If the police seize your car for having no insurance, two separate things follow. The driver gets a penalty for the offence, usually six points and a £300 fixed penalty, or a court summons. And the car goes to a compound, where you have seven working days to produce your documents, including an insurance certificate that covers it for at least 30 days, and pay the removal and storage charges. After 14 days the police can sell or scrap it. Dealing with one does not deal with the other.
Police cars read number plates against the Motor Insurance Database as they drive. When a plate comes back with no insurance, the car is stopped and the driver is asked to prove cover. If they cannot, the officer can seize the vehicle on the spot under section 165A of the Road Traffic Act 1988. The same power is used when the driver has no licence, or a licence that does not cover the vehicle.
You are handed a seizure notice, sometimes called a form 3708 or a 165A notice. It names the recovery operator or compound holding the car, the reference number, the deadline, and where to produce your documents. Keep it. If you have lost it, ring the force's vehicle recovery unit; they can find the record from the registration. Our seizure notice guide goes through the form line by line.
This is the part that catches people out. Driving without insurance is an offence in its own right. The usual outcome is a fixed penalty of £300 and six penalty points (an IN10 endorsement). Where the case goes to court, for example because the driver already has points or refuses the fixed penalty, the fine is unlimited and the court can disqualify. Paying the fine does not release the car, and getting the car back does not cancel the fine.
The IN10 stays on your driving record for four years from the date of the offence, and insurers will ask about it, and about the seizure, for longer than that. Declare both on every future quote. Leaving them off is the single most common reason a later policy is cancelled or a claim refused.
If the car was the registered keeper's but someone else was driving it uninsured, the driver gets the penalty and the keeper gets the problem of reclaiming the car. The compound will only release it to the keeper, with insurance in the keeper's name.
Day of seizure
Car taken to the compound. Notice issued. Storage starts from midday on the next working day.
Within 7 working days
Produce your documents and claim the car. Working days exclude weekends and bank holidays. Some forces want documents checked at a police station first, which issues a release note for the compound; the notice says which.
Every day in between
Storage is added per day or part day. A car collected on the fourth working day owes several days' storage on top of the removal fee.
From day 14
The force can dispose of the car by sale or scrapping. You still owe the charges, plus a disposal fee, and the offence still stands.
The charges are set by regulation and are the same across England and Wales: a removal fee of £192 for a standard car, storage of £26 for each 24 hours or part of one, and £96 if the car has to be disposed of. Larger, damaged or off-road vehicles cost more to remove. Our guide to getting your car back has the full breakdown.
Here is the trap. To get the car out you need insurance, but the insurance you can normally buy will not do. Annual policies exclude vehicles in police custody, so a new annual policy taken out today will not get you through the gate. Short-term policies, the hourly, daily and weekly ones, fail the compound's rule that cover must run for at least 30 days. And a friend's "driving other cars" extension does not insure the car itself.
What the compound accepts is a standalone impound insurance policy: 30 days' cover, in the registered keeper's name, on the specific registration, written for seized vehicles. Dash arranges these online in about three minutes or over the phone. You see the price before you pay, and the certificate arrives by email straight after, so you can have it before you set off for the compound. Before release, the police and the Motor Insurers' Bureau verify that the certificate is genuine and live.
Answer the quote questions truthfully. The seizure itself, any cancelled policies and any convictions all need declaring. The system will usually still quote; what it will not survive is a declaration that turns out to be wrong, because the policy can then be voided and you are back to square one, out of pocket.
Sometimes the database is wrong: a new policy not yet uploaded, a registration typed incorrectly by the insurer, or a renewal that lapsed by a day without you realising. If the car was genuinely insured at the time, take proof to the police station named on your notice as soon as you can, within the seven working days. The regulations allow the force to release the car without charge where it is satisfied the vehicle was in fact insured and the driver licensed. Forces apply this differently, so take the certificate, the schedule and a letter or email from the insurer confirming cover on the date in question.
If the policy had lapsed, even by a day, you were uninsured in law and the normal process applies.
Most people can, including drivers that comparison sites decline. Dash has schemes for drivers from 17, for drivers 25 and under, for provisional licence holders (with a supervising driver on the day, who does not go on the policy), and for EU and international licences. Points, previous claims and cancelled policies are considered rather than ruled out, as long as they are declared.
Two conditions apply to everyone. The policyholder must be the registered keeper and owner of the car. And the policy is social, domestic and pleasure use only: it gets the car home and covers you for 30 days of ordinary driving, not work or deliveries.
If you cannot drive the car out yourself, for a reason such as a medical condition, a problem with your licence or being abroad, someone else can be added as a named driver. That is arranged by phone before you pay, and once they are on the policy only they can drive under it.
Walking away rarely saves money. From day 14 the force can sell or scrap the car. Sale proceeds go towards the charges first; if they fall short, the balance including the £96 disposal fee can still be pursued from you. If there is finance on the car, it is normally released to the finance company and you still owe them. The IN10 and the fine remain whatever happens to the car.
Dash arranges the 30-day impound policy the compound needs, including after a no-insurance seizure. Quote online in about three minutes, price shown before you pay, certificate by email straight after.
Get an impound quotePrefer to talk? 01905 930 411This guide is general information about the process in England and Wales, not legal advice. Penalties are decided by the police and the courts; follow the instructions on your notice and seek legal advice about the offence if you need it.
Specialist impound insurance, arranged from our office in Worcester since 2019.
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