New Insurance Rules

[rowanmoor]

I have ready that they are bringing in new rules about owning a car that is not insured. Basically - you can't own a taxed car and not have current insurance for that car and you will get an instance automatic fine in the post if your insurance lapses whether your car is stored in a secure off-road location or you are driving it like a hoodie round the streets and pavements of Crawley on a Friday night... You have to SORN it before you take the insurance off to avoid a fine.

Does anyone know if this has come in yet? If not then when does it come in?

The reason I ask is that we have been given a new car and are going to get rid of my wife's 306 (I'll post about that in the sales and wants shortly). It is currently insured until some time in April and has tax until the end of Dec. If I haven't sold it by then I don't really want to SORN it as that would mean it could not be taken for a test drive by a possible buyer, but I don't want to renew the insurance when we are selling it.

[citroenxm]

No its not in yet, but yes, as you said, its only IF the car IS taxed, but NOT showing insurance.

Cars that ARE SORN'd and NOT insured are ALL OK... its so that people DO NOT insure a car to tax it, then cancel the insurance ... This cant work though either, as ANPR would pick up on that.

But people must be getting around it somehow..

Paul

[xmexclusive]

Been on the statute book for a few months but it became operational law earlier this year (1st Feb).
The Motor Insurance Database is live and available online to the Police and DVLA.
All Insurance companies have to record policy details (vehicles and drivers) within 5 days of the policy inception date.
This includes cover notes and short term policies. Most Insurance companies are withdrawing or limiting the use of these.
If your policy is unusual (blanket multicar or fleet) then carrying a copy with you could save a lot of trouble.
When stopped because the reg is not showing on MID it is the drivers responsibility to prove compliance with the law.
Failure to do so and you can lose the vehicle there and then.
There is expected to be a load of problems with company vehicles.
Mainly where the manager responsible for transport fails to realise the need to declare all vehicles and drivers.
Taking a SORN vehicle to MOT could be fun unless you have your own trade plates.
And by the way rumour has it DVLA site checks are having a purge on checking vehicles using trade plates due to the amount of missuse.
This all caused me to change my insurance policy when I had a renewal in early Feb to a multi-vehicle any car one.
Insurance policy still insisted on declaration of every vehicle including prior notice of vehicle change or taking a SORN vehicle to MOT.
In the end they just put every one I own on the policy, including SORN and declared them all for the database.
The policy also now has very restricted conditions on the use of vehicles owned by others.
That vehicle must be already insured by the keeper who gives permission for use.
(In actual fact this last item has always been the law but never previously spelt out on policies or enforced.)
My policy now requires there must be exceptional circumstances justifying such occasional use.

John

[Dieselman]

If your policy is unusual (blanket multicar or fleet) then carrying a copy with you could save a lot of trouble.
When stopped because the reg is not showing on MID it is the drivers responsibility to prove compliance with the law.
Failure to do so and you can lose the vehicle there and then.
There is expected to be a load of problems with company vehicles.

Company cars need to be declared separately anyway.

I've just checked my cars are on the Askmid database and they are. My multicar policy started again on 14th Feb 2011, so is recent.

[citroenxm]

When I had my monthly motor trade, ALL my cars were on it, and ALL were on the MID as insured!

My monthly insurance has now ceised trading now, so I now want to look for a yearly motor trade policy.

What I actually do then, is list ALL my cars in possesion, on the road or not with them, they are all insured then, so when MOT Time comes its at least insured.

Paul

[rowanmoor]

Who do people have their multi car policies with? I have been wondering if it is a better option just having 2 cars between the 2 of us, but I can't seem to find anywhere that actually does them. A few places seemed to advertise 'milti-car' policies, but they actually meant they give a discount on a second policy. Do they charge an admin fee for changing the cars listed? How does the cost compare to separately insuring a couple of cars?

The insurance companies really seem to be aiming for the point of insisting that everyone owns their own car and has their own insurance on it and cannot drive any other cars. At this rate they will be restricting named drivers use to prevent the 'dad insuring teenagers car' type scenario. I have already heard it said that they will start invalidating policies if they think the policy holder drives a car less than the named drivers - I don't know if it is true though.

[xmexclusive]

Primo broker multicar usually through Tradex. Been a few posts with contact details.
Unfortunately there has recently been a doubling of the Tradex minimum policy premium.
Now £1000 plus tax.
For me it makes the break even point now somewhere between 3 and 4 single car policies.
Nowhere near as economic as last years quote.
Still it was the flexibility that swung it in the end and not the price.

John

[Dieselman]

My multicar policy is with Admiral and it is cheaper than individual policies and it's convenient as well just having to renew once a year over all the cars.

[Dean]

Dos admiral let you use your no claims on both cars though Will? i know they let me when i got a quote but we all know a quote and the actual policy are two different things.

Admiral are good though, im insured with them at the moment but may try Adrian flux or footman james this year and see what they come up with.

D

[rowanmoor]

Admiral seem to be the popular choice, but I will never go near them again after I had to claim with the a few years ago.

They admitted liability on my behalf, put a write off on the cars history and cancelled my insurance all without consulting or even telling me. It meant I was driving without valid insurance and had the car written off when the repairs were about half the cost of any example I could find in the country for sale in a running state (even non-runners were for sale at a significantly higher price). It took 9 months of arguing with them to get the money out of them and then they failed to tell me that I needed a VOSA check to get it back on the road properly so I was again driving in a dubious state of legality without knowing it.

That was a few years ago, and they may well be much better now, but once bitten...

I tried putting in for a quote on one of these 'short term' insurance sites. It claimed it was a very cheep way of getting less than a years insurance. It quoted 28 days cover for my wife only and no business use (her insurance has me and business use) for more than her last annual renewal was!