Schadenfreude

[nineveh_uk]

I'm often uneasy with the concept of name and shame, but in this particular case I really couldn't be. After all, there was technically no naming. Just an absolutely enormous car, a monstrous black and shining four-wheel drive thing with tinted windows, plastered with chrome, half motor vehicle, half whale, the sort of thing that vampire presidents would drive.

Plastered over the driver's window (kerbside) was a big yellow notice: UNTAXED VEHICLE. Affixed to the windscreen, a second, smaller yellow notice: notice of refuse removal.

My heart bled. I then made a note that my car tax is due at the end of this month.

Comments

[sammee42.livejournal.com]

Wait, you pay vehicle tax on a yearly basis in the UK? Mind-blowing.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

And ours was due at the end of last month. We have the new disc, but haven't put it in yet. Thanks for the reminder!

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

What, you mean you don't in the States? Wow! ;-)

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I only got 6 months to start with, as I'd just paid out for car and insurance. It's amazing how fast 6 months goes. Though in fact given all the whinging one sees about it, I was really surprised at how little vehicle tax turned out to be.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

We do (http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicle/HowToTaxYourVehicle/index.htm?cids=Google_PPC&cre=Car_Tax). After all, we use it on the roads on a yearly basis. (If the car is off the road you can register it so no tax is due.)

[azdak.livejournal.com]

I read an obituary in the Oxford Times once about a local citizen whose strong sense of civic duty compelled him to check up on whether the cars parked near his house had a valid tax disc and, if not, to report their owners to the police. The sub-text was definitely, "Everyone in the neighbourhood is looking forward to dancing on his grave".

[antisoppist.livejournal.com]

I did the same so that the MOT and annual service (which have just cost £600 or so) are due 6 months apart from the car tax. The only problem then is remembering where you put the MOT certificate 6 months earlier.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

*recovers from panic* It's OK, I know it's in the file.

[sammee42.livejournal.com]

"Your disk is up to date" -- what "disk" are you speaking of?

[sammee42.livejournal.com]

In the States, we have to renew our car registration every year, but I'm not even sure if there is a fee involved (it is probably a small-ish fee; my partner takes care of that). We also have to do a yearly inspection, which costs around $40, and we are required to pay for car insurance (this is quite expensive, usually, unless you have the fortune to be living or were born in one of the relatively cheap States; some pay $500/mo, but since I'm from PA, I pay $1700 for the year).

It's funny; I lived in the UK for nearly two years, but I was a student and I didn't drive, so I never picked up on this phenomenon...

[sammee42.livejournal.com]

Ah! It looks like the sticker we have on our car windshields to tell the police whether or not our car has been inspected that year. How interesting.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

We have an annual inspection (MOT) on all cars older than three years, which the car needs to pass to be taxed, which is required for the insurance (minimum of third part insurance required by law) to be valid.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

We only have to register cars when they change owner. It does sound like your car insurance can be rather expensive - yours is over twice mine, and mine is high because it is my first car and I have no no-claims bonus.

I know the "I never realised that" thing well. I find a lot simply being an adult "What? You mean that I have to do X?"

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

There's nothing like community spirit...

[disassembly_rsn]

In Florida, you have to renew your car registration once a year, due on the birthday of the car's principal owner, and there's a fee, although it's pretty reasonable (less than $75, if I recall). The sticker that you get back when you pay the fee goes on the license plate rather than the windshield / windscreen, though.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

We also have an inspection of the car each year, starting three years from new - the "MOT", or "Ministry of Transport test". It costs about £25.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Technically speaking, the bit that's required by law is "act only", covering injury to other people. "Third party" goes a bit beyond that, and covers injury to other people's goods (eg cars). But "act only" is very rare, and is normally only bought by people who have eg drink driving convictions, which makes even normal third party insurance prohibitively expensive.

I will now stop being a pedant who works in the insurance industry.