Need to declare a SORN?

AIUI you will have to pay the tax for April if you don't SORN, and you will have to visit a DVLA office to tax it, either way.

Nick Finnigan ( snipped-for-privacy@genie.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

What did you do with the tax form that you received from DVLA? You would have either had to renew the tax or SORN it.

Yes. ASAP. You're already four weeks late.

No, he'll have to pay an £80 fine for not taxing or SORNing it.

No, any tax-issuing post office will do it, but the OP will have to fill the form out rather than just present the reminder.

You should have declared SORN by using the V11 (Vehicle Licence Application/SORN Declaration) form that should have been sent you in mid March. Now that the VED laws have changed (1st January 2004) it's an automatic £80 fine if the VED discs don't run consecutively and you haven't declared SORN.

See here for advice/penalties:-

It is unreasonable to make it that automatic, since you can't tax a car without an MoT. As Ian posted, you should only have to have consecutive tax disks, even if you buy one late.

I didn't think they kept old disks available for that long.

Nick Finnigan ( snipped-for-privacy@genie.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

That's right. So? You *can* SORN a car without an MOT. If you can't tax for whatever reason, or don't want to tax it, you SORN it. If you don't, you get fined.

It's that easy.

So SORN it. It's hardly onerous, ffs. Get form in post, tick one box, scrawl your signature on it, date it, and hand it in at the PO.

They've made it easier than before, since you don't have to say WHERE it's off-road any more.

Next month, you fill the form in and buy a tax disk. The most difficult bit's probably finding the V5.

They don't. Buying back tax will make no difference. If the OP is taxing it today, tomorrow or 1st May, he's going to get hit for not SORNing it - so might as well buy a tax disk starting from May.

The message from "Nick Finnigan" contains these words:

So it should have been declared SORN.

Yes, and can you then drive to an MoT centre in a SORNed vehicle?

I don't know why this seems not to be as obvious as it seems to me.

DVLA have a computer with all the current (taxed) car regs on. As the tax expires on a car known to DVLA, one or other must happen:

1) Tax is renewed 2) Car is Sorned.

To do neither is to commit an offence.

Additionally, if you Sorn a car and continue to keep / use it on the road, you commit a different offence.

There isn't a state (3) Car is off road so needs no tax or sorn, this is where you have to declare the car is off road, the name sorn means Statutory Off Road Notice.

I dunno how quick DVLA are to punish on Sorn, I haven't heard they're up to speed yet, so you will probably be able to renew tax including April, or to apply for a new tax to run from May, but it's not as if there is any cost or difficulty in declaring Sorn when you want the car to be regarded as off road. I can't see any reason not to.

Apparently >Do I need to contact the DVLA and make a Statement of Off Road

Of course you can, with the usual proviso of it being a pre-booked appointment.

clive

Ah. Is that clarified somewhere official?

Of course, that's how the exception is intended to work. You do have to have arranged the test, of course.

In due course the MoT centre will enter your arranged test on the computer and probably also the results, to protect / cover the situation where your car is detected on the road with no tax by a plate recognition camera. That way, simply being on the road with no tax will be swiftly detected.

This will be a good thing, as it will make it much harder to drive without insurance or MoT and that's got to be excellent news for everyone except the person doing it. IME the Sorn will then be redundant.

Sales! ( snipped-for-privacy@bargain-pricings.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Not any more. If your car is not SORNed or taxed, it's automatically assumed to be on the road now. The £25 "No SORN" fine has been replaced by an £80 "No tax" fine, as if it was seen on the road.

Ah ok, although I'd have to say 80 quid sounds a lot cheaper than the fine for driving without tax, if the people I heard about haven't been exaggerating.

Sales! ( snipped-for-privacy@bargain-pricings.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

£80 is the base fine. On top of that, there's a penalty which doesn't (AIUI) get applied - that's the "up to a grand and crush your car" bit that the adverts harp on about.

I think a law which makes it a crime (with automatic 80 quid fine) to fail to promptly and annually declare your innocence of another crime is extremely onerous.

If you dig around on the DVLA website you will find you can even declare your innocence by telephone - farcical.

The message from "Nick Finnigan" contains these words:

No, you declare it back on the road - you then have a month to get a tax disc.

The message from Sales! contains these words:

Yes, but that's per month.

If you dont renew your tax disc within a month of the previous one=20 expiring you will incur a penalty of up to =A380 , If you continue to=20 drive without a valid you could be fined a minimum of =A31,000 .=20

Err yes. Covered by the same rules regarding driving an untaxed vehicle to and from the MOT that have been in force for years.