Hard lesson on SORN

[mr_splatter]

A guy at work just returned home to find his Series 3 LWB and Alfasud missing. Rings up the plod and they have not been nicked. He forgot to declare them SORN. They were on private land at the time and he needs to pay £400 each to get them back plus transport from the pound back to his home address. That's the thick end of a grand down!!
Just thought I would pass this on as I know a lot of people here have motors they are working on - make sure the paperwork is done if they are untaxed. It is free and doesn't take long on the net. They also don't always send a reminder either which happened in this case.

 

[brightspark]

A guy at work just returned home to find his Series 3 LWB and Alfasud missing. Rings up the plod and they have not been nicked. He forgot to declare them SORN. They were on private land at the time and he needs to pay £400 each to get them back plus transport from the pound back to his home address. That's the thick end of a grand down!!
Just thought I would pass this on as I know a lot of people here have motors they are working on - make sure the paperwork is done if they are untaxed. It is free and doesn't take long on the net. They also don't always send a reminder either which happened in this case.

how come if they were on private land they were lifted . they normaly only fine u for not putting the sorn on it and only lift vehicles of the public hyway ??

 

[madkayaker]

It's not transferable as well if you purchase a vehicle that's on sorn

 

[CompoSimmonite]

This has been discussed on various forums. They drive by and camera scans registration plates. Even non SORN'd cars in for repair at garages are been taken away and garage owner is having to pay the fees to get custmers cars back ! There has been some suggestion that cars on forecourst of small dealers might be targeted.
Moral of story is if you have a car that is off the road for what ever reason simply remove the reg plate or at least tape it over.

Paul H

 

[paul_f]

How can they be allowed to do that?

 

[mr_splatter]

I was surprised they could lift them on private land but he lives in a flat with its own parking bays outside off the public highway so I had a look on the net and found this
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/wheel_clamping_operators_and_tow
which would suggest they can't do it - but they did....

I agree with the number plate idea. My nephew has an old Vitara that he uses on his Mum's land and the DVLA "advice" was to remove the number plate.

 

[Robotstar5]

Saw a nice black BMW X5 today with a clamp on and sticker on the windscreen "untaxed vehicle"

 

[hotrodder]

They moved the goal posts last year as part of a "crackdown" on uninsured drivers*. Now vehicles have to be insured for road use or SORNed even if they're stored on private land.

I wouldn't be surprised if a parking bay for a block of flats is considered public as far as the new insurance/SORN rules go kinda along the same lines as say a supermarket carpark i.e. it may be private land but there's public access so rules of the road apply



* The way it's supposed to work is that the DVLA and MID databases are compared and if a vehicle is neither insured for road use or SORNed then they send a letter asking that the owner either...
1. wastes a morning dealing with idiots 'cause the databases are ****
2. insure or SORN it
3. do nothing and receive a fine followed by a bigger fine etc
4. Carry on as normal because having no intention to insure the thing etc you bought it for cash and didn't register it in your name and therefore don't receive such letters/fines. As this should be obvious to even a week old corpse either the morons in charge are even thicker than they appear or this whole thing is, as usual, more about catching those that try to live by the rules and therefore can be more easily fined...

 

[Shox Dr]

^ well put fella

same reason why they send you a reminder for Road Fund Duty, as they are losing money, if you don;t pay, on the other hand it's in their interested to not to advise on MOT expiry, as they will fine and/or either take your car off you 200quid for scraping it, or fine you and make you MOT it.**


Even bigger tin of worms

 

[eil]

A relative of mine has just been fined for having no insurance on his bike, the bike is taxed to the end of this month, the bike has been in storage over the winter in a container on his property he hasn't been using it because he has been away from home working. I thought he was having me on, but it appears that if its taxed it should be insured also, even if you don't use it on the road ?.

 

[mike os]

too many scrotes getting the tax then canceling the insurance?

