Buying a car on SORN: Motoring Motoring Discussion forum

Motoring Discussion > Buying a car on SORN	Buying / Selling
Thread Author: J Bonington Jagworth	Replies: 33

Mon 16 Aug 10 15:43

Buying a car on SORN - J Bonington Jagworth

Any views on the best approach to a private purchase of a car that's on SORN? This is a possible eBay purchase and the owner has promised to provide a new MOT, but not tax. Can I drive it home and sort out the paperwork there, or should I get him to tax it and pay him if/when I collect? I assume the latter, but he may no longer have the necessary insurance...

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Mon 16 Aug 10 17:03

Buying a car on SORN - Kithmo

No you can't drive it home with no tax on it. If he's going to MOT it you'll have to either tax & insure it before you drive it or you should trailer it home. What you need to do is, insure it, go get the MOT cert and V5 new keeper's supplement off him and tax it at his local post office.

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Mon 16 Aug 10 17:35

Buying a car on SORN - J Bonington Jagworth

Thanks, Kithmo. I'm tempted to get him to do it!

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Mon 16 Aug 10 18:01

Buying a car on SORN - henry k

>> I'm tempted to get him to do it!
>>
IMO there is little option but you have to insure it and get it off SORN.

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Mon 16 Aug 10 18:15

Buying a car on SORN - J Bonington Jagworth

I expect you're right, Henry. The issue is complicated by the fact that the car is for Mrs JBJ, but I will/would be collecting it!

Last edited by: J Bonington Jagworth on Mon 16 Aug 10 at 18:16

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Mon 16 Aug 10 22:45

Buying a car on SORN - Fullchat

I did it with a recent bike purchase off Ebay and I dont think the previous keeper had SORN'd it.

He'd had it MOT'd and had the Registration Document. I had the new insurance document.

We popped into a Post Office. Filled in the change of keeper part. The PO issued the VEL and sent the Reg Doc to DVLA. New one arrived 10 days late

Nothing simpler. He may be hit for lack of SORN but that's not my problem as the Reg Doc and a receipt show date of transfer.

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Tue 17 Aug 10 08:43

Buying a car on SORN - Cliff Pope

To drive it you need specific insurance full stop. (Not just driving any car cover)

But there is a grey area, endlessly argued about here before, about whether you could book it in for an MOT at your local garage and then drive it straight to the garage, without MOT or tax.

It has worked for many people, and passed police verification. After all, it's not unreasonable to want your own local garage to check over your new car, regardless of any need to MOT it.

But in this case you'd be paying for a needless MOT, so trailering would be simpler if you have the means.

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Tue 17 Aug 10 11:10

Buying a car on SORN - J Bonington Jagworth

Interesting thought, Cliff. I might have a word with my local garage. Why do you need specific insurance? I was assuming that my 'any car not belonging to you' cover would be sufficient...

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Tue 17 Aug 10 12:15

Buying a car on SORN - IJWS14

Read your policy, don't rely on generalisations.

Some do cover, some don't.

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Tue 17 Aug 10 12:39

Buying a car on SORN - The Nut

The any car cover sometimes includes a clause that the other car must be insured in it's own right by someone else.

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Tue 17 Aug 10 12:49

Buying a car on SORN - Cliff Pope

Also even genuine DOV cover means for cars NOT owned by the policyholder. So you would need someone else to drive the car for you, who was happy about their insurance cover.
It's tempting to try dodges like pretending that ownership doesn't actually change until you get the car home, but these are I think probably very suspect.
I did once do it when I bought a car from someone in the owners club, we mutually trusted each other, so we didn't exchange documents until the following day and he could cover me on his firm's insurance which allowed any driver. It's probably a potential minefield not worth stepping in.

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Tue 17 Aug 10 12:42

Buying a car on SORN - Zero

>> Interesting thought, Cliff. I might have a word with my local garage. Why do you
>> need specific insurance? I was assuming that my 'any car not belonging to you' cover
>> would be sufficient...

But at the moment you hand over cash, it does belong to you.

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Tue 17 Aug 10 12:48

Buying a car on SORN - Bellboy

lock stock and smoking engine

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Tue 17 Aug 10 12:56

Buying a car on SORN - Cliff Pope

>>
>>
>> But at the moment you hand over cash, it does belong to you.
>>

Is that absolutely the case? A legal contract can certainly exist prior to a payment, but can't it be dated at any precise moment by mutual agreement? You might buy an option to purchase?

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Tue 17 Aug 10 12:59

Buying a car on SORN - Zero

wouldnt be prepared to argue the finer points of it with the insurance company when trying to claim!

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Tue 17 Aug 10 13:07

Buying a car on SORN - Bellboy

or the beaky

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Tue 17 Aug 10 19:09

Buying a car on SORN - J Bonington Jagworth

"But at the moment you hand over cash, it does belong to you."

But as I mentioned to Henry, it's not for me!

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Thu 19 Aug 10 13:04

Buying a car on SORN - J Bonington Jagworth

Have now taken plunge, and hope to collect on Sept.1st

Owner can't send off V5 without new owner's signature. New owner will be Mrs JBJ, but I will be collecting car. She will have insurance certificate (which I can take) and I will be covered as named driver on that. If existing owner sends me the V5 tear-off slip, can we tax it locally* on the day, or better still, the day before?

