Important Information about buying/selling Motorbikes (or any vehicle).

Since 1st October 2014 new rules about tax discs came into effect. Two main changes:
1. You no longer need to display a tax disc (and you will not be sent one when you renew);
2. The tax is NOT TRANSFERRED when you sell/buy a bike (vehicle);

When you fill in the transfer of ownership part of the V5 and send it to the DVLA they will immediately cancel the tax and make a refund of unused whole months to the previous owner. They will also be expecting a payment for new tax (or SORN) from the new owner.

Links to relevant DVLA pages:
Vehicle tax changes
New refund rules

Driving Licence Paper Counterpart

If it was not so serious, this would be as comical as the French breathalyser fiasco.

Did you know that from the 8th June 2015 you can tear-up and throw away the paper counterpart of your driving licence?

Yes, it was going to be from January, but now put back to June to allow businesses like car rental firms time to develop robust systems that allow them to verify your eligibility to drive their car (ie. how many points do you have!!)

But hang on to your plastic photocard, that will still be needed.

See the DVLA announcement at Driving licence changes

Update

It now appears that someone has realised that the paper part of your licence is also used by, for example, car hire companies in other countries! So, if you are planning on going on holiday and hiring a car when you get there then, just before you leave for the airport, you need to go to the DVLA website armed with your driving licence number AND your National Insurance number (to prove it's really you) and get some magic code number that you then present to the car hire company. Except, this code only works for 72 hours, so if you are not immediately collecting a car, or you make a spur of the moment decision to hire one, you will need to find some free wifi or bear the cost of data roaming charges to get a code.

Alternatively, maybe, you can download and print a copy of your driving record to take with you - if that is acceptable.

Why is this being done?

The decision to abolish the paper counterpart was as a result of some government initiative to abolish red tape. It also is part of the DVLA\'s strategic plan to "simplify our services"!!! Now they have a nice simple system that is a nighmare for all of us.

The moral of this tale: if you plan to hire a car overseas, take your existing paper counterpart with you and hope that the car hire company haven\'t got around to changing their systems. Have your National Insurance number to hand too, just in case you do have to get the magic code.