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Audi A6 - Car Accident No Road Tax - Afsor Ahmed

Hi,

I had an accident on the 3rd of February with the third party being completely at fault along with a witness however after the claim was being processed I noticed my tax had expired a month earlier. It was not my intention to be driving without tax and I rectified the issue by taxing the car immediately. When I taxed the car mid February online it showed that the tax is valid from 1st February which covers it for the accident date. I also paid for the missed January month of tax but my concern is about the third party paying out for the claim.

If the third party did ever find out that the car was untaxed at the time of the incident would they have the right not to pay out although I taxed the car as soon as I found out and says it's valid from the beginning of Feb?

I know road tax is more of a revenue system for HMRC and has nothing to do with accident liability and also unlike an mot which is important for road worthiness.

Would it be enough of a reason for them not to pay out? It was not my intention at all driving without tax but I was simply unaware and only for just over a month.

And if they did pay out but found out on a later date could they initiate a clawback style demand that I pay the full compensation amount, take me to court or maybe even try and do me for fraud?

And surely if I have paid all tax that was missed and due then I am all up to date with dvla and what I owe to the government. I know it was not taxed at the time of accident but paying the tax has made my tax valid from first of Feb and that's just the way it is and something which I can't control. It does seem like back dating the tax doesn't make sense but if dvla say it's valid from 1st Feb then it is.

Thank you for reading and hope someone can give me some insight.

Edited by Afsor Ahmed on 22/02/2020 at 14:06

Audi A6 - Car Accident No Road Tax - Falkirk Bairn

Unpaid Road tax & car insurance payouts are not linked.

The only people interested in both are the police.

Audi A6 - Car Accident No Road Tax - Heidfirst

In theory though if your car was untaxed & driven on the road then it was almost certainly also uninsured (normally a term/condition of the insurance is valid road tax). Should that somehow come to light you potentially could be prosecuted.

Audi A6 - Car Accident No Road Tax - Will deBeast

In theory though if your car was untaxed & driven on the road then it was almost certainly also uninsured (normally a term/condition of the insurance is valid road tax). Should that somehow come to light you potentially could be prosecuted.

Can you show me a Car insurance Ts&Cs which says this. I've never seen one.

Audi A6 - Car Accident No Road Tax - Heidfirst

In theory though if your car was untaxed & driven on the road then it was almost certainly also uninsured (normally a term/condition of the insurance is valid road tax). Should that somehow come to light you potentially could be prosecuted.

Can you show me a Car insurance Ts&Cs which says this. I've never seen one.

Off the top of my head, no - but I definitely have seen it.

& the RAC seem to think it too www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/legal/driving-without-t.../

Does having no tax invalidate your insurance?

If your car doesn’t have tax then you can’t legally drive it on UK roads. This means that any insurance policy you have taken out for your car will be invalidated.

Audi A6 - Car Accident No Road Tax - Bromptonaut

Off the top of my head, no - but I definitely have seen it.

& the RAC seem to think it too www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/legal/driving-without-t.../

Does having no tax invalidate your insurance?

The people who write for the RAC have fallen for the myth as well.

It looks as though nobody has read that article, or rather series of articles, for a sense check.

The first paragraph states that VED evasion has increased since abolition of the tax disc. The under the heading 'What is the Penalty for Driving Without Cat Tax' it states that it is virtually impossible to get away with not paying.

And as for question about what happens with car tax when you pass your driving test........

Audi A6 - Car Accident No Road Tax - Bromptonaut

In theory though if your car was untaxed & driven on the road then it was almost certainly also uninsured (normally a term/condition of the insurance is valid road tax). Should that somehow come to light you potentially could be prosecuted.

What W d B said. There's no connection between law requiring insurance and law requiring payment of Vehicle Excise Duty.

If insurance was invalidated by oversight, bounced cheque or declined Direct Debit for VED there'd be a lot of people uninsured and not knowing because messages were in transit.

Audi A6 - Car Accident No Road Tax - Will deBeast

People often say that the lack of tax or an MOT invalidates insurance. The ombudsman disagrees. eg. https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/files/121011/DRN4756234.pdf

There were a few insurers who used to have a requirement for an MOT in the policy wording, but I think they've all removed it now.

NB. This is not a mandate to drive around in an unroadworthy banger. Many insurance Ts&Cs have a requirement that the car be roadworthy. And there are quite a few cases where the insurer has refused to pay up for the damage to an unroadworthy vehicle.. Usually for bald tyres. The ombudsman usually takes the insurer's side in these cases.

Edited by Will deBeast on 22/02/2020 at 20:56

Audi A6 - Car Accident No Road Tax - Avant

As long as you keep the documents proving that the tax is valid from 1 February, that is all anyone else needs to know.

Audi A6 - Car Accident No Road Tax - thunderbird

As far as I am aware unlike having no MOT or Insurance which will invalidate your insurance having no tax will only make you poorer if the Vehicle Tax people get ionvolved. Don't think the police are paticularly bothered about it these days but will use it as a reason to pull you over.

So don't panic but please make sure you pay on time in the future.

Audi A6 - Car Accident No Road Tax - Will deBeast

As far as I am aware unlike having no MOT ...which will invalidate your insurance...

This is an urban myth. See the link I posted above, where the ombudsman ruled that lack of an MOT did NOT invalidate the insurance.

A few insurance companies tried it on, but lost.

Edited to correct spelling mistake.

Edited by Will deBeast on 23/02/2020 at 08:29