Selling Car - SORN, Insurance etc

Convicted Driver Insurance

sillydan

New Member
Hello, I was arrested a couple weeks ago and have my court date on 20th December. Expecting a 17-22m ban with 25% off for the course. My own fault and despite the implications I am sure I will get what I deserve following my mistake.

Because of this I will need to sell my car and want to sell privately through autotrader/ebay etc. My issue being, is the car allowed in my parking bay without tax/insurance whilst being sold? Can someone else test drive the car if I am not insured on it (but sat in the car)? Can I get 'sellers insurance' from anywhere purely for this reason? Do I declare SORN?

Car is currently in a designated space at my flat, not public land. Only has a week left of insurance after the court date but expecting this to be invalid once charged. Live by myself with no one else insured on it. Worth around £7k.

Thanks in advance for any tips! I couldn't find any related posts but can't be the only one.
 
Hey don't feel bad, we've all been in your position. Bit of a tricky one with the SORN, for it to be legal is has to be kept on private land i.e drive way.
 
Thanks Jetsetter. As above its in my designated space and I will be selling as soon as possible, the problem I have is that I wouldn't be able to drive someone or let them test drive during my ban. Any ideas please?
 
Had my court case today, got what I expect 20m ban, 25% off so I will be driving 20th March 2018. £500 fine. Duty solicitor was great and whilst I don't think he really got me a better result, it was much more comfortable because of his help. Lesson learned and time to get on with life.

As such, I still need to sell my car as the above post. Any tips on selling whilst banned would really help me please.
 
Hi there, i was in a slightly similar situation when i got caught. My insurance was due to run out a week before i was sentenced. I just phoned my insurer when i got caught to say i don't want to renew, and just let the cover end on the renewal date. If they ask why, just say you'll not be needing a car anymore or something. Perfectly fine.
If you tell them you want to cancel your policy because of what has happened it could go against you and make it even harder to get insured again in the future.

As for sorn/keeping your car in your space i am not too sure, however if it was me i would leave it taxed for the time being, so that any potential buyers can just insure it temporarily when they take it for a test drive. Either that or you advertise the car and explain that its not taxed/insured so can't be test driven. This will put many buyers off so you'll take a hit on the price i'd expect.

I would guess that as the space is public land you'll be fine to keep it there for the time being. Can't imagine the police driving round doing ANPR checks on parked cars there.
 
Hi there, i was in a slightly similar situation when i got caught. My insurance was due to run out a week before i was sentenced. I just phoned my insurer when i got caught to say i don't want to renew, and just let the cover end on the renewal date. If they ask why, just say you'll not be needing a car anymore or something. Perfectly fine.
If you tell them you want to cancel your policy because of what has happened it could go against you and make it even harder to get insured again in the future.

As for sorn/keeping your car in your space i am not too sure, however if it was me i would leave it taxed for the time being, so that any potential buyers can just insure it temporarily when they take it for a test drive. Either that or you advertise the car and explain that its not taxed/insured so can't be test driven. This will put many buyers off so you'll take a hit on the price i'd expect.

I would guess that as the space is public land you'll be fine to keep it there for the time being. Can't imagine the police driving round doing ANPR checks on parked cars there.

Thanks Gstanley, that's really helpful. I will leave it taxed and get any buyers to get insured for the day, any companies that will do this for them easily/cheaply that you are aware of please? The space is my personal space for my flat, not by the road, assume this is my space so private land albeit outside the bay would be accessible by public so not private land outside that. As the car is worth around 7k personally I wouldn't buy something for that price so wouldnt assume someone else would even at a significant discount.
 
I doubt that anyone will be able to get insurance for a day for a car they are just borrowing to try out.
their insurance will only cover them (if at all) for a vehicle that has third party cover, which yours will not have in a few days.
i agree with not telling the insurance at this stage, just let it run out. If you tell them they they may void the insurance, which will cause you considerable trouble when you come to be re insured.
SORN the vehicle, it is OK to be on private property. You will have to do this or face problems over not having insurance 'continuous cover' on the car.
have you thought of selling the car through a local car auction? They will probably collect it for you. If you speak to them they should give you a guide price for what you can expect to get at auction.....
 
There are a number of companies that offer 1-30 day short term insurance cover. This would probably be the best best for a potential buyer.

I used such a service when I purchased a car last year and needed insurance to get it home.
 
That was cover after you have bought it. There are companies that offer short term insurance, but try getting it for a vehicle that you don't own and just want to test drive.....!
 
I doubt that anyone will be able to get insurance for a day for a car they are just borrowing to try out.
their insurance will only cover them (if at all) for a vehicle that has third party cover, which yours will not have in a few days.
i agree with not telling the insurance at this stage, just let it run out. If you tell them they they may void the insurance, which will cause you considerable trouble when you come to be re insured.
SORN the vehicle, it is OK to be on private property. You will have to do this or face problems over not having insurance 'continuous cover' on the car.
have you thought of selling the car through a local car auction? They will probably collect it for you. If you speak to them they should give you a guide price for what you can expect to get at auction.....

Thanks for this, I would LOVE to keep the car if I can as it really is special to me although I think being a big old 3 litre the insurance will be horrific after my ban in 15 months. I told the insurance company yesterday and only just seen this message. They said as there was only a week left that it would just stop from my ban date, I said it made no difference to me but guessing that was a mistake, damn! If I SORN it does it still need to be MOT'd? It has one till July anyway. Will also look into auction too, cheers!
 
There are a number of companies that offer 1-30 day short term insurance cover. This would probably be the best best for a potential buyer.

I used such a service when I purchased a car last year and needed insurance to get it home.

Just googled this and www.dayinsure.com came up, looks like it could be the answer, cheers!!
 
