Tim -
DVLA now run on-line & by post, with no face-to-face local centres any longer, so if you buy a car they have now built a statutory grace period into the rules. I can't remember whether this is 7 or 10 days writing this, but if you buy from a dealer the paperwork will be done by them & if it's a private sale the onus is on you to tax from date of purchase but you will be allowed to use the vehicle during the grace period without penalty.
You get penalised more for failing to do something these days, such as failing to notify change of keeper, SORN etc.
It's only paperwork, but it's getting tighter.
I have read a story about insurance, too. The subject of the story sold his vehicle but the new owner didn't change any paperwork whatsoever, and as the subject had the vehicle as a second bike in his garage he simply let his insurance run it's course knowing he was a bike down.
The bike was involved in a hit & run crash leaving a third party injured, and subsequently received notification from the third party's 'cash for crash' legal team that they were about to make a claim against the subjects still valid insurance policy as that was the only one in existence.
The fact that the subject had no knowledge or control over any of this mattered not as the insurance policy was valid on the vehicle still, apparently.
Now whether this is internet scaremongering folklore or not I'm not sure, but it's food for thought about paperwork & documentation including the cancellation of policies or amendments.
The only losers of course, are honest people like us.
