Registering A Trials Bike On The Road

[chris2604]

After many conversations with DVLA/HMRC it now appears despite what the form says that you do NOT need insurance to register a trials bike for road use. You DO however, need an MOT, proof of purchase/age and when it was imported literature etc.

 

NOW you also need it to be registered with the HMRC on their NOVA database. This cannot be done online and you have to telephone them on 0300 200 3700 for a nova1 form. I'm only putting this on here because the DVLA info is scant. Be warned that phone calls to the HMRC CAN TAKE UP TO 30 MIUTES TO BE PUT THROUGH TO THE RIGHT DEPARTMENT. In my case I borrowed our (Gest Trials Club) Chairman Jim Cottinghams mobile phone to make the call so the cost was irrelevant.

[woody]

To be honest, you've more chance of getting accurate information on registering, licencing, or scrapping of vehicles from the Beano than you have DVLA

 

Unless the law has changed I don't know why someone there has told you that. To register a bike for the road means it has to comply with

the regulations for use of a vehicle on the road, which means it has to be taxed as you're registering it for road use. To tax it you have to have insurance, so how can they say you can register it without insurance...?  it's an offence to have a taxed vehicle uninsured.

 

I've spoken to them recently about the vehicle scrappage procedure and the two people I spoke to hadn't a clue about how it workled and who was responsible for notifying who of what. I lost the will to try a third person...

 

For NOVA and newly imported vehicles, it's the responsibility of the person importing it to register it with NOVA and confirm duties have benn paid, so you'd expect an officially imported new trials bike to come with NOVA approval from the importer / dealer.

[dadof2]

I have never used the phone for DVLA but have had no problems communicating with them by letter.

As woody says the NOVA requirement can be satisfied in two ways.

 

One is what is commonly called a certificate of newness (from the importers) which confirms the bike is new when imported and meets the taxation class type approval requirements.

The other is an import certificate which confirms duty has been paid and the date of manufacture of the bike. Depending on the Y.O.M. and specification you may or not need an MOT.

 

If you have bought the bike directly from the importer you should not need proof of purchase (that's not to say some twit at the DVLA will not ask for it).

If you have bought the bike from someone other than the importer you will need proof of purchase and the more history / contact information you supply the better. Again an MOT may or may not be required.

 

I have generally been lucky with the DVLA but I know some who have not been. A trick used by some importers is to declare the vehicle "not new at import" to reduce the duty paid. The first thing the unfortunate owner knows something is amiss is when he tries to tax or register his "new" bike a year later and finds it needs an MOT.

[sirdabalot]

Do DVLA not allow a bike to be registered for tracking purposes only?

Is it really an offence to have a taxed vehicle uninsured, what about when insurance runs out before the tax, I understand it would be an offence if used on public highways, but what about when it is just parked up in a garage?

[dadof2]

You can register a vehicle and get a registration number for off road use only. It costs nothing and is well worth doing as t enables vehicle to be traced if it is recovered after being stolen.

It is an offence to have a vehicle taxed and not insured even if it is not used on the road but I have found the DVLA give quite a bit of leeway on this but sooner you write to them the better. This frequently occurs when you buy a bike off someone, they transfer their insurance to another bike but there can be up to a months tax left on the bike you just bought.

 

The Governments "fiddle" of not allowing VED to be transferred with the vehicle earns them about £40 million a year in double tax take.

[bones]

Hi Chris2604

 

The easiest way is to buy a shiny new bike and get the stealer to register it for you !!

you know it makes sense !!!

[sirdabalot]

Ta Dadof2, I thought there'd be a catch when DVLA stopped using tax discs, no more cash-back.

Edited October 6, 2015 by sirdabalot

[woody]

Just SORN it before you sell it and you'll get a refund

[hencam]

Hi,

I have to say i have experiences similar to all of the above, Woody commented on my question regarding this topic for a Bultaco Sherpa almost a year ago, there are many posts and as usual lots of info on here.

I think the biggest problem is with consistency of response, as dadof2 rightly states and is confirmed in a later post it is an offence to have a bike taxed but not insured, however after losing the the will to live (Woody have you no stamina, giving up after 2 attempts, shame on you!! ) and phoning for a hard copy NOVA1 etc etc I contacted these people www.dvlaadvice.co.uk/ spoke to a chap called David Williams, paid them £90 filled the highlighted parts of a form in, the rest is done for you, and hey presto within 2 weeks I had my V5, the costs of daylight MoT and tax are on top of the £90, however I sorned the vehicle immediately and got back 11 months of tax.  What i don't understand dadof2 is I did NOT have insurance, despite my understanding being exactly as you state.  £90 is alot, I am civil servant so form filling and bureaucracy   do not phase me and believe me, I am as tight as the next bloke, however I can honestly I almost gave up, having spent the £90 I would do it all again, hell I might even get some of my hair back!!  To be fair the single biggest problem is the majority of the people you talk to have no idea what you are trying to do or why you cannot prove how much you paid for box of junk called a trials bike to put on your NOVA1 etc etc.

my advice is bite the bullet, splash the cash and try them http://www.dvlaadvice.co.uk 

hope this may help.

