Sorry, I just need to get this off my chest..... I purchased a new car on Wednesday. A 2004 Civic Type R, which I am very pleased with. However, the dealer I bought it from was a tight wad and it had no tax on it. No problem I thought, I'll just buy it online when I get home. I insured it with Churchill online before I went to pick it up so thought it would not be a problem. Turns out you need the V5 to buy car tax online. I only have the little slip saying I am the new owner. So, I have to go to the post office. Turns out I need an insurance certificate to get tax from the post office. Ok, I'll just call Churchill and ask them to fax or email me a cover note. Nope - "we don't have the facility to issue cover notes". So I have to wait for original documents to arrive in the post. Honestly how awful is this system? Why is stuff like this so difficult?? I am doing everything possible to tax the car - but I have to suffer because of crappy service from insurance companies and risk being prosecuted for not displaying a tax disc.
Good grief! Thats crazy. Won't I don't understand is why the post office are so jobsworthy about issuing tax discs...I have more than enough proof that the car is mine and insured etc...Hell, I don't like paying the cost of road tax even, but I try my best to do so and you get hassle about it. It makes you think why I try to even bother....
If your car isn't fit to be on the road & doesn't have an MOT then you can't tax it. Therefore meaning you can't have the car on the road as road tax (or road fund licence thingy) is needed before you are allowed to drive it on the road (unless you're driving to get road tax). However you also need insurance to get tax but your insurance isn't valid unless you've got car tax so technically you wouldn't be insured on your drive to get the tax disk. Catch 22 really.
If you buy your tax disc online I think it's delivery within 5 days (it's always been less than that for me) and should be no problem to do that as long as the car is listed on the insurance database and has a valid MOT. It's much less hassle for me than dealing with the arsey people at the post office.
Every insurance company ive ever used have emailed me my docs straight away, The only thing that seriously bugs me is when you get your tax renewal through which states £215 for 12 months so you nip down the PO and get asked to hand over £245 how is that fair!!
I would think about changing insurance company mate. They don't have the facilities to give you a cover note??? How unproffesional of them. Just imagine what they will be like if you ever have to file a claim.
You could have got it taxed by the dealer at an additional charge. Else you just wait a few days for the system to get its act together. No biggie.
If I was buying a car with no tax I'd have at least checked how I would get one, but like Nexxo said, should have just got dealer to do it
was in a similar situation when i bought my nissan note, car was MOT'd, had just insured it but couldn't drive it because no tax! the way i got around it was by popping into the post office with a traders policy (borrowed from the garage i got the car from), along with the valid MOT, post office was happy to sell me the tax disc! some cars can be taxed without a V5, yours most likely falls into that category too good luck!
Why did you not haggle the dealer until he gave you the car tax if it was such an issue? On a better question, how did you get your car home with no tax?
Don't bother about it! I live out in cyprus and go back to the UK for about 4-6 weeks a year, last time i lost my V5 and had to get a new one. Problem being that the registered address is glasgow (my place) but the car is kept in a garage in Kent (In laws). This is because me and the wife fly into london and drive to glasgow to visit my family. Basically i forgot this and couldn't tax the car because the V5 was in glasgow, but i had insurance. So all i asked the woman at the post office to do was write a note stating that i had tried to get tax but couldn't due to the lack of V5. On the way upto glasgow i got pulled because of no Tax (funilly enough), and i explained the situation to the copper, who simply gave me a producer (7 days to show relevant documents) and off i went. Got the V5, got the tax, JObs a good Un.
+1. I'm not quite sure how the rest of the country (myself included) seems to get by doing this all the time and you seem to struggle with it so much. Is this the first car you've bought or something? It just seems to me like you haven't really done your homework
Well it's the starting bit thats hard, once you're up and running you can just renew the bits with no waiting for post etc. If you live in the countryside buses don't always exist, but I guess it's just the extra frustration of having paid for insurance/etc and not being able to use it!
Circumstances occurred that prevented me from getting tax, hence the rant. Just thought it would be beneficial to point out that this could happen to someone too. I'll keep my eyes peeled so I can make some equally useful comments to your posts.
