The only document that has to be in the car and visible on the windscreen is the road fund license (commonly known as road tax). You can pay in three instalments and get a disc for four months each time, or for one year and get a disc for that. It's circular and has to be displayed on the windscreen (usually lower left). It has the expiry date, the amount paid (that depends on the car's exhaust emissions - the more environmentally friendly the cheaper, unless is classed as a vintage car in which case it doesn't need road tax), the car's registration number and the stamp of the issuing office (usually a post office). If the car's going to be off the road, you have to notify the relevant authorities so that no tax has to be paid, but even parking it on the road means that you need to pay the tax. If you are registered disabled to the extent of not being able to walk you don't have to pay tax and are registered as 'tax exempt' (it's amazing how many wind surfers there are in Poole, driving very expensive cars, who are unable to walk according to their tax disc holders!).
You also have to have: (1) the car's registration document (2) a driver's license (3) insurance in one of three classes - third party (covers injury to others - including your passengers) and damage to their vehicle or property), third party, fire and theft (also covers theft of your vehicle or it's catching fire) or fully comprehensive which also covers damage to you and your vehicle. If your car is stolen with the registration document inside, then your insurance is void. If the cost of repairing a damaged vehicle is more than it's value the car is written off - wouldn't have taken much of an accident with workshop time around GBP80 per hour to write off the Polo which was only worth GBP700 (less than ten hours work without replacement parts) when we sold it. (4) If the vehicle is more than 3 years old, an MOT certificate which is issued annually after the vehicle has been checked by trained mechanics to meet certain safety and emissions criteria - road tax can't be bought without a current certificate. None of those four have to be carried in the vehicle, but do have to be produced at a police station if requested within a specificed time. I also have an additional circular sticker on the front and rear screens, issued by Dorset police, so I don't know if it's available anywhere else. It's a yellow sticker with 25 in black. It gives the police permision to stop and question the driver if he/she appears to be under the age of 25. I and DH are both obviously over 25, and most car theft is carried out by 18 to 25 year-olds. It's supposed to deter them from stealing the car. Don't know whether it does or not, but we've had one on our car since they were introduced. Once the car is registered when new, it keeps the registration number for its life unless you buy a personalised number plate which you can register with the DVLA (Driver Vehicle Reginstration Agency) and transfer to another car when you want - it has to be registered with the new vehicle each time. These are plates which have some significance to the owner, and the more desirable the number, the more expensive. So one of our older "entertainers", Bruce Forsyth, paid a huge amount for the plate BF1 (I wouldn't have bearing in mind that BF also means "b***** fool"). Dudley Moore had the plate DUD 1. But plates with letters such as SEX are sought by certain individuals. The DVLA web site has a page where you can search to see if there's something you might like, costing from about GBP500 upwards. Others are available by private sale or auction. If you're lucky you might get to choose from a list of numbers available to the dealership when you buy a new car, but they're just half a dozen or so in a sequence. You can have any number you legally own assigned to a car, but it mustn't give the impression that the car is younger than it actually is. So you can't put a 2005 number plate on a car that was new in 2001, but you can put a 2001 plate on a 2005 car. Prior to 1973, the numbers used to be four numbers and two letters or three numbers and three letters, until all combinations had been used. The letter gave information on where the car was first registered. Then a system was introduced so you could tell how old a car was (except for personalised plates) of one letter, followed by three numbers and two or three letters was introduced with the first letter moving on one each year. So the first year was A 123 ABC, the next year was B 123 ABC and so on. Some letters like O weren't used for the first one. When all of those had been used up, the single letter was moved to the end so they were ABC 123 A, followed by ABC 123 B and so on. The new year letter was applied on the 1st September each year. The polo which we just sold was L634 PYD, L signifying that the car was new in between 1st September 1993 and 31st August 1994. That system finished when the letters ran out in 2000. The current system is supposed to be OK for 100 years There are two letters, three numbers and three random letters. The first of the two letters gives some indication of where it was first registered - ours is H which is either Bournemouth or Portsmouth, The second letter indicates which of those it was A-J Bournemouth, K onwards Portsmouth, so our two letters, HD, indicate Bournemouth. The first of the two numbers show whether the car was registered between September and March - a Zero (will become a 1 in 2010) or April to August - 5 (will become 6 in 2010). The second number is the year, currently 4 for 2004 until 1st April 2005. So our registration number is HD 54 (registered Bournemouth between September 2004 and April 2005) and three random letters specific to that vehicle. It means that the three random letters can be used on a vehicle registered elsewhere in the country because the first two (registration office) letters won't be those for Bournemouth. Having just sold the Polo, we had to send it's registration document to the DVLA stating the name address and driver's license number of the person we'd sold it to. Otherwise we'd still officially have been the 'keepers' of the vehicle and liable to pay the road tax on it. We gave the buyer part of the document and she has to send that in as well. Jean in Poole To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
