Road tax new rules

[MOHDW211]

Just had a service today and realised that the Road tax has run out end of today. I do have another car and they run out at diff times so remember only today but the PO closed early for bank holiday...typical....I had every intention of paying the 88 quid as i had just service E today for a cool 212 quid.

So is the tax man going to fine me under new rules....not sure if any PO open on Sunday....my next best time is probablyTuesday a few days late....it runs out 30
April thats today. I always pay on time but this time i had banked on the PO closing at 5pm on a saturday as normal.

Whats the damage guys?

 

[Apial]

Can you not renew it online?

 

[davidsl500]

£80.00 fine

But dont worry, you actually have a 1 month grace period after the expiry of the old Road Fund Licence - you may have been on holiday etc.,

I am also pretty positive they would write and advise the penalties in that month as well.

 

[MOHDW211]

I thought you needed to show your V5 or reminder to renew the tax and your insurance Doc...so not sure online would work..is it available?

Will renew on Tuesday and hope for the best.......

 

[davidsl500]

from the DVLA Website ::

Penalties

DVLA is no longer reliant on spotting untaxed vehicles on the road before action can be taken. Although on-road enforcement will continue, car tax evaders can now also be identified direct from DVLA?s vehicle record. Therefore failure to renew your car tax, within a month of expiry, can result in an automatic £80 penalty landing on your doormat. And, if you continue to drive without a valid tax disc you could be fined a minimum of £1,000.

 

[MOHDW211]

Thanks David

 

[SLinKyjoe]

yes....1 month altho the DVLA will check 14days after expiry for renewal they dont automatically send put a reminder. It depends on the situation. if you have let it run out before a few times they issue a reminder. if you have been caught before they dont. they just fine you. appraently it is up to you to sort your own affairs out and they will have sent you the notice for the renewal anyway. the only defenece you can have is that you have not recived a renewal and that you were out of the country at least 2 weeks before the renewal notice would have come through and that you can prove that you were still out of the country and had been for the whole period between the notice and the intent to fine notice.

Common sense does prevail in late circumstances.


as i am boring i got my renewal on 10th April for the Slinkymobile. Before i descended on the Local MB dealer demenadning to know why the new car only had 6months on it when you get 12, i thought i would check the disc iteslf....sure enough,,,31.10.05 expiry. so i will let you know what happens with my 6months and 3weeks notice period. I have sent them a letter and requested a reply but to date nothing....so i cant wait to be taken in front of the worships with my tax disk asking which bit of october they read as April and exaclty how the DVLA got to this interesting situation.

and it cant be done online but can by post. They need sight of the insurnace certifcate, renewal from and MOT certificate if needed.

 

[davidsl500]

Dont drive to the PO in it though sods law says you will get knicked !

 

[mlc]

The DVLA are not going to know whether you have paid your road tax today becasue they still rely on paper based records. The one month before an automatic fine does not however give you the right to drive through out May with taxing the car. The law is very specific, you must pay for the renewal by the end of April to use or keep the car on the car on the 1st May. People often talk about 14 days grace, which was actually removed in 1968!

Regardless of the above if I had forgotten to tax my car I would still drive it over the weekend and tax it on Tuesday morning.

Mark.

 

[SLinKyjoe]

Dont drive to the PO in it though sods law says you will get knicked !

this is a good one. if you have the renewal form, the insurance certifcate and means to pay the police are unable to charge you as they have to prove you were not of intention to pay.



but if you have no means to pay down you go....

 

[SLinKyjoe]

The DVLA are not going to know whether you have paid your road tax today becasue they still rely on paper based records. The one month before an automatic fine does not however give you the right to drive through out May with taxing the car. The law is very specific, you must pay for the renewal by the end of April to use or keep the car on the car on the 1st May. People often talk about 14 days grace, which was actually removed in 1968!

Regardless of the above if I had forgotten to tax my car I would still drive it over the weekend and tax it on Tuesday morning.

Mark.

quite right. no grace period....but we are not in a big brother state so using you car before you were unable to get to the post office until 3rd MAY would, of course not be frownde upon. 3rd July they may well take a different view but you will already have paid the £80 by then anyway coz if you havent you will be summond to court to explain why not.

 

[davidsl500]

quite right. no grace period....but we are not in a big brother state so using you car before you were unable to get to the post office until 3rd MAY would, of course not be frownde upon. 3rd July they may well take a different view but you will already have paid the £80 by then anyway coz if you havent you will be summond to court to explain why not.

Of course if you had just run over the policemans foot whilst parking up for the post office or committed another offence or had an accident it might be a different conclusion. I am sure that the vast majority of officers ( and traffic wardens??) would take a sensible view. Even, so there is no grace period and it is still technically an offense to drive or park on public roads whether you have an intention to pay or not.

