Bollocks I've ballsed up

[HuffleWoof]

I've had so much on recently. I have had cancer and Im finishing treatment this week I've been meaning to pay the car tax bill, it's just completely escaped me with all the crap I've had to keep on top of (not an excuse I know)

DH is driving me home from the marsden on Monday, it's a 5 hour trip and the fucking car tax runs out on Monday. Will he get pulled over? I know it's an offence to not pay for car tax. Tbh he could have sorted it and didn't so it's not all on me:

We're there now and I've just gone to sort it thinking 'oh fuck that needs doing' and it's can't be done without the letter which is on the kitchen table 5 hours away, or the log book also 5 hours away.

If we go through many anpr cameras on Monday (speed limit cameras etc) will we get 10+ fines? This is a nightmare. My mum has a spare key but I don't feel like I can ask her to drive for 45 mins to get me an 11 digit code on a piece of paper 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

You’ll be fine you have 2 weeks grace at least .

There is no grace period.

Nothing will happen. Until you get caught for speeding, or you're in an accident or something. Your insurance will be invalid if you're not taxed.

I don't think normal street cameras do checks for this, only those VOSA cars. Just don't overtake one of them!

Actually, they might be the MOT checkers....ignore me!

Yes, it is. You can view the MOT history of any vehicle here: www.check-mot.service.gov.uk/?_ga=2.63229615.1246696254.1659207956-2126438577.1647000145

Random car on Auto trader

Not being awful, but is it really too much effort to type "you?" it's two more letters!

And what used to happen and what happens now are very different things!

I drove my new car home a few years ago with no tax as the website was down and the phone line closed (late Sun afternoon). Didn't really want to, but I was 70 miles away from home with no other options. I'd hesitate to do it now though.

You don't pay for two MOTs. It's recommended as failed until the fault is fixed, then has a free retest and get updated to passed.

I'm always weeks late paying mine. Nothing has ever happened. I'm sure you'll be fine.

Doesn't look like speed cameras or ANPR pick up tax anyway. :)

ANPR cameras do. Speed cameras measure speed.

They’ve locked it down, until recently you could view the full cert and all details of the fails/advisories. Now you need the V5C ref number to view all of that.

You still can see the details.

Nothing is locked down. The MOT thing was also clarified way back in the thread.

You will be totally fine. I run a small garage and the amount of people who drive about for months and months without realising their car is untaxed is insane.

Even if you were pulled over realistically it’s just a £100 fine. No points or anything like that.

Oh yeah! I just hadn’t been scrolling down as always check on the phone! It’s only the actual test cert that’s been locked down.

Nothing has been 'locked down', you have always needed the 11 digit number to view the certificate in full.

I’ve just obviously had a massive brain fart then. I think it just coincided with me checking a car with a clean history a couple of weeks ago. I hit the certificate link and got promoted for the ref, that convinced me they’d locked it down 😂. Glad I contributed now, otherwise I’d have stopped checking MOTs!

RAC website

It says:

It’s virtually impossible to get away without paying road tax if you’re required to because the DVLA runs monthly computer checks of all vehicles registered in the UK.

If the system flags up a vehicle as being untaxed and not declared SORN, an automated letter and fine of £80 will be sent to your address if you’re the registered keeper. You won’t get any points on your licence though. If you pay the fine within 28 days, you should receive a 50% discount.

If you fail to pay the fine, you could be prosecuted, and the penalty could be increased to a maximum of £1,000 if the case goes to court. The DVLA also has the power to clamp your vehicle until the correct amount of tax is paid.

ANPR systems can detect you. Bear in mind that DVLA is generally automated and it may require some human intervention to issue the fine to your address. Given that DVLA are not functioning well at the moment, your chances of a fine are 1%. Even if it were 100% it is £40 if you or your husband pay within 28 days.

Generally, I would advocate going to a legitimate source of info for this kind of thing. That way you are in reliable hands, like the Royal Marsden for cancer. I hope you make an excellent recovery.

My DH drove his car for 5 MONTHS without realising the MOT has run out he was convinced it was due to run out in the December it wasn’t it was July! He never got in trouble well apart from me going off a bit

And ours. Never paid for a 2nd MOT in 50 years of driving 😊

My DF ended up in a coma thanks to covid last year. He was on holiday on the south coast when it happened 200 miles from home, and so his car got left at the holiday park for a few weeks while we got our head the situation and around his possible death as he was for many weeks, the sickest person in a large hospital according to quite a few ICU drs. (thankfully he is very much still with us and we have just returned from a far less eventful holiday together). My DM was with him at the time and went directly to my DB & SIL who were nearer to the hospital he was in. I had to rescue DFs car in between sorting other things and several hospital visits/supporting DB&DM and eventually drove it 2 hours back to my house (i live aprox 100 miles from my DP house). We checked i was insured to do so but assumed as it was mid month, it was taxed, well it turned out it wasnt! We had no paperwork as my DP lived over 150 miles from where my DM was staying at my DBs house and she hasnt a clue anyway so we called the DVLA or whoever do the tax and explained we didnt have the docs and had no way of getting them. They were only interested in getting paid and did it straight away over the phone for us, no problem at all. Once my DF made sufficient recovery and we were feeling more light hearted, we informed him of his error! He was mortified! He had driven 100s of miles over 2 weeks without tax! Thankfully he nor i got a fine on any of our journeys but it was very easy to tax the car without the documents under the circumstances so mau be worth a call 1st thing on monday morning.

This happened to me, I would not ring the DVLA if I where you. I didn’t realise tax had run out and when I did it was Saturday late afternoon and it wouldn’t let me do it online It said I had to go to post office. Rang DVLA to see if they could do it over the phone, they said no, so I had to wait until Monday morning to go to post office as they where closed. Monday morning comes, DVLA where our first thing and clamped my car! Had to pay a 200 pound fine to get it unclamped. Wouldn’t mind but the insurance only cost £20 for the year 🤦‍♀️

I got pulled up on my motor bike once because it was the same as one that had been stolen in the area, it had no tax on it as I only used to tax it for 6 months over the summer and it was a nice day and I decided to nip out on it. He checked my id and where the bike was registered with no problems, never batted an eyelid that it had no road tax on it 🙂.

loads of people drive round with no tax, Same with mot

You’ll be grand. If it runs out on Monday you’re fine until midnight on that date. I actually ran out for about 6 weeks without realising and just re-newed it when I realised! I’d been driving round without a clue but never got a fine 🤷🏼‍♀️