The short answer
A SORN (Statutory Off Road Notification) tells DVLA that your car is being kept off the public road. Once it is in place you stop paying vehicle tax, you get back any full months you have already paid, and you must not use the car on the road until you tax it again. It is free, it is done online in a few minutes with the number from your log book or tax reminder, and it stays in place until you tax, sell or scrap the car.
The one rule that catches people out: off the road means off the road. A SORN car cannot be parked on the street outside your house, and it cannot be driven to the shops just once. Tax it first, then drive it.
What you need and when it starts
You can make the declaration online at GOV.UK, make a SORN if the vehicle is registered in your name. You need one of two numbers: the 11-digit reference in the V5C log book, or the 16-digit reference on a vehicle tax reminder. If the car is not yet registered to you, you fill in the log book and post it with a V890 form instead. There is also a 24-hour telephone line, 0300 123 4321.
| Your situation | When the SORN starts | What happens to the tax |
|---|---|---|
| Tax has already run out | Immediately | Nothing to refund |
| Tax still running, not in its final month | Immediately | Cheque for the full months left |
| Applying in the month the tax expires | First day of next month | Nothing to refund |
| Car already sold | No SORN needed | Tell DVLA about the sale instead |
If you have lost the log book, a replacement costs £25 and you can tax or SORN the car at the same time as applying for it.
The refund, and what is not refunded
You do not have to claim anything. DVLA sends a refund cheque for any full months of tax left, to the name and address on the log book (GOV.UK, vehicle tax refunds). Part months are not refunded, so a SORN made on the second of the month loses most of that month.
Three things are not given back: any credit card fee you paid, the 5% surcharge on some Direct Debit payments, and the 10% surcharge on a single six-month payment. If you pay by Direct Debit it is cancelled for you.
For a sense of scale, the standard rate for a car first registered on or after 1 April 2017 is £200 a year in one payment, or £210 by monthly Direct Debit, and cars with a list price over £40,000 (£50,000 for electric cars) pay a further £440 a year for five years (GOV.UK rate tables). Older cars are taxed on different bands, so check your own rate before deciding whether a few months off the road is worth the paperwork.
The rules while the car is off the road
- Keep it off the public road. A drive, a garage or private land. The street outside your house is a public road.
- Do not drive it. GOV.UK is plain: you cannot use the vehicle on the road until you tax it again. That includes moving it a few yards to a better spot.
- Cover while laid up. This is not part of the SORN rules on GOV.UK and this article does not advise on it. Ask your insurer what happens to your policy while the car is off the road.
- MOT. A car does not need an MOT while it is SORN and off the road. It will need one before you can tax it, and GOV.UK allows a car without a valid MOT to be driven only to a pre-arranged MOT test or to and from a place of repair; the fine for driving without a valid MOT is up to £1,000.
Getting it back on the road
The SORN ends the moment you tax the car. To tax it you need a reference from a reminder letter, the V5C in your name, or the green new keeper slip if you have just bought it, and the MOT must be valid when the tax starts (GOV.UK, tax your vehicle). MOT records can take up to two days to update, so do not book the test for the morning you want to drive away. If you sell the car, the SORN does not pass to the buyer: they must tax it or make their own declaration.
If you are buying a SORN car, the same applies to you. It cannot be driven home untaxed. Check its MOT history before you travel, because a car that has stood for a year or two often comes with the advisories to prove it.
What this does not mean
This is a plain-English summary of the GOV.UK pages linked above, as they read on 26 October 2026. Rates and rules change, usually in April, so read the live page before you act. Nothing here is advice on your particular circumstances; if the car is subject to a credit agreement, that agreement may have its own conditions about laying it up.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, there is no charge to declare a car off the road. It stays in place until you tax the car again, sell it or scrap it. You do not renew it each year.
No. A car with a SORN must be kept off the public road at all times, which means a drive, garage or private land. The road outside your home counts as public.
Any full months left on the tax, by cheque to the address on the log book, automatically. Part months, credit card fees and the surcharges on Direct Debit or six-month payments are not refunded.
GOV.UK lets an untaxed car be driven to a pre-arranged MOT test or to and from a place of repair. The safe reading is to book the test, drive straight there and back, and tax the car as soon as it passes. For anything else, tax it first.
Sources and method
This article contains no MOT statistics. Every figure, rule and reference number is taken from the GOV.UK pages listed under Sources, as they read on 26 October 2026. The MOT reliance notice below applies to the MOT history checks this article recommends, not to any figure in it.
- GOV.UK: Register your vehicle as off the road (SORN)
- GOV.UK: Vehicle tax refunds
- GOV.UK: Tax your vehicle
- GOV.UK: Getting an MOT
- GOV.UK: Vehicle tax rate tables
About these figures. GOV.UK content reproduced in summary under the Open Government Licence v3.0. SortedCars is not DVLA and does not process SORN declarations or vehicle tax; the links above go to the official services. Where MOT statistics appear on this site they are computed from the DVSA anonymised MOT results dataset. No figure is shown for any group with fewer than 500 tests. Test class 4 only, first tests only; retests are excluded. Pass rates describe fleets, not individual machines: they reflect how cars were driven, maintained and used as well as how they were built, and beyond recorded mileage none of that is in the data. A well-kept example of a model with a weak average can still pass; a neglected example of a strong one can still fail. Alias spellings of a make are counted under one make name and all trims of a model under one model name, using SortedCars' grouping tables.
This article is general information drawn from published test records. It is not professional, mechanical or legal advice, and an MOT pass or a clean MOT history does not guarantee that a car is roadworthy today. If you are unsure about a car, have it inspected by a qualified mechanic. You can check any vehicle's MOT history free on the official GOV.UK MOT history service.
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