 

[hotrodder]

^ well put fella

Cheers. Good point re the MOT thing. Glad to see everyones been taking their cynical pills

but it appears that if its taxed it should be insured also, even if you don't use it on the road ?.

Yep. So if your insurance expires before the tax and it's kept in a locked garage etc you've got to SORN it or reinsure it even if we're talking about a classic that qualifies for free road rent being laid up for the winter

too many scrotes getting the tax then canceling the insurance?

Good point. Probably accounted for a fair few but if they can't afford to run a car and/or were happy to do insurance fraud it's now in their interest to go 'all the way', avoid registering it and become 'exempt' from any/all fines and laws that are policed by camera and a fine/summons to the registered keeper

 

[Tiggy_dorset]

too many scrotes getting the tax then canceling the insurance?

Its hard to believe that there are 'apparently' still so many uninsured drivers on the road. Police cars have number plate recognition which checks the database within seconds of every number plate that passes the camera, for MoT, Tax and insurance. It alarms the officers when something is amiss. I was pulled over after 2 weeks of having no MoT, 2 years ago, thanks to this technology. I would be very surprised if anyone can get away with driving on the roads without one of the 3 necessities for more than 3 months before being caught.

I guess its in the insurance companies interest to claim that millions are driving uninsured

 

[Shox Dr]

I can't (well I can*) see why we don't have Plates issued on the proof of MOT Road Tax, and Insurance. That way anyone could see if a vehicle is 'Gen'



*Yet another money earner, Private Plates, and fines for "tweaking" them so they make sense

 

[rtbcomp]

They get round the ANPR system by cloning number plates.

 

[hotrodder]

^ For those that are determined plate cloning would be the get around for that one. I dunno about ANPR... a year or so ago i managed to forget about the MOT on the daily and ended up driving around for over 3 months before i realised. Never got tugged so either i was very lucky or a lot depends on where and when you drive?

Road rent would be fairer if added to fuel. Works on fuel economy like the current bands and also on miles driven unlike the current system. No doubt it'd make 'black market' fuel and drive offs with cloned plates more popular though and of course in implimenting it the fools in charge would make it more expensive across the board...
Several other countries have state run 3rd party insurance but can imagine how that'd work out if applied in the UK...

Edit, RTB beat me to it

 

[Ragnarok]

this has got me worried, I bought a land rover disco a few years ago as a project, off the road then still off the road now, haven't had the time to finish work on it, when i first got it i expected to get one of those letters saying to sorn or tax it, but it never came and i totally forgot about it, now after reading this i went and sorned it online, and it said that the gap was still an offence and enforcement officers may be in touch

 

[pedrobedro]

It's the law and " I forgot " is not a defence they allow, you don't get a reminder for a vehicle you haven't taxed once . We are not at school and it's not like " I forgot to do my homework ", the consequences are a bit more severe than 100 lines or detention but they are clearly written in several places. If your insurance runs out and there's tax left on the vehicle you reclaim the tax and sorn it while it's off road. Road tax on fuel would be fairer but you would have to display your MOT and insurance certificate instead of just a tax disc or it would be an open door for illegal vehicle owners.

 

[mr_splatter]

I had a kit car that I had not Sorn'ed and wrote to the dvla asking how I should cover the previous years. They just wrote back saying get it done now and they implied that I might get done. This was a few years ago and nothing happened. I think you are trying to do the right thing but common sense seems to be in short supply sometimes especially where money can be extracted. I would think you may be low on their priority list.

 

[Ragnarok]

i have been checking all the stuff i got with the v5 and the little slip, it doesn't tell me anywhere that i have to tax or sorn it, when i bought the car i thought i may have to sorn it but that it'd be the same as on my other cars, they send a thing saying what to do, like re tax like this or sorn like this, no letter ever came so i assumed it was fine and forgot about it, then i read this and got worried, went and checked on dvla and it said my disco was unlicensed, so i thought the best thing to do would be sorn it right away......