Buying a car on SORN must be a common enough requirement, but the V5 notes don't seem to acknowledge it...

*By 'locally' I mean local to us, before journey to collect.

Last edited by: J Bonington Jagworth on Thu 19 Aug 10 at 13:06

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Thu 19 Aug 10 14:02

Buying a car on SORN - J Bonington Jagworth

"but the V5 notes don't seem to acknowledge it"

I'm being unfair. They do say you can use the tear-off slip (section 10) to tax the vehicle, although I'm not sure if you can do it the day before!

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Thu 19 Aug 10 20:23

Buying a car on SORN - J Bonington Jagworth

"I'm not sure if you can do it the day before"

Does anyone know? It would be useful to be able to buy the disc on the 31st (i.e. not have to wait until opening time the next day) but I'm sure the DVLC have a rule about it.

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Thu 19 Aug 10 21:06

Buying a car on SORN - Fullchat

You probably can providing you have all the necessary paperwork.

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Thu 19 Aug 10 21:21

Buying a car on SORN - Bellboy

yes you can
and the seller can send off the v5c without your signature too if he so wished

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Thu 19 Aug 10 22:24

Buying a car on SORN - J Bonington Jagworth

That's interesting, BB. Can it just be left blank, then?

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Fri 20 Aug 10 10:33

Buying a car on SORN - J Bonington Jagworth

Tell me more, BB. The V5 we've got says it *must* have both signatures...

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Fri 20 Aug 10 11:07

Buying a car on SORN - Bellboy

just sign it twice with a pp for the buyer
make sure you have a receipt for time and date of keeper change though so it cant bite in a few weeks with speeding tickets etc

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Fri 20 Aug 10 11:13

Buying a car on SORN - RichardW

I'm willing to bet if you signed it 'Mikey Mouse' and 'Donald Duck' in the relevant boxes, DVLA wouldn't notice.....!

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Fri 20 Aug 10 11:23

Buying a car on SORN - J Bonington Jagworth

'Donald Duck'

I seem to remember a guy who changed his name to 'Yorkshire Bank are ba$tards' just so they had to print it on his cheques. It must have made some other paperwork a bit problematic, though...

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Thu 19 Aug 10 22:23

Buying a car on SORN - J Bonington Jagworth

Thanks, FC. I don't see why it should be a problem - the price and duration of the tax is on the disc, so the start date can be deduced from the end date, but I'd like to sure before I get 'jobsworthed'...

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Mon 23 Aug 10 21:08

Buying a car on SORN - J Bonington Jagworth

Update - having unexpectly sold the old 323, have now brought forward the collection date of the newer one, so will end up taxing at the seller's end, and not posting documents or trying to tax early (although I discovered that you can do it up to two days early, presumably to allow for PO's being shut at weekends, and the possibility that you might want to tax from midnight).

However, the problem we are now faced with is getting a usable insurance certificate from an on-line operator. I said 'send us a PDF and we'll print it' but they could only offer to print it at their end and then scan it to email! I'm quite prepared to switch insurers if anyone else can do this properly...

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Tue 24 Aug 10 09:39

Buying a car on SORN - Bellboy

my dvla office often let me buy a tax disc longer than 2 days to the start of the new month
maybe they only do it for the trade?
i do confirm it wont be used prior to the new month though so maybe i have a trusting face

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Tue 24 Aug 10 10:49

Buying a car on SORN - J Bonington Jagworth

If only they knew, BB.. :-)

We now discover that existing insurers want £25 to 'transfer' it to another vehicle. In the good old days you just rang them up and said you'd changed your car and any change in premium was sorted out on the next anniversary. To add insult to injury, our new(er) cat-equipped 1.8 323F is in a higher group than its non-cat predecessor with 22hp more, so we're being stung for that as well. If we cancel the insurance, the charge is £50...

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Tue 24 Aug 10 10:55

Buying a car on SORN - Bellboy

i can only re-advise to use your local insurance broker next renewal time
many is the time ive sold the wifes car and taken it off her when she comes home
she then has to ring her broker and he always swaps it over to another car for usually nothing

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Tue 24 Aug 10 11:56

Buying a car on SORN - J Bonington Jagworth

You're probably right, BB. I guess the on-line operators will do anything to claw back the discounts they've offered. I do use a local broker for my bike, but they were a lot more expensive for the car, and the drawbacks of on-line operators were not so obvious before!

Swings and roundabouts, as ever...

Last edited by: J Bonington Jagworth on Tue 24 Aug 10 at 11:59

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Tue 24 Aug 10 23:42

Buying a car on SORN - J Bonington Jagworth

"our new(er) cat-equipped 1.8 323F is in a higher group"

Actually, it seems not - it's just that the premiums have gone up since we renewed the insurance two months ago, and they wanted another £45 for what is essentially the same car, although with a detuned engine. That's on top of the transfer fee, so I may have a few words when we're safely back on the Isle of Wight.

My view is that the premium should be the same as it would have been if the insurance for the new car were taken out two months ago, but I'm sure they'll see it differently...

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