebate of 15 quid, but its costs 66 quid + to retax

you then have to buy another full insurance policy and you cannot tax a car under shortterm insurance, that means you have to a pay a large deposit for the policy.

so to run your track car for a trackday would be circa

66 quid for tax (if its under a 1.6)

insurance deposit which can be as much as 25% so for arguments sake, 1000 pounds, so 250 quid

so a total of 316 pounds!

of which at the end of the weekend you lose a months worth of tax, and have to pay a 50 quid cancellation fee of the insurance policy!, so effectively costing you circa 65-70 to make your car legal for the weekend.

I'm really annoyed by this, if an owner wishes to run the risk of having an uninsured car, parked off the road, or even taxed but parked on the road outside thier house, then it should be thier at thier own perogative.

i have three cars, and for me its best just to switch it for whichever car i use at the time, i cant drive three cars at the end of the day. and if one were to be stolen from my drive, insured or not, i probably wouldnt claim, as it would make my existing high premium, even higher!

the state of affairs in our countries makes me want to stick all the cars on a boat and emigrate to canada

I heard about this last year sometime, a tiny article in middle of a local paper

Terrible idea, badly implemented, totally overcomplicating things and wont actually stop uninsured drivers at all.

Words actually fail to describe this country / governments stupidity.

So you can't have a car sat on your drive, ready to be sold with say 3 months tax and test, you must either insure it and lose a bomb, or offer a full 6months of tax which you must add as you sell it, which you will have to factor in to your price making the sale less attractive to buyers.

So you can't have a car sat on your drive, ready to be sold with say 3 months tax and test, you must either insure it and lose a bomb, or offer a full 6months of tax which you must add as you sell it, which you will have to factor in to your price making the sale less attractive to buyers.

If you have 3 months Tax and MOT but no insurance you must either insure the car or declare the car SORN and apply for a refund of your tax. So when Joe Blocks comes to look at the car even if he has insurance to drive it with either his own or short term policy he is unable to take the car on a test drive as it is not taxed. So the only options for the seller is to keep the car insured untill it is sold or SORN the car and run the risk that if some one gets caught on a test drive the seller could get point and a fine for allowing someone to drive the car knowing it wasn't taxed or having no insurance.

Now the maths appear to be sinking in

It is going to cost the government millions to set up but they will have done the maths and know they are going to be in big profit and another way of sliding in increases to joe public without people noticing

Imagine if there was only one tax say on wages and they decided to increase the income tax by 20%

Instead, one year they add 1% on your tax everyone gets up in arms, so the following year they know they cant add to income tax so as now they have added 2.5% on Vat everyone up in arms again so the following year they put up speeding fines add more cameras and raise more revenue then they bring in a fine for forgetting to declare YOUR car off road and now declare your car off road with insurance

by now everyone up in arms but they have forgot about the income tax increase so Income tax goes up again and it all starts again

Those that can remember thier history lessons will remember at one time there was a house window tax so people started to brick up thier house windows

The only person to go into the houses of parliment with honest intentions was Guy Fawkes