Fine for no SORN!

Hi everyone,  Recently had notice of a fine for not having a SORN notice on my car even though its taxed and off road.  I wasn't aware that because my insurance had not been renewed to save a few quid I should have SORNED the car, I was under the impression that one only SORNS a car when its not taxed, now I have to pay a £100 or if paid by a certain date £50 fine!!  I SORNED the car the other day because the tax runs out at the end of this month which is what I though was the only time it needed to be SORNED.  Has anyone else fallen foul of this rule?  Regards as always Glyn. (D4KGP)

Was it still parked on a public piece of road or on your drive/garage?

Its a strange arrangement and it's worth looking up the law on it. I had a similar notification, though no fine, for my MGB project car which had current free historic status road tax but no insurance. Im not sure what prompted this as the car hasnt been near a road for over 11 years.
I tried to contact them but gave up after getting lost in their automated phone system. Rather than making myself even more annoyed by repeating the process I went online and changed the tax status to SORN.
Im assuming they are clamping down on cars that are taxed but not insured. In the old days the Post Office needed to see an insurance certificate before they would tax the car but that requirement didnt seem to stay in force when road tax went online for some reason.

Going back to the old requirement for insurance would seem the most sensible approach rather than quite randomly enforcing a rule that most people are unaware of.

DVLA do go through Online checks when you Tax on line.
They check insurance status and Mot before you can proceed.
I do seem to remember that "an insured car had to be taxed or Sorn" as in effect you could be driving untaxed.
It is the first time I have heard of them enforcing it.
My old 50 yr old Celica was tax and Mot exempt but every year I had to go online and declare "I had taxed it" even though the fee wsd £0.00...crazyness.
Rachel from Accounts is desperate to persecute the motorist as we are easy prey.

As usual the “Authorities” look to earn a few shillings from soft targets & fail to follow up those who get away with wholesale fraud.
It’s easy to poke a citizen restoring a heritage car that is ultimately better for the environment, than buying an electric car from china, than to chase - - - -
I’ll let you fill in the rest with what ever suits your prejudices.
M

Thanks for the information Glyn, I think there is a lesson all of us can learn from your unfortunate experience. It does sound like “Big Brother” is watching you. I did have my car on SORN for a while but it was insured, and I was completely unaware that you could be fined while your car is sat on your own property. Not good !!

I see loads of boy racers driving around with no front number plates and illegal rear plates, no one seems bothered about that.

On my own private estate. No just in my garage until I bought the TF I recently purchased, since then it been on the lawn.

I have just spotted this in this months MGOC magazine and is applicable.