Forgot to renew car insurance!!!!

[seriouslynonames]

Have now got it sorted today, but we were uninsured for 3 weeks! We did get a reminder but it got lost in the to do pile and I have been ill, DH stressed with work. No excuse, but an explanation for our rubbishness!
What are the repercussions of this?
Could we be prosecuted? Lose licence?
Any advice welcome!!

If you were picked up by ANPR at any point in the last three weeks then yes, you can be prosecuted for driving without insurance. It’s a strict liability offence, meaning being unaware or doing so accidentally is no defence.

You may well have been lucky and not picked up whilst uninsured. If you don’t receive a notice within the next couple of weeks that’s very likely the case.

Thank you, will keep fingers crossed!

If you have been caught you could get a fixed penalty. If it goes to court this would appear to be a category 3 offence so the starting point would be a Band C fine (125%-175% of your relevant weekly income) and 6-8 points. In your situation there would appear to be some mitigating factors and no aggravating factors, so my guess would be a Band B fine (75%-125% of your relevant weekly income) and 6 points.

Have you checked your bank to ensure they haven’t automatically renewed it? My car was insured by 2 companies as I forgot to cancel my policy that was expiring. They took the yearly total out of my account on renewal day.

There's a small chance the DVLA will fine you for not being continuously insured if their computer cross references your car not being SORN and simultaneously not being on the Motor Insurance Database.

We got caught by this once, naively sat car on a private driveway and procrastinated declaring SORN. Think the fine was around £100 but no penalty points or police action because we didn't drive it.

Had you actually had a letter from your insurers saying 'you've not paid and thus are no longer insured'?

We did this a few years ago - the insurance company said that they had written but we didn't get the letters - we deliberately don't auto renew. We were 2 months without insurance and it still makes my blood run cold, I was all over the place visiting DCs at uni. We were lucky & didn't get caught. We now have reminders in our calendars & for this & MOT as we managed to miss one of those once too.

This happened to me and luckily there were no repercussions. It is easily done, but I've learned that lesson.

You may have gotten away with it this time, and now you know never to let it happen again. It was an accident that could have had major repercussions. Shit happens. There's loads of scummy people out there who don't give a shit about it.

I did a similar thing with an MOT. We had two cars and we somehow thought our main car was due in August, but whatever, it didn't matter as we were signed up to the DVLA's MOT reminder service.

Except the thing about the DVLA reminder service is, it doesn't actually work. They don't actually send you anything. We discovered we were actually almost three months out of MOT when I was playing around on My Car Check app. Now I have on the calendar and my cars are signed up to Autotrader's reminder service and as they are really on the ball.

Thanks that makes me feel better! We are now on auto renew. We didn't get a letter @Ariela but we did get a text from the insurer saying 'please tell us why you didn't choose us to renew' and thought oh fuck. .