That looks to be a good site, certainly for getting a car home after purchase. BUT, you question was about someone getting insurance to test drive. I am not so sure it would be good for this.....
i put my details in for a 53 plate passat diesel (my car) it came up with a quote to be insured for the day on a car that I don't own for only £26, which isn't bad. Yours being newer and a bigger engine would be more, but not outrageous. Would someone be willing to pay perhaps £30-35 to be able to test drive a car before purchase? Or would you be willing to front that amount for a prospective buyer to ring up and get the insurance? There is then a compulsory excess of £250, who takes the risk on that if he has a bump? I wouldn't risk £250 of my money as the test driver of a car I MIGHT buy. You would have to draw up an agreement that you would pay the excess as the policy would be in the buyers name.
It will need quite a bit of working out......
 
That looks to be a good site, certainly for getting a car home after purchase. BUT, you question was about someone getting insurance to test drive. I am not so sure it would be good for this.....
i put my details in for a 53 plate passat diesel (my car) it came up with a quote to be insured for the day on a car that I don't own for only £26, which isn't bad. Yours being newer and a bigger engine would be more, but not outrageous. Would someone be willing to pay perhaps £30-35 to be able to test drive a car before purchase? Or would you be willing to front that amount for a prospective buyer to ring up and get the insurance? There is then a compulsory excess of £250, who takes the risk on that if he has a bump? I wouldn't risk £250 of my money as the test driver of a car I MIGHT buy. You would have to draw up an agreement that you would pay the excess as the policy would be in the buyers name.
It will need quite a bit of working out......

Thanks Price. I completely agree! I checked cost on my details 15 years driving, 32yo (prior to the DR10 obviously) on it (08 plate 3 litre CLK convertible) and it's 61 quid plus that excess. Hardly ideal buying conditioning before they have even turned up to see it as you say :/ I mean I could look to knock off the price if they buy but personally I wouldn't pay 60+ quid to try a car out.

I think my choices realistically is get a massive knock down on price through a dealer or keeping it. Never of which really work for me but no point spending on auto trader ads etc and then having no one prepared to gamble 60 quid. Bad times!
 
If you want to get an idea on what the insurance is likely to be, go to compare themarket.com and put your details in completely for you and your vehicle. Then go back and enter a DR10, 15 month fine but 14 months ago, not now, have the insurance to start next week. Then you can compare a 'before and after' quote where the only difference is the Drink Drive and it will show you the hike in insurance they want for the conviction. Don't put that you want insurance in March 2018 because they will just say to apply near to then, not now.
 
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If you want to get an idea on what the insurance is likely to be, go to compare themarket.com and put your details in completely for you and your vehicle. Then go back and enter a DR10, 15 month fine but 14 months ago, not now, have the insurance to start next week. Then you can compare a 'before and after' quote where the only difference is the Drink Drive and it will show you the hike in insurance they want for the conviction. Don't put that you want insurance in March 2018 because they will just say to apply near to then, not now.

800 quid, obviously much more than the £250 it was before but that isn't that bad, thanks for the advice :) think I'll SORN it and give my keys to a family member so there's no any chance of me being tempted.
 
Hi there,

An additional piece of advice, if you keep the car, would be to remove the car battery and use a battery maintainer (like http://www.halfords.com/workshop-to...rs-jump-starters/halfords-maintenance-charger, for instance) to preserve the battery.

Although after my ban I had the option to wait for my wife to get her driving licence, by the time she passed the test I had to ask a relative for help to jump start the car as after 4 months the battery was nearly dead. In my home country I still have a motorbike, and one year when I hadn't used it at all for about 12 months, the battery was really dead and had to be replaced. Now I bought a battery charger/maintainer for my motorbike and the return on investment is definitely worth the effort/cost of buying the charger, removing the battery from the motorbike and connect it to the charger. In terms of electricity bill, the impact of merely keeping the battery alive should be negligible.

HTH.

Best regards,
Z
 
Hi there,

An additional piece of advice, if you keep the car, would be to remove the car battery and use a battery maintainer (like http://www.halfords.com/workshop-to...rs-jump-starters/halfords-maintenance-charger, for instance) to preserve the battery.

Although after my ban I had the option to wait for my wife to get her driving licence, by the time she passed the test I had to ask a relative for help to jump start the car as after 4 months the battery was nearly dead. In my home country I still have a motorbike, and one year when I hadn't used it at all for about 12 months, the battery was really dead and had to be replaced. Now I bought a battery charger/maintainer for my motorbike and the return on investment is definitely worth the effort/cost of buying the charger, removing the battery from the motorbike and connect it to the charger. In terms of electricity bill, the impact of merely keeping the battery alive should be negligible.

HTH.

Best regards,
Z

Thanks for the info Z, could I not just disconnect the battery and then get jumped when I am back on the road? Either that or get a friend to start the car every few months. The vehicle started just fine after being untouched for 6 months whilst I was travelling this year.
 
could I not just disconnect the battery and then get jumped when I am back on the road? Either that or get a friend to start the car every few months. The vehicle started just fine after being untouched for 6 months whilst I was travelling this year.

I had researched the topic quite I bit, beyond listening to my motorbike mechanic, and no matter how long the battery might take to lose charge, its lifespan will be shortened if left without a healthy recharge pattern. Even when entirely disconnected, it will slowly lose charge. Moreover, just starting the car might do more harm than good unless the car is actually driven for a couple of hours. The engine starter uses quite a lot of energy so, if you just start the car and then turn it off after a few minutes, you will leave it with less charge in the battery than before starting it.

Clearly your mileage might vary, but given how inexpensive are battery maintainers, a "better safe than sorry" attitude might be worth the effort.

Best regards and Happy New Year,
Z
 
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