Forums Forums National News Forgotten the insurance? Your car could be seized

Motorists will need to keep their insurance policies up to date if they don't want to fall foul of a new law that could land them with a £100 fine - and even the loss of their car.

Thousands of drivers risk having their cars clamped and seized in their driveways under tough round-the-clock insurance rules which will come into force this spring.

Ministers say the crackdown - which includes automated £100 fines through the post - is designed to tackle more than a million uninsured rogue drivers.

Read more: clicky

This is going to be a pain in the arse if you buy a new car and have the old one on the drive waiting to be sold with no insurance but taxed as it's easier to sell taxed...

i thought a vehicle had to be on the road to have to be insured goverment taking the piss again
so i can have a car with no tax or mot but it has to be insured what is that going to stop?

ah just read it on there site your ok if it is on a sorn but again how will this stop uninsured drivers?

If your car isn't insured, it has to be sorned. Simple! That's all they're saying, the law hasn't really changed, they're just attempting to get more money out of it now.

I visited Merseyside Police HQ last year (as a guest, not arrested I hasten to add) and saw the NMPR system, this system is incredibly accurate at doing immediate checks automatically on vehicles that pass the cameras, it gives a signal when it finds a car registration with no insurance, tax etc. This system is also fitted to the patrol cars, they will always find a way of making you pay tax. K

human error means mistakes are made due to insurance company's failing to pass on the info of insured cars fast enough. My sisterinlaw was stopped due to the sytem telling the squad car she was not insured when she had actual renewed her insurance 3 days prior to to renewal date and the date she was pulled was 5 days later.

AND its up to YOU toprove it!!!! Been there myself!!!

Who has to have the insurance, the owner, the driver or the registered keeper?

How do cars on garage forecourts go on ?, i know they have trade plates to drive them on the road, do they have actual car insurance and all that it means when sitting on a forecourt or in a showroom?

Bert, trade plates cover Tax, so they still need to be MOT'd.

Trade insurance generally covers all the cars a trader owns. Depending on the policy the number of cars can be limited, it can also be unlimited by number of cars, but limited by valve of the vehicle.

All the cars are also covered for theft, but this is usually a pre-designated location, usually the forecourt.

My trade policy covers an unlimited amount of sales cars upto the amount of £35,000 and 30 of my own cars.
My boss has trade plates but still gets the odd fine here and there for not sorning the forecourt vehicles.

The car has to be insured, so it could be either or all. However, the person driving the vehicle has to be insured to do so. The car must also, legally, be insured in the name of the primary user of the vehicle, though proving otherwise is technically difficult, but some insurance companies have been known to hire private detectives to prosecute and/or invalidate the insurance of "fronters" as they are known (where someones dad for instance, gets insured on a high-value and/or powerful car, at a fraction of the price of the son/daughter, and then either adds "any driver" or names the son/daughter as a named driver to the insurance policy (for little, or nothing extra - it cost me nothing extra to add the "any driver" option to my insurance), but never uses the vehicle as its the son/daughter who primarily uses it).

Basically, you can own a car, be the registered keeper, and never use it or get insured on it, but the person driving it, must be. And the database does not discriminate or link the registered keeper to the insured person (at present), however if you are pulled, the police do check the person driving, is insured to be driving the vehicle.

If you inform the DVLC you're still ok according to the bloke I heard spoutinng about it. We'll see.

If it has got a SORN it is ok