Andy Hall wrote:
On 2007-06-08 13:27:50 +0100, The Natural Philosopher said:

I recieve a notice to relicense my car.

Its off road and has been for two years. So its a zero cost SORN..

I try the website:-

"Sorry, we don't have a record of that reference number"

I phone up
"Sorry, that reference number is not recognised"

And..as an afterthought they helpfully add.."V11 references are only
valid from the 15th day of the month preceding the expiry of the
current tax disc"

So, they send out a reminder at the beginning of the month, but
disallow its use for a fortnight?

I assume its just another job creation scheme, to ensure that they
need extra staff to process it around the month end.

Fer *** sake, if I can't use the thing, why send it in the first place?

Yes, I had the same nonsense with my wife's car.

In order to apply for a tax disc you need to have MOT certificate and
proof of insurance, but as you say, there is a 15 day window at the end
of the month.

Because of when the car was purchased, all three were due at the same time.

I hate spending any time at all on cars - they are means of getting me
plus items that I want comfortably between A and B quickly and
efficiently and that's it. I have zero interest in them otherwise.
To that end, I have the garage come and collect the things, service them
and return them and apart from the odd thing where there is a
substantial difference on price such as tyres and exhausts and MOT which
I can get done conveniently at the end of the road, that's it.

I also hate post offices with a vengeance and especially titting around
at them renewing tax discs (mainly because only certain ones can do it).

It was pleasing, therefore to see that with the renewal before last that
it was possible to do the whole thing on line. The trouble is that with
the 15 day window and with co-expiring insurance and MOT it doesn't
work. The MOT reference does seem to go through quickly enough, but
the insurance information goes via some intermediate organisation and
database and the time for that to be loaded up depends on the insurance
company. At any rate, it can take 2 weeks plus.

After further titting around, I eventually bought a 6 month tax disc to
make the insurance and tax asynchronous. This has resolved the problem.

The whole setup is onanism par excellence.

The obvious thing to do would be to outsource tax disk issuance to the
motor insurers and give them access to the database of MOT records.
That would take two organisations out of the equation and have the added
benefit that one is the post office, thus hastening the demise of that
entire setup.



The answer is simple.

Get it MOT' ed a month earlier. Its possible to get up to a 13month MOT,
or just MOT it again anytime.

And change your insurance company a couple of months shy of the end of
the year. or ask them to change the renewal date.

Mid you my father in law got caught out that way..ws in an accident
before he remembered he hadn't MOT'ed the car 6 months earlier.. ;-)