A motor tax conundrum....

davidlynchis

Bit of a unique situation and not sure what to do!

I am thinking of buying a car off a friend of mine. However the car has been off the road for about 6 months so is without tax or insurance. But I want to get it checked out by my mechanic and drive it for a day or two before I buy.

So I rang the insurance company and I am covered to drive it 3rd Party under my current insurance (even though the car doesn't have its own insurance policy).

But the motor tax is another thing. I cant get it taxed until I buy it and I obviously don't want to do that until it gets checked out by my mechanic and take it for a few days of a test drive. On the other hand my friend doesn't want to tax it if I am not going to buy as the tax is expensive and would just be a waste of money for him.

So do you think I can go to the Garda station and get a RF100 signed? Basically some defence if I get caught at a check point or something, car would definitely be confiscated.....

Tea 1000

Chance it for a day or two, if you get a printout from your insurance company for the temporary change of insurance then you can show that at a checkpoint to explain why you're driving it with no tax. They'll be lenient these days! See the news for more info!!

biko

Tax it for three months with his name on the VLC. If you go ahead and buy just deduct the monies from the purchase?
This is if you think you will actually buy it.

corktina

Tea 1000 wrote: »

Chance it for a day or two, if you get a printout from your insurance company for the temporary change of insurance then you can show that at a checkpoint to explain why you're driving it with no tax. They'll be lenient these days! See the news for more info!!

your friend wont be a friend anymore if the car gets seized , which it can be if tax is +2 months out of date.Just come to an agreement where you both pay half the tax...

djimi

Unless its a large engined car on the CC system chances are the tax is probably going to be under €200 for the 3 months. Wait until 1st April before doing anything, have the car declared off the road, tax the car for three months starting from April and pay half each; itll probably work out less than €100 each. If you buy the car then take the amount paid into consideration, and you will have a car with three months tax on it.

djimi

djimi wrote: »

Wait until 1st April before doing anything

Is there any particular reason you gave that advice? Is something changing in April or such? (or are just saying April for handiness sake, so he'll know when it expires)?

biko

If he taxes it today he will only get March, April and May.
If he taxes it in April he will get April, May, June.

mickdw

Be very careful with driving on your own policy extension. For you to be covered, the car has to be road legal. Nct must be valid and some say it must have tax but that is not so clear cut.

YbFocus

KKV wrote: »

Is there any particular reason you gave that advice? Is something changing in April or such? (or are just saying April for handiness sake, so he'll know when it expires)?

You must pay for the full months tax, so by paying today it would be back dated to march 1st. By waiting until April you get use of the full month. Basically saving yourself 60 euro.

djimi

Deleted User wrote: »

Is there any particular reason you gave that advice? Is something changing in April or such? (or are just saying April for handiness sake, so he'll know when it expires)?

Tax is backdated to the start of the month. Doesnt make a lot of sense to pay a months tax for 10 days.

danwhite88

Drive the car around, If you get stopped by the Garda tell them you have just bought the car and are waiting for the log book to arrive so you can tax it.

Tea 1000

All who replied seemed to have missed the point that the car is off the road for 6 months, and untaxed for that amount (I'm lead to understand from the OP), so just taxing it for 3 months is impossible, you'll have to backdate, or get a letter declaring it off the road.
Get your friend to get a letter and just drive it for 2 days. In my last 20,000 miles of driving I've only met 1 checkpoint, so I'd chance it and explain if you're stopped, saying you transferred your insurance just to take it to your mechanic, it's your friends car and you're buying it off him and sending off the logbook tomorrow when your mechanic gives it the OK.
Much ado about nothing sometimes on these threads. You have probably a 2% chance of getting stopped.

djimi

Tea 1000 wrote: »

Much ado about nothing sometimes on these threads. You have probably a 2% chance of getting stopped.

Unlikely as it might be, the car is out of tax for the last 6 months; meet the wrong Garda and the car is going to be seized. Its up to the OP if they want to take that chance, but the fact that they are on here asking about the tax suggests that they do not.

Tea 1000

djimi wrote: »

Unlikely as it might be, the car is out of tax for the last 6 months; meet the wrong Garda and the car is going to be seized. Its up to the OP if they want to take that chance, but the fact that they are on here asking about the tax suggests that they do not.

Fair point, in that case bring your mechanic to it and get him to drive it back and check it out, if it checks out then forget a few days of a test drive and just buy it and tax it when the log book comes back.

juice1304

You can't tax it without an insurance policy anyway so just drive it the chances of anything happening n two days would be a million to one.

The Bishop Basher

The chances of being stopped are slim to none. Just drive the car and if by some complete misfortune, you do find yourself speaking to a Guard, just explain the situation and 99% of them will let you drive on.

Sam Russell

Alternative.

Get a mechanic with a trade plate (Green 2xx22D13). He is taxed and insured. End of problem.

S28382

Drive the car thats what i did and low and behold it was grand, i got stopped at a check point showed him the form told him i was in the process of buying and he said nothing only get it sorted as soon as possible.

StompToWork

You'd need to meet a Guard with some head on him to seize the car once you explain the situation to him.

unkel

Sam Russell wrote: »

Alternative.

Get a mechanic with a trade plate (Green 2xx22D13). He is taxed and insured. End of problem.

+1

That's what I did when my car was untaxed and uninsured and it had to go for the NCT (it was off the road but for sale at the time, so I thought a new NCT would help sell it)

djimi

juice1304 wrote: »

You can't tax it without an insurance policy anyway so just drive it the chances of anything happening n two days would be a million to one.

Swanner wrote: »

The chances of being stopped are slim to none. Just drive the car and if by some complete misfortune, you do find yourself speaking to a Guard, just explain the situation and 99% of them will let you drive on.

The only time Ive ever seen a Garda with a breathalizer on the road outside my house was the one night I was walking home from the pub idly wondering what my chances of getting caught would have been had I drove home...

Slim a chance as it might be, its still a chance. And like I said, meet the wrong Garda and you are going to lose the car.

Sam Russell

unkel wrote: »

+1

That's what I did when my car was untaxed and uninsured and it had to go for the NCT (it was off the road but for sale at the time, so I thought a new NCT would help sell it)

Actuallyy, that is the one exception. You can drive a car without NCT or Tax to the NCT centre for the purpose of testing. It must be prebooked and must be local. You cannot drive an untaxed car from Dublin to Ballina to get the NCT but you can drive it to the nearest centre by a direct route.

Marcusm

Sam Russell wrote: »

Actuallyy, that is the one exception. You can drive a car without NCT or Tax to the NCT centre for the purpose of testing. It must be prebooked and must be local. You cannot drive an untaxed car from Dublin to Ballina to get the NCT but you can drive it to the nearest centre by a direct route.

If you read the actual NCT regulations, you'll see that the exception is for driving on the day on which an NCT has been refused. That can only happen after a test has been performed. Driving a car with an expired NCT cert to the test centre is not (bizarrely) one of the exclusions.

djimi

djimi wrote: »

Tax is backdated to the start of the month. Doesnt make a lot of sense to pay a months tax for 10 days.

I didn't know that (new to driving).

I'm thankful I read that, now!

Sam Russell

Marcusm wrote: »

If you read the actual NCT regulations, you'll see that the exception is for driving on the day on which an NCT has been refused. That can only happen after a test has been performed. Driving a car with an expired NCT cert to the test centre is not (bizarrely) one of the exclusions.

So how do you get your car to the NCT centre? And what do you do if you cannot get an appointment for two months?

Actually, I was talking about Road Tax, but I may be wrong about that too. I must check up on that now.