Had A Bit Of A Shock!!!

[Caran]

My car has died on me. OH has tried but cannot make it go. It's due for MOT next month. I was told last year it most likely not pass again as I had a full page of advisories. So decided to look for another car. OH and SIL have both been looking for me. SIL rang to say he had been checking cars out and had looked at my current duff car to see what I liked. He said he had found out I hadn't taxed my car and it ran out last September. I had no idea!
I never had a reminder to tax it again and it never crossed my mind.
I was horrified as my insurance would have been null and void.
I have sold said car for scrap anyway but I really am horrified at my mistake.

[gness]

Oh whoops, Caran!

[New Judge]

//I was horrified as my insurance would have been null and void.//

No it wouldn't. I don't know where this idea comes from. There are very few reasons that permit insurers to cancel a policy and having no tax is not one of them. They cannot decline TP cover in the event of an accident and they could only refuse to pay for damage to your own car (assuming you had a comprehensive policy) if they could show that having no tax contributed to the accident. They might struggle to do that.

[Smowball]

I didn’t know that NJ! I was absolutely sure that no tax means insurance is invalid!?

[goodgoalie]

My sympathies, Caran. I have an old (27 years and counting) car and although the MoT isn't due till October, it's already niggling away at the back of my mind. Increasingly stressful keeping it going.

Last week had to fork out £360 on the back two pipes of the exhaust, even though the same garage replaced the same parts 7 years ago, but I've only done 10,500 miles since then. Grrrr!

[Buenchico]

Quick! Somebody tell Scotland Yard and Interpol! Caran has just confessed to being a master criminal!

However . . .

While an insurer can void the 'optional' part of your insurance (which tops up your policy from the compulsory 'third party' bit) for not having taxed your vehicle, they're not permitted to void the third party element. As long as you've paid the premium, you're covered.

So, while you could have been prosecuted (or given an FPN) for having an untaxed vehicle on the road, you couldn't have been prosecuted for driving without insurance.

I pay my vehicle tax by direct debit, meaning that I don't have to do anything to ensure that it's always up to date.

The website for checking that a vehicle is taxed, and that its got a valid MOT certificate (where necessary) is here:
https://vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk/