Having owned my mk1 vrs for 7 years I am treating myself to a superb estate 3.6 I just have a few questions with regards to insurance/ tax and selling my car.

I am picking up my new car at the end of this week which will leave me with two cars. I am just going to do a straight swap on my insurance from the vRS to the superb therefore leaving my vRS on the drive with no insurance. I cannot afford to run two insurance policies which is why I am just swapping it over.

I now believe that I have to declare the car sorn and send the tax back to the Dvla for a refund is this correct?

If all the above is correct how do you go about selling your car as nobody can test drive it to buy it as it has no tax and no insurance? How do others get around this problem?

Any help is appreciated thanks.

Ask you insurance to leave it on the policy for a month or so?

You cannot own a taxed an uninsured car, and from October you will not be able to sell a car with tax either since the tax will not pass to the new owner from then. To avoid a fine you must declare your car SORN and park it offroad as its an offence to keep an uninsured car on the road.

 

I went through this when I sold my old Audi, it was declared SORN and uninsured for the 3 months it was for sale. The new owner then insured the car, and paid me a deposit. After sending me the certificate, I taxed it for them and they collected and drove away.

 

The only issue you will have is test drives, in that a car declared SORN cannot be driven at all on the highway except to a pre booked MOT test.

 

So,

 

Car kept on street must be insured and taxed (includes allocated parking)

Car kept on driveway, front garden, garage etc. can be uninsured but must be declared SORN.

 

Also remember that if the car has some value, then if something happens whilst not insured you'll not get a penny from anyone.

In practice, what will happen is that people will just do test drives without tax.

You could get a short term policy for a week at a time but it wont be cheap.

Or get it advertised now and try and sell it before the new one arrives.

In practice, what will happen is that people will just do test drives without tax.

So no change there then - it was ever thus 

Yeah but it will be no tax and no insurance which will be a little risky and knowing my luck ....

Think I will ring the insurance about the cost of keeping it on for a month as I need to mess about with switching private plates as well.

Edited 16 July, 201411 yr by christaylor

You can get layed up insurance for vehicles that are off the road to cover for fire and theft etc.

 

Seems to be quite common with classics.

Your insurance will keep on it temporary for a small fee. Never done it myself but my mum has. Charged her £15 to keep it insuranced for 3 weeks... For it to sell on autotrader in 3 hours lol

Edited 16 July, 201411 yr by BrownBarge