And I am not paranoid - but is still doesnt mean that they are not out there to get me....

 

[SLinKyjoe]

Of course if you had just run over the policemans foot whilst parking up for the post office it might be a different conclusion. I am sure that the vast majority of officers ( and traffic wardens??) would take a sensible view. Even, so there is no grace period and it is still technically an offense to drive or park on public roads whether you have an intention to pay or not.

And I am not paranoid - but is still doesnt mean that they are not out there to get me....

you are quite right but they apply the MOT rules to this situation, in that you can drive to an MOT station, fail it, drive it to a fixing place for fixing and back to a MOT tester all without a Valid MOT. This means you can go and get you tax disk, providing you are doing that and only that, without the current one in date. but as the other posts make clear, you have been given enough warning and you cannot treat the law as a lame duck.


if you were paranoid and they dont come after you would you worry about whether they had forgot who you were?

 

[davidsl500]

Perfectly agree on the MOT info - with the proviso that the Tests and repairs (where the MOT has run out) must be pre-booked to avoid people driving around willy nilly (can i say nilly?) with no intention of going for the MOT.

Car insurance would be an interesting thing, if in an accident then a lapsed MOT would be a perfect excuse for a non payout and possibly the same would apply to road fund licence? Must get the policy out and read it.

 

[SLinKyjoe]

no you cant say nilly on here.......children may stumble upon this site and what would they think? You cant go around just saying anything you like. be more careful in the future or we shall come round with big sticks and stones and throw them at you from an unsafe distance without taking the precaution of manual handling training first either....there, thats you told, that is.


MOT. if you have one that is valid for a year but you have the car re-tested a month before the old one expires and your car fails do you still have a valid MOT?

 

[davidsl500]

Yes, you still have a valid MOT but an unroadworthy vehicle. The MOT is really only a snapshot of the vehicles condition at the time of test as we all know but 364 days later you can still get a road fund licence with it.

Still doesnt mean to say you wouldnt get knicked on a roadside test....

In Liverpool many years ago one of the most common failures on taxi's (FX4 Black Cabs) was the vacuum pump which provided the servo assistance for the brakes. Because they were always failing and were expensive it was quite common for taxi firms to have one new pump that was bolted on the vehicle going for test.......

nilly nilly nilly ...there thats done it..

Could you be paranoid about not being paranoid and therefore be paranoid without knowing?

 

[SLinKyjoe]

hmmmmmmmm. i know a similar story regarding the changing of a certain peice of equipment in an aircraft to achive its minimum defect flight rules. the kit that was duff was transferred around aircraft or a certain company to maintin flying. the problem was that this price of kit cost a huge amount to replace so the duff one made the rounds while income was generated. one very unforutnate day this duff peice of kit went in an aircraft and the serviceble peice of kit went duff while flying and as we all know 2 duff's dont make a flight!. so the plane was now flying and wasnt totally sure where it was.. the rules nowadays prevent this happeneing so you wont have anymore accidents of this nature ever again. did i say accident? i meant delay.........planes dont crash...safest from of transport there is known to man...in fact if you take the man out of them then they probably wouldn't have accidents at all.

the company went bust by the way....about 10mins later as it happens.

actually it becomes a good case of the classic tombstone technology that requires unfortunate incidents to take place before those who suggest the right course of action before it, are listened to after it. Remember the Channel tunnel Fire? another one such incident.

from road tax to tunnel fires in 16 posts...not bad that.


paranoid is a state of mind so no you couldnt be unless you are!

 

[190]

You are not allowed to drive an untaxed vehicle on the road If the police stop you they can still fine you for driving an untaxed vehicle and not displaying a current tax disc and also you have No insurance because the car is being driven which does not meet the legal requirements. That is why they send out your renewal notice 2 weeks before it?s due. If you fail to tax your car you get fined £80 and made back tax it and it?s either £40 or £60 fine for not displaying a current tax disc

 

[Apial]

I thought you needed to show your V5 or reminder to renew the tax and your insurance Doc...so not sure online would work..is it available?

Will renew on Tuesday and hope for the best.......

My last reminder came with the online info. I forget which car it was, so it might have been one that didn't need an MOT. The insurance info came from their own database. I paid with a debit card. They don't take credit cards, and the tax disc arrived 2 days later. All very easy.

 

[evade]

car tax online

taxed wife's yaris online thursday morning(about 01:00 am) & received tax disc in the post sat morning - not bad.
however tried this in october but was prevented due to being only 12 months old insurance was due to run out same time as tax - system doesn't like this!
you would have same problem if your mot ran out in same time period as tax / insurance.
this is why I only got 6 months tax last time, can now get on line every time.
(all post offices have closed round here & don't fancy queueing with oap's etc in only post office left).