Help! Taxing a bike taken out of the UK for over 6 months
 

My UK registered bike has been sitting out the Russian winter in a Moscow garage. Its UK road tax expires today, so I went online at the Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency’s website to pay the next year’s tax so I’d be legal when I ride it back to the UK later this year. However the MOT has expired so the DVLA site wouldn’t let me tax the bike.

I then phoned the DVLA to find out how to tax it. They took lot of pleasure in insisting that not only could I not tax it, but it would be illegal for me to ride it back to the UK untaxed. “There are lots of cameras & we crush vehicles” is exactly what the guy said. He then went on to say that if a vehicle is taken out of the UK for more than 6 months it has to be officially exported. What about people who spend years on RTW trips I asked? This means their vehicles must all be on the road illegally. “You’d be surprised how many we catch” was the reply.

So…is any of this true? Mr DVLA said the only thing I can legally do is ship the bike back from Moscow to the UK. That sounds like bollocks to me, but I don’t like the idea of riding across Europe on a bike that might be seized and destroyed.

I’d welcome any advice from anyone who’s had the same problem.

Help! Taxing a bike taken out of the UK for over 6 months
 

Seems particularly unhelpful of the dvla.

No experience of this myself, but as you cannot mot it then SORN it. Then when you bring it back to the uk drive it straight to a prearranged mot. According to the dvla:

"When you can drive your vehicle

You can only drive a vehicle with a SORN on a public road to go to or from a pre-booked MOT or other testing appointment. You face court prosecution and a fine of up to £2,500 if you use it on the road for any other reason."

https://www.gov.uk/sorn-statutory-off-road-notification

Of course this will take some planning.

That was my first thought. However:

"Your vehicle must stay in the UK for your SORN to be valid."

In other words, if you take a vehicle out of the UK you can't tax it and you can't SORN it. It's completely crazy.

Can't you SORN it on line.

As for the rest, the man is probably correct because if the vehicle is not registered back home then the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic do not apply in the other country. Widely ignored of course, until it hits the fan.

SORN is not valid probably because it's not recognised in any other country. My only concern would be insurance, any UK insurance is likely to be void without tax and mot. Even if abroad.

Hi yes it's a bit of a quandary, however, anpr cameras are generally forward facing only especially the dvla ones, if you arrive home on a late ferry and stay out of major cities you will get home OK. You can insure your bike on line to cover that event, not having an mot will not negate it, the phrase is "vehicle in a roadworthy condition" , no mot will affect what they pay you if it's written off. As for tax they may decide to charge you for the time you were out of the country, try it over the phone version before speaking to someone.
If you are tugged by the police be honest, you have a passport to back things up, no insurance would the killer, no mot is no big deal in the great scheme of things. The dvla can't seize your bike if they can't find it so park it at your mum s until it's legit.
I would not worry personally, there are millions of Un documented vehicles on the road, you are a small fish in a very large pond, unless of course you are also wanted, in which case you will defo lose the bike if stopped :nono:

You should SORN it. Even if it's "not valid" it'll stop the fines for not sorning it arriving.

I was told that returning from overseas with a SORNed vehicle, you had to make an appointment at the nearest inspection station/registry office and provided you travelled directly there from the docks/customs you would be legal.
No need to hide around the back of your mum's

Riding back to the UK without MOT and tax
 

SORN the bike online. As long as you have valid insurance and have booked an MOT appointment you should be OK.
Get an overnight ferry/early train and pre book your MOT so you can ride directly from the ferry port to the testing station, obviously getting off the ferry in Portsmouth and having a booked MOT in Glasgow wouldn't cut it!!! Once MOT is in hand go to nearest MacDonalds and use their wifi to buy your tax online.
As an aside - Talking to a mate of mine who is a traffic cop .. if a registration shows up on their ANPR as untaxed and/or no MOT (unless you are riding like a twat) then they don't usually bother pulling ... reason being is 9 times out of 10 it is just because the system hasn't updated .. not saying that that is the company line across all forces though.