How do you buy a car that's sorn ?

[Steve A]

My 18 year old son is after buying a car that has been declared sorn,
the advertiser is saying we will need to trailer it away because of this.
It is registered in 1972 (good lad stick with the oldies ) so it is tax exempt anyway
I envisage many weeks of driving long distances to look at rusty pears, and then trying to convince
him not to buy it but then it's my money so it's a no win situation.

[daveiow]

if its declared sorn then the present owner has probably let the mot or insurance lapse otherwise it would still have a tax disc as that is free
so you would have to trailer it home.It will still have the V5 reg document though so after the usual checks(hpi?) you would fill in the relevant parts and it would
be
sent to you in the normal way by Swansea. The only other way would be trade plates but i dont know if you still need a valid mot to drive it on the road.

daveiow

[Steve A]

It has got a long MOT

[Andy_J]

As it has an MOT all you need is a valid insurance certificate and the V5 and you should be able to tax it at the local DVLA office or post office

[Steve A]

So basically even though the car has an MOT and will be insured
Because no tax is displayed the car is not allowed on the public road
Even if the road tax on this car is free

[Rambo]

Any vehicle that is tax free still needs to display a current tax disc with the vehicle registration etc. The payment part will say Nil

[Steve A]

I Suppose the guy selling the car doesn't want the
Cost of insuring the car to then tax it, but not many people
Have a trailer to pick a car up Could be a bargaining point
Tempted to buy it and take a chance getting it home
Cue Pinky

[daveiow]

Remember- its the ANPR cameras that get you

[GeoffSmith]

Your insurance may cover you to drive it third party (as long as doesn't belong to you) OR you could get it put on your insurance for a few days (cost me £20 for one day when I bought the Elan) and if you buy it, you can sort out the tax disc on-line as it has an MoT and is insured.

[dapinky]

Cue Pinky

You called, sir?

Okay here we go - the long version or the short one???

The car will have been declared SORN for one of 2 reasons - VEL (Tax disc) has expired or insurance has expired {that one only came into force recently - lots of adverts on tv about it}.

Assuming that it has an MOT as you state (if it didn't there are other considerations, but none insurmountable), and that it will be driven on the road by someone whos insurance covers them to drive it (either by insuring it in its own right, or by you driving it on your own policy (assuming that you have cover to drive "any vehicle not owned by the policyholder, or hired to him under a hire purchase agreement" - on a Third Party only basis) then we are on a winner!

If you dont have such a clause on your policy - most fully comp policies do (for people of our generation, anyway!) - then you would need to find someone who has.

Remember that in such a case the car is insured only when being driven on the road - should you park up and go for a bite to eat, then it aint gonna be covered whilst you are away from it - likewise once you get home, it cannot be kept on a road, or it will be deemed to be uninsured.

So you also have to be driving a car that isn't yours - so make sure that the receipt for the car isn't in your name! (the registered keeper is NOT automatically the same as the legal owner).

As far as tax goes, there is no problem - the law says that a car must have either VEL displayed, or be declared SORN. At the moment it is SORN, and when (if?) you get it, it will be either taxed or SORN at your house.

You cannot get the VEL without producing a relevant MOT and Insurance (either in person, or in a 'virtual' environment on the .gov website), so even if you had an insurance policy which checked out on the MIB database, the disc would still take 5 days to arive in the post.....

....the law recognises these facts, and so you get a period of grace (5 days) - please do not confuse this with the oft-quoted, and never existant 14 days grace when the VEL expires! - when first acquiring a vehicle. This only actually applies if you then tax it to cover the period it has been on the road.

so, short version, make sure your insured, drive it home, then ensure that it is taxed from the begining of October (or November, if you don't get it til next week) - job done!

If anyone tells you that it is an offence to "Fail to display a current VEL" - they are right, but there is a principle in law that you cannot display/produce something that doesn't exist, so you can't be guilty of not displaying a tax disc that hasn't been issued!

[Steve A]

thanks for that information
once again you have surpassed my expectations

[Steve A]

Well I know most of you are wondering if I ever got that Mini home ?
The simple answer to that is no, however we have managed to buy another Mini,
this one hasn't run for about three years so it has no MOT and won't even start,
However believe it or not I can't find any rust, a few dents but no rust.
It is a real bargain, I'm in the process of finding a way to transport it home as this is the only way full stop.
It only has to go about 25 miles but it might as well be a 100 if you haven't got means to do it
I've just been quoted £65 which sounds reasonable

[rip]

I don't recall you mentioning that it was a mini......a proper mini. Cool.
I fail to understand how BMW have not been sued for keeping tha name mini. It's huge. Maxi would be a far more accurate name.

[Steve A]

The Mini is coming along nicely, we've got the engine up and running with good oil pressure,
the clutch needed a new slave cylinder and the master cylinder needed rebuilding.
It also had no brakes, it would seem that if you leave a car standing for six years all hydraulic's forget to work
After much bleeding and pumping we finally got something that resembled resistance

Question:

Assuming that my insurance covers me, can I legally drive it to the MOT station (after I booked it in first) ?

[Dave Eds]

Yeah - you can't tax it without an MOT, so you can drive it there for a pre-booked MOT appointment.

So it's a Mini is it? Just so Iain knows

[Steve A]

Yeah there goes my winter nights
The Lotus is tucked away in my mums garage for now.
At least I have a bit of room to work on the Mini, well I should say watch
my son work on it, but you know how it is
I've even bought a set of panel beating hammers