So we got this Fiesta, right, which was declared SORN, and we got it an MOT and brought it to my house, where we continued to keep it off the road. We checked that the SORN wasn’t going to run out any time soon, and kept it nice and clean, and started saving up to get it repaired and get insured on it.

Then in about May we decided we ought to become the Registered Keeper so filled in the “notification of sale or transfer” bit.

Then about a fortnight ago, the previous keeper got a letter saying “hey! the SORN’s going to run out soon! you need to re-declare it!”. Whoops! We hadn’t sent off the paperwork to transfer the keeperhood. So we sent it off. I decided to tax the car as of next month and get the durn thing on the road.

Then on the online tax site, it turns out the SORN expired on the 24th May, and, phoning them up, I discover that an “enforcement action” has been taken and someone will have to pay a fine.

It turns out that if you transfer the vehicle the SORN expires there and then. By sending the transfer document in dated over a month ago, I fast tracked myself past all the cordial invitations to redeclare and into the zone of dodgy criminals driving around without tax. Not only that, but the enforcement action is backdated so the time to pay early and get a discount has also expired.

Hopefully the enforcement centre will accept the news that it’s been kept off road the whole time and that we had no clue that the SORN had expired as some kind of mitigation. Time will tell.

Best BBC Comedy quote ever:

“Quick! to the time machine!”
* bzzt- crk - fhwump *
“hmm, that’s strange… it was working tomorrow!