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View Full Version : SORN when you buy a new bike - be careful!



QB1
06-12-12, 07:12 PM
Just in case anyone doesnt know I just came across this on the DVLA website -

If you buy a vehicle that already has a SORN from its previous keeper, the SORN will finish as soon as you buy the vehicle. You will need to make a new SORN.

Penalties
If you don’t make a SORN when you have to you’ll automatically be fined £80, will need to get a new tax disc and must pay any tax arrears. You could also get a County Court Judgement against you, be fined a minimum of £1,000 and be liable to prosecution.

I found it by accident (having bought a second bike which was SORN and is staying that way for a few months) - SO glad I did.

Jon_W
07-12-12, 07:34 AM
Is easy to re-sorn and I believe you have a month from purchase in which to do so.

BB
07-12-12, 07:38 AM
Easy peasy to do it on line!

BB

QB1
07-12-12, 07:46 AM
Easy peasy to do it on line!

BB



Yes definitely took me about a minute when I realised I needed to do it.

I wonder how many people have a bike sat in a garage bought as SORN and totally unaware they need to do it again as the new owner.

Jon_W
07-12-12, 10:11 AM
Easy peasy to do it on line!

BB



Ok if you have the V5 in your name. If not you need to go to the post ffice with the new keepers supplement.

But still very easy.

QB1
07-12-12, 10:54 AM
Easy peasy to do it on line!

BB





Ok if you have the V5 in your name. If not you need to go to the post ffice with the new keepers supplement.

But still very easy.

Hi Jon

You dont need the V5 in your name, the slip you get from the seller from his/her V5 has the reference number on it that you need.

squirrel_hunter
08-12-12, 01:27 AM
If not you need to go to the post ffice with the new keepers supplement.

Nope. I found out yesterday that the Post Office no longer does the form to declare SORN. Apparently the DVLA only do it over the phone or via the internet now.

I'm not sure if you can do it via the new keeper section, I usually wait until I have the log book in my name as any declaration will go to the registered keeper and how can I be sure the now previous owner has sent the log book off like they should.

Its a frankly stupid and pointless rule that has not been advertised in the slightest. I only found out by chance after buying a bike on SORN which I kept off road for sometime. I think it was 6 months or so before I found out that I should have made a SORN declaration as ownership had changed. They said that the Tax Arrears may be in contact with me about it, I politely informed them that they would be rather pointless exercise on their part as it wasn't as if they didn't have my address to question me on it for the past 6 months as they had sent me the V5. I never heard anymore about that bike...

QB1
08-12-12, 09:14 AM
If not you need to go to the post ffice with the new keepers supplement.

....

I'm not sure if you can do it via the new keeper section...

Yes you can, I did, you just have to enter reg doc number printed on the slip from the V5 which the old keeper gives you.

squirrel_hunter
09-12-12, 03:21 AM
If not you need to go to the post ffice with the new keepers supplement.

....

I'm not sure if you can do it via the new keeper section...

Yes you can, I did, you just have to enter reg doc number printed on the slip from the V5 which the old keeper gives you.


Yep just checked and the new keeper section does have the doc number on it to allow you to do all sorts of things. However as I questioned above, if the previous owner hasn't sent the form off then I assume the SORN declaration will stay with that keepers details. So if your SORN is processed before the change of keeper then once the keeper details change the bike would still be untaxed and unSORNed... Thus I wait until I have the V5 in my name and then declare SORN.

Paul_H
09-12-12, 11:43 AM
I bought a bike last April that had no MOT and on which the RFL was about to expire. I tried to SORN it on-line but the DVLA wouldn't let me do it so I went to the Post Office, got the relevent form, filled it in and posted it off. Four weeks later I received the new V5C in my name and four weeks after that an £80 fine through the post for not declaring SORN >:(

And to think if I hadn't bothered to try to do things all legal like then I could've saved myself a **** load of cash!

Jon_W
09-12-12, 05:16 PM
Fair play. Thanks for the heads up. Is a while since I last declared SORN.

Gooz
09-12-12, 07:59 PM
SORN is only half the problems these days, I saw a post about it then experienced first hand the insurance trap ! If your bikes not SORNED then it needs according to DVLA to be insured ??? the fact that Sams has been off the road for 2 years now and dry stored at the front of my garage,! and the insurance companies take money until you can prove you are SORNED or have transferred a policy onto it, apparently its all part of a new legal requirement !! watch out :-/

Loops
09-12-12, 09:27 PM
SORN is only half the problems these days, I saw a post about it then experienced first hand the insurance trap ! If your bikes not SORNED then it needs according to DVLA to be insured ??? the fact that Sams has been off the road for 2 years now and dry stored at the front of my garage,! and the insurance companies take money until you can prove you are SORNED or have transferred a policy onto it, apparently its all part of a new legal requirement !! watch out :-/

That one causes some great headaches when you're on a restricted license and buy an unrestricted bike before you buy a restrictor kit - can't insure it as alot of companies want proof, can't get proof till it's restricted, can't restrict it till you get a kit.

The moral of this story - buy the restiction kit first ::)