Car Insurance Clampdown Makes Cover Essential
Obviously as soon as you buy a car, you should always get car insurance. That’s even more important now as the government has announced plans to clamp down on uninsured drivers by making it an offence to not only drive an uninsured vehicle, but also just to keep it. That means every car must be insured or have a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) under the new regulations being introduced in the spring. The government hopes this approach will reduce the estimated 1.4 million motorists who drive with no insurance at all in the UK.
If you’ve acquired a new vehicle through contract hire this is not normally a problem as the rental company will have taxed and insured it. When you buy a brand new car from a reputable dealer, it usually comes with some kind of one day car insurance so you can drive it away legally until you sign up for a long term car insurance plan. It’s worth checking that this is indeed the case, otherwise you could face penalties ranging from £100 to £1,000 fines and having your vehicle clamped, seized and destroyed. Making sure you have some type of instant car insurance quote in place is even more crucial when you are buying privately. You cannot assume that the seller of a used vehicle has insurance cover in place and just because the road tax disc says there are several months before it expires doesn’t mean it’s insured.
You could be driving away an uninsured vehicle and if you have the misfortune to be stopped before you have time to amend or even purchase an annual policy, you will be breaking the law and face the penalties already mentioned. Most mainstream providers make short term car insurance available via websites and some even have iPhone apps that mean you can get fully comprehensive drive away cover, registered with the MIB, effective from the moment you confirm purchase. paying a small price for that peace of mind has got to be better than shelling out cash on what could wind up as just a small metal cube!