quick SORN question

Been an expat too long... when I left Britland, yer car was either taxed, or it wasn't... simple. But they were just introducing, IIRC, the concept of SORN - as a voluntary declaration you could make, if yer car was going to be off the road for a while.

I understand it's now all changed, and SORN is compulsory.

Question is: can someone come up with a timetable? When was SORN first introduced, and how often has it been tightened up, and when? And in what ways?

Another quickie while I remember it: can anyone quote chapter and verse on where it says in the law that the address of a registered keeper must be a UK address? Surely it would be sensible for a vehicle belonging to an expat to have correspondance go to their overseas address? Otherwise, if you don't have someone you can rely on in the UK to forward stuff, it will just lie for months and months in a PO Box address.

I don't have any problem with gas, electricity, or insurance for my UK property - hell, even the council send their council tax paperwork to New York. But DVLA are (surprise surprise) being uniquely pigheaded about overseas addresses.

Thanks

Mike

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Reply to
Michael Ross
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The DVLA tells you all you need to know, the correct information you require is on their site. If you want to do something illegal then see a solicitor.

Reply to
klf

The message from "klf" contains these words:

After all - soliciting's an offence.

Reply to
Guy King

First, thanks for top-posting.

'Obviously' the first thing I did was go to the DVLA website. I couldn't find anything there about overseas addresses, or about previous SORN rules.

I certainly don't plan on doing anything illegal, and I regard it as a slur on the legal profession that you suggest I should obtain the assistance of a solicitor to do something illegal!

Mike

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Reply to
Michael Ross

Michael Ross ( snipped-for-privacy@corestore.org) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Introduced about '98ish, IIRC. Only tighten that I can recall was this Jan - they now assume that you're using the car if it's not SORNed or taxed, and it's now a "no tax" fine instead of a "no SORN" - £80 instead of £25.

I'm sure the DVLA could if you ask them.

If you don't have a permanent address here, it's not legal here, so it's not legal in the country you're using it in.

Besides - if you're going to be away that long, you'll need to register it locally.

Strangely, it's difficult to take a house out of the country. Cars are a bit easier.

If you live here, you register the car here. If you don't, you register it in the country you *do* live in.

Simple.

Reply to
Adrian

So:

If I go abroad for, say, three years - and so do not have a UK address - and:

I rent a lockup garage in which to keep my car whilst abroad (untaxed, unused) -

I have to register it in the country in which I am (temporarily) resident??

Don't seem too simple to me!!!!!

Reply to
Ian Henden

Done some more googling, looks like yer right. Thanks.

Don't follow you at all. I only ever use the car in the UK. And it's

100% legal - taxed and insured. Bought it new last year, don't need MOT yet.

No, you don't get it. I live in the USA. Have done for years. I have US-registered cars here I use all the time (WRX is the most fun :-). I also keep a car in the UK, which I use for a month or two every year when I'm back in the UK. That's the bugger that causes the problem.

Not so bloody easy to take to New York.

What are you trying to say? Expats who don't live in the UK shouldn't be allowed to own cars in the UK? They should be forced to either sell it, or take it with them? Careful, mate...

LMAO! Do you know the hoops I'd have to jump through to get an Avantime *into* the USA, much less registered here?!

Federal vehicle regs make even the DVLA look like cute cuddly amateurs. Protectionism and total nanny-state paranoia.

Anyway I don't want the bloody thing over *here*, I want it over

*there*, in UK!

Cheers

Mike

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Reply to
Michael Ross

It's not so much that "I don't get it", as you forgot to tell us the car was still here...

Container, dear boy, container.

Sorry - let me get this straight - you live in the US, but spend about

1/6 of the time back in the UK - but don't have a single address you can use? A friend, a relative, a colleague, an office? Somebody that can be trusted to tick a box and return a form once a year?

It's an Avantime? Why didn't you say so? In that case, it's even simpler - feel *free* to use my address and leave me the keys - I'll make sure it's kept healthy for you...

I *LIKE* Avantimes. I don't care if they are apparently the single biggest gay icon car of the last decade. I think they're bloody lovely, and it's a tragedy that it got canned so quickly. I want one.

Reply to
Adrian

I can understand if the Avantime is the car of your dreams and when you come over here this is the car you want to drive. What I can't understand is the need to keep an expensive car parked up for 10 or 11 months a year considering the costs involved; depreciation, tax, insurance.

Wouldn't it be cheaper, and a lot less hassle, to hire the same car, or similar, for a couple of months. Pick it up at the airport when you land, leave it there when you fly out.

krystnors

Reply to
krystnors

A fair question - but we only tax it when we're over for the summer, and only insure it likewise. Depreciation isn't such a big deal, since we got a good deal on the car: a top-of-the-line model with every single option, including two-tone leather, demonstrator with 600 miles on it, haggled them down to ten grand off list! When they canned the Avantime there really were some very good deals to be had as they tried to clear the (considerable) overstock.

Plus I threatened the wife with buying a Multipla as an alternative... she wrote the cheque for the Avantime rather quickly at that point ;-)

Plus it'll only build up the miles very slowly, the Avantime already has a considerable cult following, and was sold in such low numbers that we feel it might just possibly appreciate eventually. Or at least be reasonably 'sought-after'.

Plus we plan to keep it for a *very* long time... It'll write-down in the books, so to speak.

No... we did the maths and we use the car for just long enough to justify owning it, even as a purely financial matter. I don't know anywhere you can hire an Avantime!

Mike

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Reply to
Michael Ross

Isn't that one with the dodgy back end ("shakin' yer ass")? Goes all over the place when you corner does it?

Reply to
IanAl

: If you don't have a permanent address here, it's not legal here, so it's : not legal in the country you're using it in.

Bearing in mind that the OP is asking about SORN rules, it seems likely, does it not, that he is abroad but the car is in the UK, patiently waiting off-road for his return?

Ian :

Reply to
Ian Johnston

IanAl ( snipped-for-privacy@privacy.net) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I think you're thinking of the Megane.

The Avantime is (was, RIP...) the big two-door coupe Espace.

Reply to
Adrian

With a godgy back end like the Megane.

Reply to
James Hart

James Hart ( snipped-for-privacy@jameshart.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Mebbe that's why it's gained the image it apparently has...?

Reply to
Adrian

In the (good) old days you could chance the road tax (or was is road fund?) payment a couple of months and then claim that you hadn't used the car in the meantime :-)

SORN was invented by a twisted mind who wanted to increase the chances that you would miss something and consequently get fined.

Reply to
Johannes H Andersen

Yeah, I've had a look at the ad again. Still stupid (the ad I mean).

Reply to
IanAl

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