Driving without tax while waiting for change of ownership?

Old_-_School

I bought a 2nd hand car from a dealership which isn't taxed.
I presume I have to follow following procedure.
1. Transfer my insurance and get new insurance disc (done)
2. Send off change of ownership form (done by dealership) keeping a photocopy for myself.
3. Wait for VRT form to arrive.
4. Fill out motor tax form with garda signature because of it being not taxed for last few months.
5. Go to tax office and get tax disc.

I'm currently driving the car without a tax disc and I won't have one for 3-4 weeks until the VRT documentation comes back. Will I get in trouble for this or would a Garda let me off if he knows that I'm waiting on the VRT documentation?
If I was in an accident would the lack of a tax disc cause a lot of extra problems?

pred racer

Technically....No you cant drive it. all cars on the road must be taxed.

Realistically, most gardai will allow you a couple of weeks to get this sorted, carry the reciept with you and you should be allright.

But if you meet the wrong gard in a bad humour he will do you for it.(I have gone to court for this before and when I explained the situation with proof that I paid the back tax from the date of purchase it was struck out. not sure if its the same now)

In the event of an accident, your insurance company dont care if your car is taxed or not.

antodeco

Im currently driving without Tax on the mini (granted its very rare its driven but still...). Main reason being is that I only received the insurance cert last week (but been insured for over a month). You have to send in your certificate of insurance when applying for tax, so I couldnt do it without out. Now that I have it, I will be back paying all the tax due on it. Less likely to get stopped in fairness with only a small number of road checks. The new ANPR cameras will pick up on it.

OP, you are not dodging tax so I wouldnt be too stressed over it. You have a valid reason for not paying tax and as pred racer said, if it did go to court, I would see you being ok.

h8red

Old_-_School wrote: »

4. Fill out motor tax form with garda signature because of it being not taxed for last few months.

AFAIK this step is not needed. Don't worry about it not being taxed for the last few months (unless you have been waiting months for the VLC to arrive?) You only have to pay tax on the car from when it becomes your car. When you get the VLC go to your tax office making sure to bring your insurance policy number and you can fill out a form and tax it there and then.

Edit: You really shouldn't be driving the car without a valid tax disc. Having said that I bought a car last month and have been driving it around with the tax disc from my old car while waiting on the VLC to arrive!

jozi

In a similar position as the OP

Car has been off the road for months since I got it. Went into the tax office to find out what to do.
I have to get insurance then I can go into the tax office with the form signed by the garda (the one for having the car of the road) and change of ownership form and
I can tax the car and they will forward the change of ownership form for me.

darcy.jonny

just to let people know , you dont have to send of the logbook after its signed . you can take it to your local motor tax office and have the ownership changed there and then ........... the new logbook will come in the post but you are able to tax the car there and then

ive been informed by a guarda not so long ago that the guards will not enforce the tax law on cars that are out of tax 30 days or less , so that is ample time to get the logbook and get it taxed

Old_-_School

darcy.jonny wrote: »

just to let people know , you dont have to send of the logbook after its signed . you can take it to your local motor tax office and have the ownership changed there and then ........... the new logbook will come in the post but you are able to tax the car there and then

ive been informed by a guarda not so long ago that the guards will not enforce the tax law on cars that are out of tax 30 days or less , so that is ample time to get the logbook and get it taxed

But isn't it the seller that sends off the logbook not the buyer? If I was the seller I wouldn't trust the buyer to do the change of ownership in a timely manner.

The problem with the gardai giving 30 day leeway is that the tax has been expired for a couple of months even though I only recently bought it.
It makes me realise that the garage I bought it from have been letting people test drive it on public roads without any tax.

OldmanMondeo

You should be ok, but don't park unsing street parking, as you probably will get a ticket. You don't need a guard to sign it off the road, as you will only be taxing from start of July.

Just a quickey, since you had the VLC, you could have when into the tax office and explained that it is also a change of ownership. They would have taxed the car and given you the disc there and then. The new VLC would arrive in a few days.

Buffman

antodeco wrote: »

Main reason being is that I only received the insurance cert last week (but been insured for over a month). You have to send in your certificate of insurance when applying for tax,

Actually you don't, you only need to fill in the details on the RF100A. All you need for tax is the RF100A and payment.

slimjimmc

antodeco wrote: »

Im currently driving without Tax on the mini (granted its very rare its driven but still...). Main reason being is that I only received the insurance cert last week (but been insured for over a month). You have to send in your certificate of insurance when applying for tax, so I couldnt do it without out.

You don't need to wait for the certificate, you just need the policy number, dates and the name of the insurance company all of which you can get with a phone call to your insurance company or broker. I've never been asked for my cert when applying for tax.

h8red wrote: »

Edit: You really shouldn't be driving the car without a valid tax disc. Having said that I bought a car last month and have been driving it around with the tax disc from my old car while waiting on the VLC to arrive!

Just be careful of this. A Garda is likely to give you lee-way for no tax on a recent purchase but he's very unlikely to let you off with using a tax disc from another car (if he notices it). The latter is likely to be construed as intent to defraud.