Whilst we’re in lockdown, many of us are looking at ways of saving money. One of them might be parked on your drive! You could SORN your vehicle to save money whilst you’re unable to use it!
SORN Your Vehicle
We have a campervan. Obviously, we’re not using it to go away at the moment. We also have a ‘normal’ family car which gets used more, a daily runner if you will. We would use the car if we needed to go collect shopping, for example. With that in mind and the possibility of us actually being able to use the van for holidays anywhere looking slim to none, we’ve decided to SORN the van.
The road tax still has over two full months left on it until it’s due for renewal, so we’ll get those two months back as a refund. It’s not much, but every little bit helps at the moment. With it being parked on our own private drive, we can do this. If you park on a public road you won’t be able to. It’s worth saying that you shouldn’t do this with your insurance. If anyone was to break into or damage your vehicle you won’t have insurance to cover it. Imagine if there was a fuel leak which resulted in a fire, you wouldn’t be covered. Don’t cancel your insurance!
How To Do It
Registering your vehicle as off the road is easy. Simply visit the government website here and input your details. Find and use the eleven digit number on your V5C (vehicle log book) to take your vehicle off the road right now. You can also use the number on your V11 (vehicle tax reminder letter) to take the vehicle off the road from the first day of next month. It’s worth mentioning that you can only use this number once. You must not use it on public roads once you’ve SORN your vehicle. When you want to use the vehicle again, simply register it and away you go. You can start the vehicle up on the drive to keep it in healthy condition. I know that our van needs starting up once a week or the battery starts to die. Maybe not is the time to do those jobs on your car that you’ve been putting off? It’s also a great time to give it a good wash and polish. Get the vac out too and get all that rubbish out your passenger foot well!
If you’re not using the vehicle, don’t be paying for it’ road tax in these uncertain times. Save yourself some money and only register for road tax again when you know you’re going to be using it. Stay home, stay safe.
