OT? Car Tax

Anyone can get it for you, just need the reminder form, a current insurance certificate, an MOT (if car older than three years old) and cash/cheque for the right amount of money. No backup is required for the cheque either.

Bitstring , from the wonderful person Associates said

AFAIK =anyone= can do it, if they have the relevant application form which the DVLA sent to the registered owner, along with insurance certificate, the dosh, and an MOT if required.

wrote

Doesn't it need to be still valid at the start of the tax disc - eg the following 1st of the month?

No.

"Martin" wrote

Did that just change this month?

My V11 form, received last month, quotes on the back "Valid Insurance Certificate ... must ... be valid on the date the licence comes into force". The front of the form says "I wish to apply for a Licence or SORN to start from ".

It says the same about the MOT - "must be valid on the date the licence comes into force."

No, and neither does MOT certificate. Though, they must be valid when the car would be used on the road with new tax disk.

Haven't you handed it in yet...?

Whoops - sorry. I've never read the form - until now... ;-)

You're right, it does say that. I've always assumed a (continuing) licence comes into force on the day you buy it (cos that's the day it's usually stuck on windscreen), though I see the back of the form says otherwise. I don't see any such req't on the dvla website, and dunno what happens if you want to renew a couple of weeks in advance, and Insurance cert expires before month-end, and new cert not yet rec'd - especially if all this happens during a bank hol w/e.

Would be interesting to try renewing in advance at a PO counter and see what happens...!

"Martin" wrote

If you hadn't noticed already, the Post Office tend to pass the form back to you nowadays! The back of the form actually also says: "This V11 application form - which will be returned to you when the tax disc is issued. ..."

They first did this to me last year. This year they even stapled the receipt to the V11 before they handed it back!

"Martin" wrote

I think the moral of the story is, never buy a car on the 1st of the month! If you buy on the 2nd of the month, then the insurance will run 2nd of one month until the 1st of the month a year later. Thus, when you get your tax disc, you'll have another day to run on the insurance after the month-end, and the insurance will still be in-force on the 1st of the month that the tax disc starts!

"Vadim Borshchev" wrote

Try reading the back of the actual V11 form!

The normal window for buying tax discs is from half a month before to half a month after. This means you can renew a tax disc (which expired on 31st May) on 10th June, using an insurance certificate valid on 1st June but not on 10th June.

You just delay relicensing until up to half way into the new month.

"Ronald Raygun" wrote

And risk paying a fine? After all, they don't have to "find" you now - that dratted computer knows everything!!!

IIRC this was true donkey's years ago, but not these days (last 20+ years?)

I don't think there's even a day's concession - but I was wrong on the other point, so .... :-(

I got caught out last year (or possibly the year before), when my insurance expired on 31/8/2004, but RFL was for 1/9/2004, and I had not receive my renewal at the time. :(

If you have a debit card, DVLA now let you renew your road tax via their website as long as they can check your insurance details electronically and your MOT (if required) is one of the new electronic ones. I used the site and it was really quite good. You need the renewal form with your unique renewal reference/id on it.

For more details:

In message , Martin writes

You dont get the Tax Disc, its that simple.

Ive been n queues on a number of occasions and heard the cashier refuse to issue the disc and a work colleagues partner had the same occurrence.

In message , Tim writes

This only applies for the first car you insure. If you have continual insurance thereafter for the rest of your driving life then the insurance renewal date will be unrelated to the tax renewal date.

In message , Ronald Raygun writes

Are you SURE you have 14 days grace after the start of the month? I thought that had been banned some time ago?

"john boyle" wrote

But if you change insurers, at the same time as when you get a new car (must be quite common?), then the policy year starts when you get the new car.... [The original insurance (possibly) being cancelled mid-year.]

In message , Tim writes

Yes, if this was the case you are right. I dont think this is all that common though, and it has never happened to me (30 years of car ownership), and my experience of the car insurance business doesnt show that either. The lack of a decent refund of the previous policy premium being a main reason.