You need to inform DVLA and your insurer if you change your vehicle colour
Up to 90% of vehicle owners and drivers have never paid attention to what is written on their roadworthy certificates. Everyone focuses on the sticker to avoid issues with the Police.
The roadworthy certificate is a very important vehicle document for a number of reasons. It is a point of reference for the ownership of a vehicle and contains other essential information including a vehicle’s registered number, chassis or VIN number, year of manufacture, colour, and cubic capacity.
In the last few months, we have made some interesting discoveries from over 1000 roadworthy certificates we have looked at as part of our “pay small-small” car insurance processes. Today we will focus on the vehicle colour and why you cannot just drive to a spraying shop and change your vehicle colour.
The second section of the roadworthy certificate contains the colour of the vehicle at the time of the last roadworthy certification. This colour is captured on the Driver & Vehicle Licensing Authority’s records. Insurance companies also record this colour and even provide it on the vehicle insurance sticker.
The colour of the vehicle becomes important in a number of scenarios including the following.
- Where there has been a crime involving a vehicle, the colour could be an important piece of information. Examples could be where a vehicle has been used for a robbery, or in case of a vehicle theft.
- Where there is an insurance claim, the colour of the vehicle could prove useful.
What we found
In 1 out of every 10 vehicles, we found that the actual vehicle colour was different from the colour captured on the roadworthy certificate. 9 out of 10 drivers did not know that changing their vehicle colour had any implications.
What to do when you decide to change your vehicle colour
You need to inform the DVLA immediately after you change your vehicle colour. This will help them update the records they hold of your vehicle. The DVLA may issue you a new roadworthy certificate to reflect the new colour.
Secondly, inform your insurer and provide a copy of the roadworthy certificate to back up your request for a change of vehicle colour in their records. They will have to issue you with a new insurance sticker to reflect the new colour and they may pass what is referred to as “endorsement” to acknowledge the new colour. This is important because your insurance sticker will contain the vehicle’s previous colour.
If the colour change involves the spraying of a business logo on the vehicle, that may raise an issue of change of vehicle usage. That could leave you with a rejected claim so we will put that down as a substantive matter to be discussed later.
Take these steps seriously and you will save yourself an unnecessary headache.
In the next few days, we will share another tip from our findings regarding roadworthy certificates.
Drive safe, live happily.
From the team at Brolly