 

[shedracer]

Thanks hencam for he feed back on dvlaadvice.co.uk, I've been considering using them for a while. It's interesting that you didn't need the insurance certificate, I will be getting my bike insured, but if I don't need it to get the registration in progress, I'll be doing that straight away.

Cheers.

[rusty ken]

It's reassuring to hear that others have similar experiences in dealing with their DVA applications.

Having registeted a '48 Matchless road bike last year with no problems, I restarted the process for my '54 trials Matchless. I spoke to DVA and the guy agreed that if I included a SORN with the rest of the paperwork that I didn't need insurance. Unfortunately, if the deal sounds too good it probably is, and 10 days later I got all the documents returned with a note requiring insurance.

When I returned the docs with insurance everything went fine, and my V5 arrived a week later.

I agree the whole process can be very frustrating, but if you are patient you can get through it!

[naz]

After many conversations with DVLA/HMRC it now appears despite what the form says that you do NOT need insurance to register a trials bike for road use. 

 

 

Unless the law has changed I don't know why someone there has told you that. To register a bike for the road means it has to comply with

the regulations for use of a vehicle on the road, which means it has to be taxed as you're registering it for road use. To tax it you have to have insurance, so how can they say you can register it without insurance...?  it's an offence to have a taxed vehicle uninsured.

 

Only last week I successfully got my Scorpa registered for road use after three rejections from DVLA. So I have written out the procedure I had to follow in case it is of use to anyone in future.

 

Chris2604 is right - if you are registering the bike for the first time i.e. if it has never been registered before, you need to send the DVLA both the registration fee and the fee for road tax. You cannot insure a bike without a number plate. Therefore the registration and taxing the bike comes first.

 

Just SORN it before you sell it and you'll get a refund

 

When you sell a vehicle, you automatically get a refund for the remainder of of your tax sent to you. You do not need to SORN it.

[woody]

Seems DVLA have changed the requirement for insurance and you only need insurance now if you're registering to an address in Northern Ireland.

[naz]

Hi all,

 

I recently got my Scorpa registered for road use. It is a 2003 bike and had never been registered before. DVLA rejected my application three times for different reasons instead of telling me all the things that I needed to do in the first rejection. Anyway, I thought I'd share with you all the procedure I had to follow to get my bike on the road. Hope you find it useful.

 

1. Get your bike MOT'd  (full or day time use only depending on if bike has lights etc.)

 

2. Ring DVLA and ask them to send you a V55/5 Application for first vehicle tax and registration of a used motor vehicle

 

3. Ring HMRC Personal Transport Unit on 03000 583020 to check if your bike is in the NOVA (Notification of Vehicle Arrival) system. If not ask them to send you a form. There is a form online but you can't use that because you won't have all the information & it won't let you proceed.

 

4. Fill in the NOVA form as much as you can & write a covering letter explaining anything you need to. If bike was imported to UK properly by a dealer then chances are you won't be liable to pay any VAT or any fees. I didn't have to pay a penny. 
HMRC will get back to you pretty quickly & tell you that your bike is on the system & give you a reference number plus a letter saying there is no VAT due.

If your bike is not on the NOVA system DVLA will reject your application.

 

5. Get a dating certificate. I had a bit of trouble with this because the original importer and original manufacturer are no longer trading. People who claim to be able to supply you a dating certificate for any bike couldn't supply me one because they either had incorrect information which conflicted with what I knew or they only dealt with Japanese bikes. I managed to get a certificate from Sherco factory who now manufacture Scorpas but DVLA rejected it. Don't know why - I couldn't get any sense out of the bloke I spoke to. Eventually the top people at Birketts especially a lady named June came to my rescue and the certificate she provided me was accepted by DVLA.

As a courtesy to Birketts please ensure you have either paid any VAT due or have a letter from HMRC to say there is no VAT due so that it reassures them that they won't somehow become liable for it.

 

6. Once the bike is on NOVA system, fill in the V55/5 form as best as you can - all I filled in was tax class, make, model, type of vehicle,  colour, number of wheels, fuel type, chassis no. , engine no. & cc. The rest of application was blank. Don't forget to fill in year of manufacture & question 50 about type approval. If older than 10 years you don't need type approval but you need to say that on form. I didn't answer this question and DVLA rejected my application.

 

7. Send it (signed for, they lost my first application!) with cheque for registration + tax, dating certificate original (keep copy), recent utility bill, copy of drivers license, MOT certificate.

You should hear back in about a week all being well.

 

Sounds complicated but it needn't be. MOT > NOVA > DATE CERTIFICATE > DVLA.

 

Hope this helps. PM me or reply here if you want to see any examples of my forms.

[woody]

10 out of 10 for perseverance with DVLA  -  nice write up and explanation