I am going to be selling a car for a friend of mine very shortly.

It was his fathers car who sadly passed away over 12 months ago and this is the last thing in his estate that has to go, he cant bring himself to do it so has asked me if i would handle it for him.

It has no tax, no MOT (has done 1.5 miles since last MOT) and is currently uninsured.
Is is registered in his dads name still.

Now can i legally drive it to a pre arranged MOT on my 3rd party cover from my own car insurance even though the vehilce has no tax and is delared SORN?

reason i ask is that if i can then i will be going the 'long' way to the station as it has not been run for over 12 months

I think you can only drive it on your third party cover if the vehicle is already insured.
I had a similar problem when picking a car up for my daughter.

The only people who can tell you are your insurers, plus they record all their calls so if they say yes on the phone they've got to honour it.

I don't think your insured to drive it but could be wrong, you can take out short term insurance cover for a few days quite cheaply. The SORN thing is irrelevant since you can't get road tax without an MOT and your only driving it to get one.

As said already, for your insurance to cover you 3rd party, the vehicle has to have cover elsewhere. Phone your insurance company and ask them. My insurance covers me for 14 days for another vehicle FOC.
Driving to and from the MoT place requires insurance but no tax/test or SORN provided the MoT place has your name and car reg booked into their diary.

the car must be insured by someone else for your insurance policy to cover you third party.

The car must be taxed.

The car can be driven to a MOT station, but if the police catch you i can imagine they'll think you're taking the pee and try to find something to get you on.

Have a chat with a local garage, ask if you can rent their trade plates off them for a day (covers tax).

Get 1 day insurance (covers insurance).

MOT .... not sure, maybe pay the local garage who you're borrowing hte trade plates to MOT it. In reality you should have an MOT for a reason, are you really happy driving a car that far without checking it over first? (yes i realise MOT's aren't that great a check of a cars road worthyness)

(Editted to add, i think i'm wrong about tax, you have to have MOT and insurance to tax - i'm a dunce this early in the morning)

[Edited on 2/4/08 by MikeR]

I think you could almost get away with it. If you're stopped the police will check that the car isn't stolen and then check your license and if you have adequate insurance i.e. fully comp. The problem being is that if they feel you're taking the pee you will be given a HORT1 (producer) in which case you'll have to take your details to the police and attend with the owner of the car. Here you'll presumably fall a cropper as the owner has passed away and the car is still in his name and the insurance says "you can drive another persons car third party only with their express permission" and you didn't have his permission and could then be looking at TWOC. It's something we do at work a lot.

quote:

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Originally posted by MikeR
the car must be insured by someone else for your insurance policy to cover you third party.

The car must be taxed.

The car can be driven to a MOT station, but if the police catch you i can imagine they'll think you're taking the pee and try to find something to get you on.

Have a chat with a local garage, ask if you can rent their trade plates off them for a day (covers tax).

Get 1 day insurance (covers insurance).

MOT .... not sure, maybe pay the local garage who you're borrowing hte trade plates to MOT it. In reality you should have an MOT for a reason, are you really happy driving a car that far without checking it over first? (yes i realise MOT's aren't that great a check of a cars road worthyness)

(Editted to add, i think i'm wrong about tax, you have to have MOT and insurance to tax - i'm a dunce this early in the morning)

[Edited on 2/4/08 by MikeR]

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You are going to need insurance for a couple of weeks so you can take buyers out in it for test drives.

just thought, we have a rule in this country, distance selling (eg phone / internet) gives you a 14 day cooling off period. Not sure if it includes insurance.

Don't know why i thought that

If its half decent car get your mate to take out some insurance with you as named driver. Im sure you can cancel within 14 days as long as you dont make a claim. Hopefully you will sell it quick. It might all be in the timing. Book the advert for say a Thursday. Get it insured on the Friday and take it for test that morning. Then by the time someone rings about it you may be MOT'd and legal to take people on a test drive. Only other issue then is its Sorn'd but id take my chance on that. I wouldnt take a chance on the insurance and MOT when its someone elses car.



I wonder what i would think if i went to view a car that someone was selling for a mate and it was registered to a deceased relative. If the seller is honest and open then id probs see it as OK as long as everything was in order and log book was signed. Would DVLA know the owner is dead? Do driving licences get sent back? Would this cause a problem when owner is transferred?

Two options as I see it.

-You could get one day insurance sorted. There are a few insurers, of which Norwich Union are (or were) one, that'll cover most cars for one day for £10. You could then drive to / from a MOT station without tax.

-You could get it on the road and disable the car in such a way that Mr AA man won't be able to fix at the road side and hence get a free flatbed out.

I'd go for option 2.

Well I asked the woman that deals with authorising and giving seized/uninsured cars back at work today and she says no, as long as you have your fully comp. policy that says you can drive other cars then you'd be fine. Or at least, I suppose, if it was seized she would authorize giving it back no problems

Just pay for a day's insurance from Dayinsure or Norwich Union, both allow you to do it all online and print a cover note instantly and you'll be completely legal, fully comp for somewhere between £10-20. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

http://www.dayinsure.com/

https://www.norwichunionshortterminsurance.co.uk